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The costs of transforming public extension services towards participatory approaches: the case of egypt

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextPublication details: Mexico, DF (Mexico) CIMMYT : 2003Description: p. 88ISBN:
  • 970-648-104-4
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 338.91 WAT
Summary: The notion that public extension services in agriculture are no longer adequate to meet the changing needs of farmers, in many developing countries, is becoming increasingly emphasized in both research literature and the strategies of development agencies. The problems encountered with the T&V system have caused considerable frustration among donor agencies and reduced their willingness to invest in large-scale public agricultural extension programs. For some, the solution is delivering. information and services through the complete or semi-privatization of public agencies. Others argue that the public sector has to maintain its role in knowledge and information transfer but see the need to change the hierarchical structure and the top down approaches of the public sector towards adopting participatory methods of extension.||This paper compares and contrasts five different agricultural extension projects in Egypt, which are supported by different donor agencies, promoting various forms of participatory methods to agricultural extension and farmer training. Comparisons are being made on the basis of cost-effectiveness parameters. Furthermore, break-even benefits are calculated based on the effects on farmer's income. Results indicate that using unit costs of farmer training is not a valid basis for comparison but that there is a need to take into account the start-up conditions and the specifics of the training method, which result in different levels of base costs, start-up costs, recurrent costs and farmers' costs. It is also shown that depending on the situation, the break-even benefits are surprisingly low to justify even considerable investments in participatory training and extension. However, in for example a crop like cotton, such approaches are unlikely to be economical viable.||The paper concludes that there is a need for high selectivity and careful planning in public sector agricultural extension projects. However, the study also emphasizes the notion that from an economic point of view, public investments in participatory agricultural extension are likely to be superior to other approaches in extension, if the target is well chosen.
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Conference proceedings CIMMYT Knowledge Center: John Woolston Library CIMMYT Publications Collection 338.91 WAT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 2A632147
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The notion that public extension services in agriculture are no longer adequate to meet the changing needs of farmers, in many developing countries, is becoming increasingly emphasized in both research literature and the strategies of development agencies. The problems encountered with the T&V system have caused considerable frustration among donor agencies and reduced their willingness to invest in large-scale public agricultural extension programs. For some, the solution is delivering. information and services through the complete or semi-privatization of public agencies. Others argue that the public sector has to maintain its role in knowledge and information transfer but see the need to change the hierarchical structure and the top down approaches of the public sector towards adopting participatory methods of extension.||This paper compares and contrasts five different agricultural extension projects in Egypt, which are supported by different donor agencies, promoting various forms of participatory methods to agricultural extension and farmer training. Comparisons are being made on the basis of cost-effectiveness parameters. Furthermore, break-even benefits are calculated based on the effects on farmer's income. Results indicate that using unit costs of farmer training is not a valid basis for comparison but that there is a need to take into account the start-up conditions and the specifics of the training method, which result in different levels of base costs, start-up costs, recurrent costs and farmers' costs. It is also shown that depending on the situation, the break-even benefits are surprisingly low to justify even considerable investments in participatory training and extension. However, in for example a crop like cotton, such approaches are unlikely to be economical viable.||The paper concludes that there is a need for high selectivity and careful planning in public sector agricultural extension projects. However, the study also emphasizes the notion that from an economic point of view, public investments in participatory agricultural extension are likely to be superior to other approaches in extension, if the target is well chosen.

English

0310|AGRIS 0301|AL-Economics Program|R01PROCE

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection

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