AGRA and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector is developing framework on how government can institutionalise the private sector-led extension approach, called the Community Based Advisor (CBA), in order to increase the number of extension agents in the country.
AGRA believes that this approach, to a large extent, will complement government’s efforts in providing extension agents for works, and also create jobs for youths.
Qureish Noordin, AGRA’s Programme Officer Extension and Capacity Building, during a side event organised by AGRA at the sixth Africa-Wide Agricultural Extension Week in Abuja, said they aim to find a way the CBA can be institutionalised and recognised by the government, communities and private sector.
The side event is themed ‘Institutionalisation and Sustainability of private SectorLed Extension Approach (Community Based Advisors).
He said 90 percent of countries in sub-saharan Africa have a big challenge in terms of extension workers, noting that the ratio of one officer to farmer ideally should be one to 500, but in most countries, it is one to 2,000 or 10,000.
Noordin said AGRA train government officials together with its implementing partners and the private sector on what is called private sector led approach using the CBA.
“So, once the government officers have been trained, they go out there together with the communities, set criteria which they use to identify and select individuals. Once they are selected, they are given the trainings in terms of good agronomic practices and good extension approaches. As they grow, they are also given trainings on marketing, post-harvest management and others, then they link with other partners,” he said.
“They are not paid, they generate their own income, they become agents of seed companies, agro-dealers and off-takers and they make commission out of that, but the government has to be involved. Once the government comes in and their officials are trained, then they have the capacity to take it out there, because the good thing is that they don’t have to pay these CBAs because they generate their own income”, he said.
He said AGRA sees this model as one of the main processes through which African governments can help enhance the efficiency of the extension system.
Noordin however said the side event is mainly looking at how AGRA and the private sector can institutionalise the CBA and make sure that they are recognised both by the government, communities and private sector.
He said they also hope to get ideas from different countries, generate these models and then government can institutionalise and certify the CBAs, give them ideas and make sure they have the correct information they give to farmers.
“So, from here, we hope that we come up with more comprehensive framework on how government can institutionalise the CBAs”, he added.
Tajudeen Yahaya, CEO of Extension Africa, while speaking with Nigerian Tribune, said the government alone cannot provide the kind of extension in terms of the number of the extension agents needed in Nigeria, hence there is need for private sector players to come in.
He said currently in Nigeria, there is one extension agent to 10,000 farmers and by standard it should be one extension agent to 500 farmers or maximum 800 farmers.
“So it means we need more agents. The current extension agents from government side are complaining in terms of their payment system and they are also not enough, so we need private players to come either as a company bringing extension agents, like we have big companies doing extension services.
“There is also need for private sector to look at extension as a standalone service and make sure that it is available to industry players and I think it provides job opportunities for young people.
“So, private extension works because it would handle the issue of availability of extension agents, sustainability of extension and also reliability of extension services”, Yahaya added.
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