The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) with support from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is coming out a new extension services framework or standard to guide the activities of the services in the country.
The framework which is been champion by the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) is been supported by the Agricultural Policy Services Support Project (APSSP) of the GTZ for the financial support.
Agricultural extension services in Ghana have undergone considerable change in the past decades. Changes in the political economy of the country, particularly the liberalization of the economy, increased private sector participation in service provisions, decentralization of government and the focus on poverty reduction calls for a review of our agricultural development efforts.
In line with government’s new objectives, agricultural extension needs to focus on ensuring equity in the distribution of the benefits from development; improving rural livelihood and reducing poverty especially among rural women, the youth and the physically challenged.
Agricultural extension efforts, therefore, need to respond to the needs of the poor and the socially disadvantaged segments of society.
According to the MOFA, extension delivery is still constrained by a number of factors such as cost of agricultural inputs, inadequate credit to farmers, poor rainfall distribution, inadequate processing and marketing facilities and high incidence of pests and diseases among others. There is a need to develop strategies to support farmers to respond to these challenges.
Mrs. Prospera Anku Okrah, Deputy Director in charge of Public Extension Services at the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) said the new framework looks at the strategic areas that the services have designed to push extension delivery.
According to her, the overview of the existing framework to have a new one is about the extension of the policy itself. “What we seek to do is to review the processes that we have been implementing all these years. And this extension policy or framework or standard will particularly look at the new thing that need to be added on, so that regulations can sit well when its developed.
She said the development of the new regulation is been pick from the existing framework.
Touching on the how different will the old framework be from the new one, Mrs Okrah said the previous framework had nine objectives which seek to empower farmers. “It is a demand driven policy that allows only farmers to set the agenda for agriculture extension delivery.”
The nine objectives includes farmer empowerment, promoting capacity building for extension, using farmer based organization to develop funding for extension delivery, promoting efficient and effective management and operational of agricultural extension, looking at the extension farmer linkages, adoption of best practices and among others.
She mentioned that DAES have identified that extension approaches and methods needs to emblaze other approaches like information and communication technology (ICT) by looking at bringing on board what it called E-extension platforms, especially with the use of mobile phones to try to get content for farmers and other agriculture stakeholders readily assessed and improved their farming practices.
“We also want to look at the issue of climate change and then the issue of gender vulnerability well, to ensure that the issue of climate change and environmental sustainability issues are well addressed within this framework.”
The DAES is also seeking views from NGOs, regional and districts directors, extension officers at the farmer level and other actors to tell them what they want to see in this new extension framework, so that the sector will have more holistic extension policy to guide everybody who is within the sector.
The new police touch on the public extension system-a historical perspective; research extension linkage; decentralization processes; and the role of the private sector on extension delivery.
If accepted by stakeholders, extension services will be more demand-driven and client-focused; agricultural extension services in Ghana will be pluralistic, flexible and responsive to the changing socio-economic environment of the rural sector; and the national agricultural extension system will ensure the provision of adequate extension services to small-scale and poorly resourced farmers, with special attention to women, the youth and the physical challenged.
It is also expected that public sector funding of extension services will aim at establishing a high degree of financial sustainability through enhance planning and prioritization of commitments; and agricultural extension will be open to new funding mechanisms.
With the devolution of government functions to the District Assemblies, the ultimate responsibility has decisions on the nature of publicly funded extension services will be determined by the District Assemblies in consultation with MOFA farmers and other stakeholders.
The private sector will be encouraged to finance and engage in agricultural extension services delivery to a greater extent; extension services will be made more pro-active in developing business and marketing skills of farmers; delivery of extension services will be monitored by the District Assemblies in conjunction with MOFA and farmers to ensure high quality service; and human resource development will be made a continuous process and will be intensified at all levels.
Meanwhile, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is given assistance to the sector. The Daily Express learnt that the USAID assistance covers 2017 to 2021 valued at more than US$100 million. An official told the Daily Express that, the USAID is seeking 66% of the support goes to women in farming with the focus on improving the productivity of farmers having access to marketing.
By: Fred Yaw SARPONG
[email protected]
