Rural Extension Services
The authors analyze the considerations that lead policymakers to undertake extension investments as a key public responsibility, as well as the complex set of factors and intra-agency incentives that explain why different extension systems' pe...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/02/2159875/rural-extension-services http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19154 |
| Summary: | The authors analyze the considerations
that lead policymakers to undertake extension investments as
a key public responsibility, as well as the complex set of
factors and intra-agency incentives that explain why
different extension systems' performance vary. The
authors provide a conceptual framework outlining
farmers' demand for information, the welfare economic
characterizations of extension services, and the
organizational and political attributes that govern the
performance of extension systems. They use the conceptual
framework to examine several extension modalities and to
analyze their likely and actual effectiveness. Specifically,
the modalities reviewed include "training and
visit" extension, decentralized systems,
"fee-for-service" and privatized extension, and
farmer-field-schools. The authors also discuss
methodological issues pertaining to the assessment of
extension outcomes and review the empirical literature on
extension impact. They emphasize the efficiency gains that
can come from locally decentralized delivery systems with
incentive structures based largely on private provision that
in most poorer countries is still publicly-funded. In
wealthier countries, and for particular higher income farmer
groups, extension systems will likely evolve into
fee-for-service organizations. |
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