Food security is a mammoth challenge. The public sector alone cannot finance, let alone deliver, extension services to meet all requirements. Also, as funding has generally been reduced for public sector extension services, field agents have been downsized and those who remain are less able to operate effectively at village level, especially in remote areas. A reassessment of how to ensure maximum impact from the use of public sector resources is needed. Following assessments and mapping of food insecure areas, a division of labour could be determined whereby different entities undertook distinct efforts either within an area or between areas.
Separated agencies, organizations and projects working without coordination will not achieve the goals of the World Food Summit. If food insecurity is to be tackled full-scale, then a concerted integrated national approach is a major first step, one that involves farmer and community at the decision-making level. Demand-driven extension, i. e. extension programmes based on the needs and demands of food-deficit producers and communities, need to be strengthened through a wider variety of institutional interventions than just public sector extension. If the poor are to benefit from extension, extension reform is needed but importantly, reform that promotes local programmes within the framework of a national integrated food security strategy that helps the poor enter society’s mainstream. This is not only a moral and social obligation but also in the economic self-interest of Member States.
