Edited by
Burton E. Swanson
Robert P. Bentz
Andrew J. Sofranko
Prepared under the guidance of the
Extension, Education and Communication Service
Research, Extension and Training Division
Sustainable Development Department
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rome, 1997
Reprinted 1998
Improving agricultural extension: a reference manual was prepared under a contract between FAO and the International Program for Agricultural Knowledge System (INTERPAKS), College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States.
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The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. |
M-67
ISBN 92-5-104007-9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
© FAO 1997
This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software and careful manual recorrection. Even if the quality of digitalisation is high, the FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.
Chapter 1 - The history, development, and future of agricultural extension
The term "extension"
The distant origins
Necessary conditions for agricultural extension to evolve
Towards the Modern Era
The birth of modern agricultural extension services
Modern agricultural extension
The future
ReferencesChapter 2 - Alternative approaches to organizing extension
Extension goals
Alternative ways of organizing extension
Present and future role of extension staff
ReferencesChapter 3 - The context of extension in agricultural and rural development
A systems perspective
Macro-factors
Institutional factors
Concluding observations
ReferencesInvestment indicators: Agricultural research and extension
The conceptual foundation for extension impact
A note on statistical methods and issues for economic evaluation
Estimates of economic impacts: A summary
Lessons
Notes
References
Chapter 5 - Assessing target group needs
Chapter 6 - Using rapid or participatory rural appraisal
Conventional methodologies for learning
Alternative systems of learning and action
The different interpretations of participation
Participatory methods
The trustworthiness of findings
Towards a new professionalism in extension
ReferencesChapter 7 - Developing and delivering extension programmes
The difficult challenges ahead
Extension work: Increasingly concerned with responsive planning
Creating extension programmes with the people: A rationale
Facing broader planners' roles and new skills
ReferencesChapter 8 - Selecting appropriate content and methods in programme delivery
Developing appropriate content
Extension's clientele
Incorporating needs into programmes
Program delivery and implementation
ReferencesChapter 9 - Improving women farmers' access to extension services
The need for gender analysis
Constraints and opportunities: Rural women and extension strategies
Recommendations for more effective extension systems for rural women
Conclusion
ReferencesChapter 10 - Implementing strategic extension campaigns
Strategic extension campaign: What and why
The usefulness of SEC
SEC operationally defined
Suggested conceptual framework for strategic planning of extension campaigns
Lessons learned
ReferencesChapter 11 - Evaluating extension programmes
Getting started with evaluation: Avoiding a passive sabotage of evaluation efforts
Selecting evaluation purposes: Unclear purposes ensure unsatisfying evaluations
Recognizing the politics of evaluation: Know the stakeholders or you will be sorry
Selecting alternative approaches and models: Which model for which purpose?
Focusing the evaluation effort: You can't evaluate everything, so let's set limits
Selecting methods for programme evaluation: Choosing the right tool for the task
Selecting methods for evaluation of teaching and learning: How do we know that learning has happened?
Interpreting findings and data: To what do we compare the findings?
Managing the work: Who will be responsible for what?
Using evaluation findings for improving extension: Who should be told what?
References
Chapter 12 - Formulating extension policy
Role of extension in SARD and its policy implications
Scope of extension policy
Forms of extension policy
Issues that extension policy should address
Extension policy formulation
Conclusions
ReferencesChapter 13 - Improving the organization and management of extension
Planning
Decision making
Organizing
Staffing
Directing
Coordinating
Reporting
Budgeting
Systems theory
Contingency theory
Conclusion
ReferencesChapter 14 - Managing human resources within extension
Human resource planning for extension
Job analysis
Recruitment and training of extension personnel
Performance appraisal
Supervision
Management of rewards and incentives
Improvement of the quality of work life
Organizational development
Conclusion
ReferencesChapter 15 - Training and professional development
Learning theories and training
Training approach
Extension personnel around the world in need of training
Types of training
Phases of training
Implementation phase
Evaluation phase
ReferencesChapter 16 - Acquiring and managing financial resources
Obtaining financial resources
Keeping track of financial resources
Predicting organizational costs
Maintaining a balance in how resources are to be used
Decentralizing the decision-making process
Using information to improve efficiency
Using information to increase effectiveness
Wasting resources
Misappropriating resources
Summary
ReferencesChapter 17 - Monitoring extension programmes and resources
A conceptual framework for monitoring
Approaches to extension monitoring
Operationalizing the definition of monitoring
Principles of monitoring
Monitoring and its main stakeholders
Frequency of monitoring
Monitoring unit
Monitoring indicators
Capability, effectiveness, efficiency, and impact
Extension monitoring indicators
Extension evaluation indicators
Action plan and chain of events
Conclusion
ReferencesChapter 18 - Establishing a management information system
Basic concepts
Role of MIS in the management of agricultural extension programmes
Design of a MIS in an agricultural extension organization
Need for automation
Organization of a database
Networking and interactive processing
System alternatives and evaluation: Centralization versus decentralization
End-user computing
Illustrative computer-based MIS
Summary
ReferencesChapter 19 - Strengthening research-extension-farmer linkages
Agricultural technology: Some basic concepts
Using systems analysis to identify linkage problems
Categories of technology
Using different mechanisms to solve linkage problems
Linkages with farmers and their organizations
References
Chapter 20 - Extension's role in sustainable agricultural development
Emerging challenges for sustainable agriculture
Sustainability and levels of action
Resource-conserving technology development and transfer
Incorporating farmer experimentation
From teaching to learning and a whole new professionalism
From directive to participatory extension
Challenges for supportive policy processes
ReferencesChapter 21 - Establishing and strengthening farmer organizations
Historical perspective
New roles for extension
Farmer organizations
Steps in establishing farmer organizations
How to strengthen existing FOs
Policy issues in establishing and strengthening farmer organizations
ReferencesChapter 22 - Privatizing agricultural extension
Forces for change
Strategies for change
Alternative funding and delivery
The context for extension "privatization"
Implications of extension "privatization"
Conclusion
Notes
ReferencesChapter 23 - The role of nongovernmental organizations in extension
NGO characteristics
Examples of potentially replicable NGO-GO interaction
What extension services can do to further collaborate with NGOs
Conclusions
Notes
References
