Extension And Advisory Services In South Africa

Definitions of extension service. an educational opportunity provided by colleges and universities to people who are not enrolled as regular students. synonyms: extension, university extension. type of: didactics, education, educational activity, instruction, pedagogy, teaching.

Extension And Advisory Services In South Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights the establishment of development organizations on the African continent and beyond, namely the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), and Southern Africa Regional Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (SARFAAS), country forums (CF), and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS).

These organizations can be considered as a source of renaissance in agricultural advisory services. They have facilitated the development of structures that advocate for extension and advisory services.

These organizations have brought focus, and initiated debate on the concept of extension. The importance of such services is promoted as a means of assisting marginalized farmers and encouraging countries to adopt “pro-poor” approaches to farmer development.

  1. INTRODUCTION

The establishment of three organizations in the development arena on the African continent and beyond its borders, namely the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) can be considered as a source of renaissance in agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS). Their guidance and further development of enabling structures has helped to highlight the situation of extension and advisory services.

Agricultural extension, also known as agricultural advisory services, play a crucial role in promoting the objectives of extension, such as increased agricultural productivity, increasing food security, improving rural livelihoods and promoting agriculture as an engine of ‘pro-poor’ economic growth.

These objectives are also supported by previous research conducted by Davis (2008) and the National Planning Commission (2012). The use of the term extension has been reformed due to its past misinterpretation as a one-way transfer of technology.

  1. OBJECTIVES

The problem investigated is to determine the extent to which certain organizations have played a role in the renaissance of bringing extension challenges back to the development agenda. The call for the important role of extension has previously been echoed by a number of researchers such as Marimba (2014), GFRAS (2008), and AFAAS (2010). There is new focus on extension, partly due to the fact that in spite of huge budgetary allocations for national and international development, there is still persistent rural poverty and global hunger (UN, 2024).

Extension and advisory services should be implemented by prominent institutions that can be used to achieve national and global development objectives. According to Mutimba (2014), advisors are not prone to effectively document the impact of extension where they work, hence many critics claim there is limited evidence, despite the fact that extension has demonstrated positive impacts due to under-resourcing (GFRAS, 2008). In light of this, the objectives of the paper are as follows:

To investigate how extension organizations are contributing to influence rural development.

To establish the role played by AFAAS, GFRAS, and CAADP as the agricultural developmental arm of NEPAD.

To document the spread and links of AFAAS, CAADP, and GFRAS in service delivery for extension advisors briefly.

  1. METHODS OF DATA SOURCES

Data was collected through assembling a literature review, focusing on relevant work conducted by the identified institutions involved in agricultural renaissances such as the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), which has invested resources in dissemination channels of their research results, AFAAS, GFRAS, Extension Africa1, and the Southern Africa Regional Forum for Agricultural Services (SARFAAS).

  1. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results show that the main organizations identified have an influence on the global development agenda, with regards to extension and advisory services. With the exception of the CAADP, they are structured as networks. These networks are presented in terms of their role in advisory services, their mandate, achievements, and the implications for extension and advisory services.

4.1 Comprehensive In South Africa agricultural development organizations

The CSAADP’s origins can be traced to NEPAD and FARA. FARA was formed in 2001, as a facilitating and information exchange forum for sub-regional research organizations (SROs), and as an apex body to represent SRO’s. FARA has since become the lead agency for CAADP to work on agricultural research and dissemination jointly with AFAAS.

FARA serves as the technical arm of the African Union Commission (AUC) on matters concerning agricultural science, technology, and innovation. It provides a continental forum for stakeholders in AR4D to shape the vision and agenda for the sector and to mobilize themselves to respond to key continent-wide development frameworks, particularly the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) (FARA, 2024:7). In short, FARA aims to achieve “sustainable improvements to broad-based agricultural productivity, competitiveness, and markets” through five networking support functions as described by Adolf (2010:10).

Both FARA and the SRO’s are committed to using the Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) and its nine principles2 to guide all their activities. FAAP principle number five asks specifically for an “integration of agricultural research with extension services, the private sector, training, capacity building, and education programmes” (Adolph, 2010:10).

What is agricultural extension and advisory services in South Africa?

Agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) can be defined as systems and mechanisms designed to build and strengthen the capacity of rural farmers and other stakeholders.

What is the status of private extension in South Africa?

There is no private company in South Africa that may be called an extension advisory company. However, as the country enjoys a vibrant commercial agriculture sector, there are many private companies that are involved in various agricultural operations such as agro-processing and marketing.

What are challenges to agricultural extension services in South Africa?

Low morale, depression, economic worries, and less productivity are now common in extension organizations due to HIV/AIDS. Extension workers who by training are required to motivate farmers to try and adopt new agricultural technology are themselves depressed and frustrated, and this affects their output.

What are the challenges facing extension education in South Africa?

The district extension system has identified challenges which include a low level of participation of stakeholders in the design and implementation of policy, deficit and delays of extension funds, shortage of human resources, low sense of accountability and as a result farmers’ opinions have shown unsatisfactory performance.

What are the major problems and issues in improving extension effectiveness in South Africa?

Popular Answers (1)

Need base applicability/compatibility of methods to different communities and farmers.

Literacy rate of the people/community.

logistics and accessibility.

Willingness/ interest and ownership by the people and community.

Level of knowledge of farmers to merit a particular methodology.