A Quasi-Longitudinal Analysis of Agricultural Extension Services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

AbstractThe efficiency of extension systems for sustainable agriculture and rural development to ensure food security is major policy concern for the contemporary governments and international agricultural development organizations. This study was carried out in northwest Pakistan to analyse and compare agricultural extension services in the area over period of two decades - from 1986-87 to 2005-06. Drawing on information from six villages, the study depicted that tendency of extension workers to contact farmers has significantly been reduced in the course of time. Majority of farmers, particularly small and medium holders, noted no visits of extension workers to their farm. Thereby, famers often relied on their traditional skills or advices from the non-technical input dealers in the local market. The study concludes that major reforms in extension system such as decentralization, effective research-extension-farmers linkages, and shift from public to private extension domains are essential to improving efficiency of extension services in Pakistan.Keywords: food security, extension services, inefficiency, developing countriesIntroductionThe developing economies worldwide are often characterized by growing agricultural sector. The burgeoning rural populations in these countries exhibit tremendous pressure on agricultural sector for food security and employment generation. Increased human welfare is, hence, invariably associated with efficiency of the agricultural sector (Raabe, 2008). The performance of agricultural sector to enhance productivity largely depends on, including other factors; the availability of latest information about farm practices, uptake of new technology, and adoption of modern farming practices (Inayat et al. 2008a). The World Bank (2007) emphasizes on the role of agricultural extension as inevitable for sustainable, participatory, and pro-poor agricultural and hence economic development.Agricultural extension is dynamic concept; hence, it is too difficult to give specific definition of agricultural extension which is universally acceptable. Feder et al. (1999) define agricultural extension system as a system and set of functions performed by that system to induce voluntary changes among farming communities. The authors further elaborates that the set of functions performed by the agricultural extension system include: (i) transferring information and technology for sustainable agricultural production, transformation, and marketing; (ii) building capacities of the farmers to better organize themselves to identify their capabilities both individually and as group, clarify their own goals, and prioritize the means and methods to achieve them; (iii) enhancing their capacities in managerial (managing their human power, natural resources, and capital), technical (better farm management, improved marketing knowledge, etc.), administrative, and legal aspects.Agricultural extension is one of three pillars of the broader knowledge system for rural development, variously referred to as Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems for Rural Development (AKIS/RD) by the World Bank and FAO, or simply the Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS) by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The other pillars of the system include agricultural education and research. According to the AKIS/RD 'strategic vision and guiding principles' (FAO/World Bank, 2000), the triangular system integrates farmers, agricultural educators, researchers and extensionists, enabling them to harness knowledge and information from various sources to improve farming and livelihoods (Figure 1). In principle, agricultural extension receives relevant information from the agricultural education system and feeds back field observations to this system (Rivera et al. 2001). Likewise, the link between agricultural research and extension is even closer. Any latest development through agricultural research is transmitted to the framers via extension services (Ban & Hawkins, 1998). …