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| Description of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Service System in Zambia
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Petros Chavula, Mwaba Muleba, Solomon Shentema, Yusuf Umer, Belay Teressa, Benson Turyasingura
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Abstract:
One of Zambia's top priorities for economic development and the reduction of poverty is agriculture. For smallholders and companies to have easier access to technology and information, extension and consulting services are crucial. In order to facilitate inclusive multi-stakeholder innovation processes, extension and advisory services are increasingly acting as a bridge between important parties including producer organizations, research institutions, higher education, agribusiness, and lone producers. Information-focused models, service provider models, and integrated market models are the three different categories of service provider models. Private sector players, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international development partners (UN agencies), farmer organizations (Zambia National Farmer Union (ZNFU)), small-scale farmer associations, livestock services, and Agrivet are the main agricultural service providers that the Zambian government uses. Agricultural extension and advisory services are hindered by a number of issues, including field extension workers' lack of understanding of participatory extension methodologies, planned extension programs' focus on ineffective value chains, insufficient and underperforming livestock service centers and farmer training centers, inadequate extension planning, reporting, and feedback cultures, and insufficient in-service and refresher training for front-line extension workers. Despite the numerous obstacles, Zambian agricultural extension agents play a crucial role in getting the technology to end users.
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