Agricultural extension and education

Abstract

Agricultural extension and education services are a well-known approach for supporting rural change. These services often consist of a collaboration between stakeholders, including farmers, consultants, governmental agencies, scientists and other rural agents. These actors participate in knowledge generation and support for practice change via experimentation, demonstration, discussion, learning and persuasion. Agricultural extension has undergone significant change over time, from a strong focus on top-down and research-led approaches, to an emphasis on bottom-up approaches, such as farmer organized groups. Current challenges associated with extension are the public and private provisioning of extension services and concerns about future extension capacity and capability. We elaborate on these challenges by providing examples of extension and education services in an international context. Furthermore, we reflect on the role of agricultural extension and education in addressing future complex challenges.