Agricultural Innovation Systems - ISBN: 9780821386842

Extension and advisory services are integral to the AIS, where now more than ever they play a brokering role, linking key actors such as producer organizations, research services, and higher education. This module looks at the history and current status of extension and advisory services and examines important topics such as pluralism, new roles for extension, new kinds of service providers, ICTs, and agribusiness. For strong extension and advisory services, it is important to have coordination and linkage within pluralistic, multistakeholder AIS. Less traditional actors such as farmer organizations and agrodealers are important extension and advisory service providers who are vital to include in the design of investments and programs. Extension and advisory services must be ever-adapting to the needs of clients, and they must monitor and evaluate their services. Perhaps the broadest challenge is the tremendous need for new capacities within extension. Throughout the developing world, evolving demands and new roles for advisory services in the wider innovation system will require investments in the capacity of individual extension workers and organizations for value chain approaches, in marketoriented extension, in group and organizational development, in agribusiness, and in mechanisms to share infor mation (networks, platforms, and the like). Recent global developments require advisory services to focus on climate change, food security, and equipping rural people to deal with risk in general. To better serve their constituencies and influence policies, advisory services need a stronger voice at the global and regional level. There is a need for evidence-based direction regarding investment priorities and programming options for agricultural advisory services within innovation systems. Policy issues related to pluralistic advisory services and extension include the changing roles of various extension providers, the comparative advantage for different providers in carrying out specific extension functions and advisory services, sustainability, and equity. Paradigm shifts—from the perception that research knowledge can drive inno vation to the notion that change in the whole system is needed for innovation—must take place not only in the programs and the thinking of field staff but in the thinking of extension administrators and policy makers.