National Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services Strategy.

The National Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services Strategy (NAEASS) is a subsectoral framework that (i) outlines targeted approaches and strategic actions to leverage available opportunities and address the challenges facing agricultural extension services in the country, thereby contributing to agricultural transformation; (ii) builds on past successes while identifying and addressing implementation challenges that have negatively affected the delivery of agricultural extension services nationwide. The Strategy provides service providers, farmers and stakeholders in agriculture with a framework for coordinating and harmonising interventions and for guiding stakeholder collaboration in order to make agriculture extension and advisory services more responsive to diverse farmer and market needs and demands.
The Strategy recognises that agriculture extension and advisory services have a wider scope spanning from supporting food security interventions to market competitiveness for commercial agriculture in a holistic and integrated manner. In this regard, it shifts the agenda of agriculture extension and advisory services from a biased and exclusive focus on agriculture production to a broader range of services relating to demand-driven production, marketing, savings and credit, natural resource management, nutrition, climate change adaptation, youth, and gender mainstreaming. The NAEASS is anchored on 4 strategic pillars that address specific areas of focus in agriculture extension and advisory services and aim at articulating an implementation framework that complements agreed principles and core values. The pillars are as follows (1): Human, Institutional and Organizational Capacity; (2) Decentralized Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services; (3) Innovation and Learning; (4) Sustainable Financing of Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services Strategy.
More specifically, the strategic objectives of the document are (i) to strengthen the capacity of farmers and other agricultural value chain actors in the provision and utilization of agriculture extension and advisory services; (ii) to establish a well-coordinated, harmonized, and pluralistic agricultural extension delivery system; (iii) to develop sustainable mechanisms for promoting Good Agricultural Practices among farmers of all gender groups, including youth, as well as other actors along agricultural value chains; (iv) to develop sustainable financing mechanisms for the effective delivery of agriculture extension and advisory services. The Strategy aims to achieve the following outcomes (i) enhanced human capacity among all actors involved in the supply and demand of agriculture extension and advisory services across agricultural value chains; (ii) strengthened institutional and organizational capacity for responsive agriculture extension and advisory services; (iii) an improved regulatory framework for agriculture extension and advisory services; (iv) a functional decentralized system for the delivery of agriculture extension and advisory services; (v) empowered communities and households of all gender groups contributing to socio-economic development; (vi) improved integration of nutrition, HIV, and climate change interventions into agriculture extension and advisory services; (vii) increased use of innovative, effective, and appropriate methodologies, approaches, and communication messages in agriculture extension and advisory services; (viii) strengthened monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems for agriculture extension and advisory services; (ix) increased and sustainable financing for agriculture extension and advisory services.
The Strategy clearly defines the roles and technical coordination mechanisms among the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) technical departments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and farmer organizations, as follows (i) the MoA will play a central role in facilitating coordination, collaboration, and stronger linkages among extension service providers and other actors within the agricultural innovation system, including research institutions, input suppliers, financial institutions, and marketing agencies. Through its existing structures; (ii) the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) will provide guidance on the delivery of agriculture extension and advisory services within the decentralized system operating across all districts in Malawi; (iii) the private sector, NGOs, and farmer organizations will complement public sector efforts by financing and delivering agriculture extension and advisory services to farmers and other actors along agricultural value chains (in particular, private sector-led extension services are expected to support the country’s agricultural commercialization agenda). The Strategy shall be further supported by a robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning System (MEALS) to ensure effective implementation and performance tracking. The system will monitor and report progress against the indicators outlined in the Strategy’s Results Framework. In addition, the Strategy will undergo periodic evaluations to generate lessons and inform continuous improvements, while addressing emerging implementation challenges throughout the implementation process.