Agricultural Extension Strategy of Ethiopia

The 2017 Agricultural Extension Strategy of Ethiopia is a national sectoral strategy for the period 2017-2030. Its main objective is to transform Ethiopia’s agriculture, from a the subsistence agricultural production to a commercialization, trough the implementation of a pluralistic extension system, by providing a strong market-oriented, demand-driven and well-functioning agricultural extension system to male, female and youth farmers, pastoralists and agro pastoralists.
In addition, the Strategy aims to contribute significantly to the attainment of food and nutrition security, poverty reduction and wealth creation in the country through the adoption and the adaptation of improved technologies, good practices and methods.
To this end, the strategy foresees nine pillars seeking to: 1) strengthen Farmer Training Centers (FTCs) through the active participation of the community and capacity building; 2) enhance agricultural knowledge and information services; 3) enhance client oriented and multi actor’s advisory extension services; 4) facilitate market linkage and enhance value chains development; 5) treat gender, youth, and nutrition mainstreaming as a key approach to ensure equality between women and men, and through increased agricultural production, productivity, leading to the wellbeing of women and youth farmers; 6) enhance environmentally sustainable agricultural practices; 7) enhance institutional arrangements, coordination, and linkages among key agricultural development partners; 8) develop and use human resources for effective extension service delivery; 9) establish strong and dynamic result-based monitoring, evaluation, and learning (RB-MLE) for continuous improvement of extension services delivery.
Further, for reducing rural poverty and ensure food and income security the document targets to make farmers, agro- pastoralists and pastoralists, including women and youth, strong economic drivers who have access to and control over resources, extension and financial services and are active members of rural economic organizations. This objective is pursued through better access to production technologies and sustainable market systems, supported by appropriate commercial investment, public finance and the regulatory environment. This way, smallholder farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists become more resilient to risks and climate change effects and increase investments in agricultural risk management(ARM) and climate smart agriculture (CSA). Livelihood result improved through diversified and market-oriented advisory services. Farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange is initiated through the development of self-help farmers groups and thus local capacity is enhanced.
The implementation of this strategy requires the active, synergistic and integrated involvement of key organizations including public, NGOs and private sector at various levels, coordinated by Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Roles and responsibilities are distributed at various levels: At Federal level Ministry of Agricultural and Natural Resource is responsible to develop and approve the national agricultural extension strategy and supports its further implementation through the provision of technical backstopping and monitoring & evaluation. At Regional level Regional Bureau of Agriculture and Natural Resource (R-BoANR) is responsible to oversee the integration and harmonization of activities outlined in the strategy document during its implementation. The job continues at Woreda level and at Kebele level through experience sharing and learning process, awareness creation and follow up.
The implementation of the strategic interventions outlined in the document requires a long-term period of at least 15 years with 3 phases. The 1st phase covers the implementation period from 2016 to 2020. Depending on the availability of resources and human capacity the implementation of the interventions will continue until the end of 3rd phase, which will go until 2030.