Outreach and Training
Education, training and outreach programs help farmers and
scientists from developing counties find solutions to specific
agricultural problems. Effective agricultural development
requires all. And new models for education, training and outreach
are emerging as information and communication technology (ICT)
opens access to knowledge through distance education.
Outreach is broadening from a focus on agricultural production
to the provision of a broader range of information services
to support markets, environmental conservation, poverty reduction
and off-farm activities. Outreach is therefore characterized
by more diverse systems of funders and service providers.
Public, non-governmental and private organizations all deliver
outreach and extension services, increasingly through cost-sharing
and fee-for-service programs.
A USAID project that illustrates a new configuration of outreach
and training is the Agro-based Industries and Technology Development
Project (ATDP). ATDP was designed to promote commercial agribusiness
in Bangladesh. Synergistic alliances with local organizations
were critical to building the capacity of local institutions
to disseminate improved technologies. From the beginning,
ATDP partnered with the Department of Agricultural Extension
and government research services to commercialize breakthrough
technologies such as urea supergranules, which has helped
farmers more than double their income. The success of other
ATDP activities has stimulated their replication by the influential
Grameen Bank. Through collaboration with NGOs, notably the
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, ATDP has indirectly
reached tens of thousands of smallholders.
Since 1978, USAID has supported research, education and outreach
through the Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSP).
The CRSPs harness the expertise of U.S. universities in low-cost,
high-impact programs that contribute knowledge, trained personnel
and technology to agriculture worldwide in the fight against
hunger and poverty. The nine CRSP programs funded by USAID
and other collaborating organizations focus research upon
crops, including beans and cowpeas, sorghum and millet, and
peanuts; broadening access to factors and strengthening input
systems; livestock; integrated pest management; pond dynamics
and aquaculture; soil management; and sustainable agriculture
and natural resources management. CRSP programs help build
national agricultural research capacity in developing countries
as well as benefit American agriculture. CRSP programs embody
the mutual dependence of research, outreach, and training,
in which education and training are integrated with research,
and applied solutions require outreach.
Over the last decade, there has been a steep decline in long-term
training (LTT) of agricultural professionals from developing
countries in the U.S. The capacity for adaptation and innovation
in agriculture in many developing countries is now declining
as scientists and policy makers retire. Yet without professionals
with advanced knowledge in agriculture, biotechnology, education,
infectious diseases, information technology, energy and the
environment, developing countries can only grow more marginalized
as economic, technological and health-related “divides”
with the industrialized world widen. As professional relationships
between researchers and educators in the U.S. and developing
countries decline, American scientific, economic and, ultimately,
national security interests also are harmed.
The Board for Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) has
recommended that USAID renew its investment in global LTT
and capacity building in agricultural and rural development.
USAID is therefore developing a new LTT initiative that will
employ both American and developing country-based programs.
Beginning in Africa, innovative and cost-effective solutions
for LTT will be applied which can be extended globally. LTT
efforts will work closely with stakeholders and involve the
U.S. university community and other donors.
Links and documents
Collaborative Research Support
Programs portal
A
history of extension at USAID
New
Approaches to Extension: A Workshop for Practitioners, November
11-15, 2002:
Proceedings and Case Studies
Back to Top ^
|
