By JAMES LARAKI of NARI
SMALLHOLDER
agriculture and family farming is the core contributor to agricultural
production in most developing countries, including Papua New Guinea,
contributing to achieving food and nutritional security.
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A resource centre established by NARI in the Rabaraba
area of Milne Bay province in partnership with PNG Sustainable Development and
the National Disaster Centre. This centre is being used to multiply and
distribute improved crop and livestock varieties in the area under a food
security project. Such models can be tested further in our efforts to improve
rural advisory and extension services in PNG – Picture by JAMES ERNEST
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To help
these smallholders improve their farming practices; a coalition of public,
private and civil society actors at national, regional and international levels
is needed to revitalise and strengthen agricultural extension and advisory
systems.
This was the challenge put forward by more
than 400 participants who attended the international extension conference on Innovations
in extension and advisory services: Linking knowledge to policy and action for
food and livelihoods.
The
conference. held in Nairobi, Kenya, from
November 15-18, 2011, was aimed at
taking stock of current policies, thinking and practice, successes and failures
of ongoing and past reforms in extension and advisory services and develop a
coalition to address the needs of smallholder farmers, in particular women and
youth, in a sustainable and cost effective manner. The conference covered four
cross-cutting themes of Policy, Capacity Development, Tools and Approaches and
Learning Networks.
Farmers, extension professionals, policy-makers, researchers,
academics, representatives of the private sector and the media from over 70
countries participated at this event.
The
Pacific region was well represented with representatives from a number of key
organisations to voice the concerns of Pacific Island countries and
territories.
Rural
advisory services are increasingly
recognised by many rural development actors as an essential vehicle to ensure
that research, development of farmer organisations, improved inputs, and other
elements of rural development support actually meet farmers’ and other rural
actors’ needs and demands.
Despite
past advances in agricultural innovations through improved crops and farming
systems, much of the developing world still faces challenges in food and
nutrition security, non-sustainable agricultural practices, poor access to
markets, and a falling contribution of agriculture to national GDP.
Rural
farming communities have not really benefited from advances in agricultural
technology. The diminishing national extension and advisory services reflect
reduced government investment in agriculture.
Now, the global community, responding to this
situation, is revisiting extension and advisory services as the critical link
in the agriculture value chain, where smallholder farmers are key actors of
agriculture.
Director of
CTA, Michael Hailu in his opening remarks said that the conference theme,
Linking knowledge to policy and action for food and livelihoods, was very
relevant and provided a new perspective to extension and advisory services.
He said 75%
of the poor in developing countries lived in rural areas and the majority of
them depended on agriculture for their livelihoods.
He pointed
to smallholder farmers as the primary group producing food, yet over 30 million
people in Sub-Saharan Africa face food security issues.
Any effort
to fight poverty must start with agriculture.
Hailu pointed out that the event was no
ordinary conference, where experts came to talk to each other and everyone else
politely listening.
He challenged participants to take the
opportunity provided to create a coalition of different interest committed to
improving the welfare and productivity of the world’s smallholder farmers. Extension and advisory services, he
explained, had a key role to play in confronting the many challenges farmers
face, from climate change to low productivity and rising food prices.
He expressed the hope that the
conference would identify practices and policies to improve the delivery and
effectiveness of extension and advisory services.
Hailu
advocated increasing government funding to agriculture, his call supported by
many other speakers.
We have and
will continue to make this call in PNG.
We believe
the state has a duty to its smallholder farmers and should invest in
agriculture, which supports the livelihood of over 80% of our population.
Ensuring
food and nutritional security for a growing population is a challenge.
The world
population estimated to reach to 9 billion by 2050 and with additional challenges
posed by climate change and scare resources such as land, water and energy will
require not only technical innovations but policy action and investment.
The
diminished role of extension and advisory services is a hindrance to future
agricultural and rural development and hence there is an urgent need for
redesigning and revitalising their role in reshaping the global food system.
There is
also need for coordination of development actors to articulate and advocate for
investments in agricultural extension and advisory services and to ensure that
they remain priorities on the national, regional and global development agenda.
In PNG, responsible agencies should act on
Ted Sitapai’s recommendation to formulate a new agriculture extension policy,
which promotes pluralism, market-oriented, and participatory and methods that
are appropriate for empowering farmers and increasing their social capital,
particularly amongst women farmers in PNG.
Currently our extension system is
fragmented, making it difficult for managing and resourcing the extension
services.
The meeting
noted the need to enhance the use of information and communication
technologies, both old and new, and engage the media in expanding the reach and
impact of extension and advisory services.
Strengthening
extension advisory services will directly boost value-chain pathways.
The
international conference provided a unique forum for world experts to share
experiences, success stories and challenges and recommend future measures and
policy reforms that will make extension and advisory services more relevant and
responsive to the needs of millions of smallholder farmers so that they are
better equipped to feed a growing world population.
We hope
some of these recommendations will be acted upon in PNG for the benefit of our
smallholder farmers.
