Extension approaches: from T and V to field schools
How farm extension evolved: transfer of technology, training and visit, farmer field schools, farmer-to-farmer and pluralistic systems, with cost sums.
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New varieties, better practices and market information do little good if farmers do not know about them, trust them or can adapt them to their own fields. Agricultural extension, the services that help farmers learn, solve problems and connect to research and markets, exists in almost every country. How it should be organised has been debated for a century, and approaches have shifted from top-down delivery of messages towards participatory, demand-led and pluralistic systems.
Extension approaches are a core topic in agricultural extension and rural development courses and exams.
What extension does
Extension is more than passing on technology. Its functions include:
- Technology transfer: varieties, practices, inputs.
- Advisory services: diagnosing and solving farmers' specific problems.
- Education and capacity building: farmers' skills in management, organisation and marketing.
- Linking farmers to research, markets, credit and policy, and feeding farmers' problems back to research.
Modern thinking places extension within an agricultural innovation system or agricultural knowledge and innovation system (AKIS), in which farmers, researchers, businesses, NGOs and governments all create and share knowledge.
Major approaches
Cooperative extension and the land-grant model
In the United States, the Smith–Lever Act of 1914 created the Cooperative Extension Service, linking land-grant universities, federal and local government. Extension educators based in counties connected research to farmers. The model influenced extension in many other countries.
Transfer of technology and community development
From the 1950s, many developing countries set up national extension services to spread Green Revolution technologies, sometimes within broader community development programmes. Messages flowed from research to farmers in a linear, top-down way.
Training and visit (T&V)
Developed by Daniel Benor and promoted by the World Bank from the mid-1970s, T&V was adopted in over 50 countries. Its features:
- A single line of command and a fixed schedule: each village extension worker visits groups of contact farmers on a fixed day, usually once a fortnight.
- Fortnightly training of extension workers by subject-matter specialists.
- Concentration on a few impact points, simple, high-return messages.
- Close links to research through regular workshops.
T&V improved discipline and reach, but it proved costly, rigid, top-down and hard to sustain; contact farmers often did not pass on messages, and most countries abandoned it by the late 1990s.
Farmer field schools (FFS)
Started by FAO in Indonesia in 1989 to teach integrated pest management in rice, farmer field schools spread to over 90 countries and many crops and livestock systems. A group of about 20 to 30 farmers meets weekly through a season in a field, observing the crop, analysing the agro-ecosystem, running simple experiments and making decisions. Facilitators guide rather than lecture. FFS build farmers' understanding and confidence, especially for complex practices like IPM, but cost more per farmer than mass methods.
Farmer-to-farmer extension
Trained lead farmers, community-based facilitators or promoters teach their neighbours, as in the campesino a campesino movement in Central America and many programmes in Africa and Asia. It is cheaper and builds on trust, but needs support and incentives for the lead farmers.
Private, fee-based and commodity extension
Input companies, processors, exporters and contract farming firms provide advice tied to their products or chains; some countries let farmers or groups pay for advisory services. Commodity boards provide extension for crops such as tea, coffee, cotton and sugar.
Pluralistic and demand-led systems
Since the 2000s, most countries have moved towards pluralistic systems, with public, private, NGO and farmer-organisation providers, often coordinated locally and funded partly through demand-driven mechanisms where farmer groups set priorities. Decentralisation, participatory planning and digital extension (mobile phones, radio, video and call centres) are central to these systems.
Choosing an approach
No approach suits all purposes. Simple messages, such as a new variety, can spread through mass media and lead farmers; complex, knowledge-intensive practices, such as IPM or conservation agriculture, benefit from group learning like FFS. Effective systems match methods to the message, combine several approaches, and include women, youth and poorer farmers.
Comparing the cost of reaching farmers
Training and visit. One village extension worker costs 4,000 dollars a year and serves 8 groups of 10 contact farmers each. If each contact farmer influences 5 neighbours:
- Farmers reached = 8 × 10 × (1 + 5) = 480; cost = 4,000 ÷ 480 ≈ 8.3 dollars per farmer.
- If contact farmers pass on messages to only 1 neighbour each: reached = 160, cost 25 dollars per farmer.
Farmer field school. A season-long school for 25 farmers costs 1,250 dollars:
- Cost per participant = 50 dollars.
- If each graduate trains 2 neighbours effectively: reached = 25 × 3 = 75, cost ≈ 16.7 dollars per farmer, with deeper learning for the 25 participants.
Cost per farmer is only half the comparison: what matters is the change in practices and income each approach achieves, which evaluations must measure.
Key points
- Extension transfers technology, advises, educates and links farmers to research and markets, within an innovation system.
- Approaches: cooperative extension (US, 1914), top-down transfer of technology, training and visit (World Bank, 1970s–90s), farmer field schools (FAO, Indonesia, 1989), farmer-to-farmer, private and commodity extension, and pluralistic demand-led systems.
- T&V brought discipline but was costly and rigid; FFS builds understanding through group discovery learning.
- Match the approach to the complexity of the message and the farmers served.
- Compare approaches by cost per farmer reached and by changes in practice and income.
What the exams ask
- School-leaving and entrance papers: meaning and importance of extension, and examples of extension methods.
- Degree and research-fellowship entrances: features, strengths and weaknesses of T&V, FFS, farmer-to-farmer and pluralistic approaches, innovation systems, and decentralised extension.
- Professional examinations: designing extension programmes, financing and evaluating extension, and integrating digital tools.
Described in general terms: the kind of examination, not a past paper. Laisha never reproduces exam questions.
Questions people ask
Why was the T&V system abandoned?
It was expensive to sustain once external funding ended, its fixed messages did not suit diverse farms, and contact farmers often did not spread the messages as expected.
What makes farmer field schools different?
Farmers learn by observing and experimenting in their own field over a whole season, guided by a facilitator, so they understand why practices work and can adapt them.
Is private extension replacing public extension?
It is growing, especially in commercial chains, but private firms focus on profitable crops and farmers. Public extension remains important for poorer farmers, public goods such as natural resource management, and impartial advice.
Sources
- Benor, D. and Harrison, J. Q. Agricultural Extension: The Training and Visit System. World Bank, 1977.
- Swanson, B. E., Bentz, R. P. and Sofranko, A. J. (eds) Improving Agricultural Extension: A Reference Manual. FAO, 1997.
- Anderson, J. R. and Feder, G. "Agricultural extension: good intentions and hard realities." World Bank Research Observer 19, 41–60 (2004).
- Waddington, H. et al. "Farmer field schools for improving farming practices and farmer outcomes: a systematic review." Campbell Systematic Reviews 10, 1–335 (2014).
- Davis, K. and Heemskerk, W. "Investment in extension and advisory services as part of agricultural innovation systems." In World Bank, Agricultural Innovation Systems: An Investment Sourcebook. World Bank, 2012.
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