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Learning from real experiences of Market Oriented
Agricultural Advisory Services Lessons
from 5 years of experiences in extension for
farming as a business Agricultural Support
Programme in Zambia
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Why do I present this case?

• To show an example of analysis of extension
  system and methodology from a NI perspective
• To present documented evidence of impact from
  intensive MOAAS
• To share the main lessons learned and place these
  in the perspective of our proposal that is
• Capacity building
• Knowledge creating on good practises and
  enabling policies

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Study of the extension system of ASP From January
to May 2008 Team Sanne Chipeta, Danish
Agricultural Advisory Service Richard Kamona,
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative
Development (MACO) Joachim Skagerfelt, Ramböl
Natura Edna Maluma, ASP
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Analyses the ASP extension in a system perspective

• Demand drive
• Extension as facilitation
• Extension as technology transfer
• Extension as advice
• Quality
• Market orientation
• Financing
• Institutionalisation and decentralisation
• Policy environment

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The Project
Five year programme under MACO Funded by
Sida Managed by a consortium led by Ramböl Natura
AB

• Focus
• Commercialisation of small scale farmers
• Building entrepreneurship skills
• Building linkages with private sector for small
  scale entrepreneurs to function in a competitive
  market

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Extension was the major tool for implementation

• Aim of the extension
• To facilitate a change in the farmers mindset
• Build capacity for entrepreneurship
• Provide support to farming households as they
  struggle to develop into business entities

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Impacts
44.000 rural households participated during the 6
year period. Each household participated for 3
years Increased income Participating HHs
increased their income 35 more than
non-participating Improved food security 62
of participating HHs produced more maize than
they used while only 49 of non-participating
Gender empowerment The average income is still
very low (190 USD per capita)
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Greater impact on women than men.
Average income levels by Household type and
gender, ZMK
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Average value of Key Assets, ZMK
45 increase
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Cost Benefit Analysis
Rate of return to investment 34 Cost Benefit
Ratio gt 2.0
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Extension approaches and methodologies

• The Facilitation Cycle
• The Household Approach
• The Business Approach

No hardware attached to the extension!
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How did it work?
Supply side Facilitation Teams District
Coordinators District Subject Matter
Specialists Camp Extension Officers ILO
Business Trainers, Micro Bankers Trust Lead
Farmers and Out Grower Managers Demand side Camp
Committees Interest Groups Households (100 100
HHs per Camp)
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What was new?
Business Approach
Household follow-up
Demand formulation
Training
Training put into practice
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Facilitation
The FC and BA contributed to increasing farmers
voice in the market system Knowledge about
production costs Organisation around
commodities Ability to bulk produce
Business training cost calculation remarkable
effect Linkages and building relations with
market takes time
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Technology transfer and increase of productivity
Productivity still rather low but farmers
report increases
Basic technical skills appeared new to
farmers Issues of how to use planning and
analytical skills Business focus new probably
long term perspective for breakthrough on
productivity
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Advice The ability to catalyse, inspire and
enable farmers to solve own problems
Indications were Savings and Credit
Coops Bulking Out Grower Managers extension
Positive outcomes result of the demand
drive Method used for opportunity identification
and Business training instrumental
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Market Orientation
Lessons Entrance of private sector partners for
specialised extension has been valuable i.e. ILO
trainers Building sustainable market linkages
takes time Collaboration with agents with
commercial network and understanding of the
market is required
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Market Orientation
The most emphasised tool was out grower
arrangements Have potential to deliver extension
Quality of extension mainly regulated by
business drive Content in most cases commodity
focussed (examples of business training) Compleme
ntary system based on business Opportunity for
local extension agents to be sustainable Need
backstopping and advice to find mutual benefit
balance
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Quality
Quality has been notably high Backstopping and
result orientation from project level were
keys Monitoring at camp level by CACs ?
Frequent reflections by some teams have built
important capacity for quality work No strong
institutional base for quality assurance
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Decentralised budgeting
Facilitation Team
District Planning Meetings
Activity Plans/budgets
Funds
Activity plans
Farmer group
CAC
Extension Officer
Training needs
Activity plans
Farmer group
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Financing
Effective, adequate, timely and flexible The
funding system has been key to the ability to
respond to local demand No substantial promotion
of cost sharing Sustainability a concern at high
level Level of funding Procedure for funding
Indications found for farmers willingness to pay
for extension
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Institutionalisation and Decentralisation
At Camp level there are fragile but interesting
structures to take forward and assist in creating
vertical linkages Capacity built in MACO at
district level, but not institutional capability
to continue decentralised decision making may
not work in this structure Mainstreaming will
require institutions able to provide backstopping
and management as well as decentralised procedures
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Policy environment
The Agricultural Policy supports the aims of ASP
extension in terms of commercialisation and
involvement of private sector But not in terms of
the required decentralised structure Also -
Practises of Fertiliser Support and Food
Reserves ASP had no deliberate strategy for
supporting policy development
Commercialisation of small scale farmers in
Zambia is a huge challenge and requires more than
extension It would need a strong strategy and
policy support from high level, which would also
be put to practise It would therefore require
more deliberate support to policy making and
implementation at national level
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Conclusion What can we learn from this?
ASP extension shows that intensive and demand
driven practises are expensive but can provide
impact worth the investment! Business and
entrepreneurship training can spearhead
orientation towards market Institutional
development at grass root level fine but need
for vertical linkages Sustainability requires an
institutional platform that can handle
decentralised demand oriented planning and
funding and have a commercial network to
facilitate the linkages to private sector
Up-scaling would require massive capacity
building!
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Extension cannot solve everything (as some
can..) but it can make an important
contribution!