National Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services Policy (2023-2030).

The Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services Policy is a comprehensive nationwide document designed to tackle the challenges encountered in evaluating the outcomes nullified after the execution of the Agriculture Extension and Advisory Policy of 2012. It also seeks to facilitate active participation by all stakeholders in the delivery of extension and advisory services. The primary objective of the Policy is to foster market-driven agricultural development by advocating for sustainable and intensified agricultural production, along with promoting value addition. This aims to enhance food security, boost incomes, generate employment, and alleviate poverty. The ultimate result is the metamorphosis of subsistence agriculture among smallholders into a more sustainable, modern, and market-oriented approach. The Policy envisions empowering value chain actors through innovative and participatory learning to make informed decisions and improve their livelihoods. By delivering efficient and sustainable extension services, the government aims to boost agricultural production and productivity, ultimately enhancing the well-being of farmers and stakeholders in the agriculture sector. The document aims to achieve the following specific objectives (i) enhance organizational and managerial capacity for overseeing the delivery of public sector agricultural extension and advisory services; (ii) establish and fortify linkages between research, extension services, and farmers/stakeholders; (iii) encourage and coordinate private sector involvement in the delivery of extension and advisory services; (iv) establish and reinforce connections and coordination between public and private sector extension and advisory service providers; (v) cultivate and reinforce Farmer-Based Organizations to facilitate improved quality production and agribusiness development along the agricultural value chain; (vi) develop and fortify human resource capacity for the effective delivery of extension and advisory services; (vii) improve the allocation of financial resources for service delivery; (viii) enhance the technical and agribusiness capabilities of value chain operators, enabling them to effectively utilize best practices for production and value addition in response to market demands.
The Policy interventions, along with their associated objectives, are categorized into four main groups to tackle the identified challenges in extension and advisory services. These categories include (1) enhancing the capacity of farmers and other value chain actors in sustainable production, value addition, and value chain management through participatory learning, and information sharing, improving the knowledge of farmers and value chain actors, addressing cross-cutting issues like gender, youth, climate change, and pandemics, and ensuring timely access to quality advisory services; (2) enhancing institutional and organizational capacity for the effective management of the extension and advisory services delivery system by reorganizing the MOA, creating plans with participatory evaluation, and forming a Technical Coordination Steering Committee. It also strives to improve connections among research, extension, and stakeholders through mechanisms such as Research-Extension-Farmer Liaison Committees and fostering strong collaborations between training institutions, MOA, and extension providers; (3) facilitating the active participation of the private sector in the delivery of agriculture and advisory services; (4) ensuring the provision of adequate resources for the delivery of extension and advisory services.