1. SDC E+I Network
f2f Conference
15.05.13 Thun
by Johann-Peter Porten
Looking for interfaces to enable farmers to make adequate business decisions for improving their livelihood
2. Introduction
While much has been discussed during recent years on
strengthening extension and advisory support to rural
communities less is known about how to build the
needed capacities within extension and advisory
services.
If we add to this supply side statement, the farmers and
their family, the demand side, we could argue that little is
done to enable farmers to demand, digest and make
adequate business decisions.
The „New Extensionist“: Roles, Strategies, and Capacities to strengthen Extension and Advisory Services. Global Forum for Rural
Advisory Services (GFRAS), November 2012
3. Shared Understanding of the concepts
of RAS, BE, VSD
Rural Advisory Service (RAS)
Vocational Skills Development
(VSD)
Basic Education (BE)
4. Rural Advisory Service
Rural Advisory Services (RAS): This input uses the definition
of extension or rural advisory services articulated by GFRAS “as
consisting of all the different activities that provide information
and services needed and demanded by farmers and other actors
in rural settings to assist them in developing their own technical,
organisational, and management skills and practices so as to
improve their livelihoods and well-being”[1]. It recognizes the
diversities of actors in extension and advisory provision (public,
private, civil society); much broadened support to rural
communities (beyond technology and information sharing)
including advice related to farm, organisational and business
management; and facilitation and brokerage in rural
development and value chains.[2]
[1] Christoplos, I. (2010) mobilizing the potential of rural and agricultural extension. FAO and GFRAS.
[2] SDC, 2010. Guidelines for Basic Education and Vocational Skills Development.
5. Basic Education
Basic Education (BE): The role of BE, according to the
international definition, is to meet the basic learning needs of any
person – child, youth or adult. BE thus encompasses more than
just primary schooling.
• “..These needs comprise essential learning tools (such as
literacy, oral expression, numeracy and problem solving) and the
basic learning content (such as knowledge and skills, values and
attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to
develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to
participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their
lives, to make informed decisions, and to continue learning.” [1]
[1] World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting basic learning needs, Jomtien, Thailand, March 1990
6. Vocational Skills Development
Vocational Skills Development (VSD): The broad concept of
VSD encompasses all organised learning processes for the
development of technical, social and personal competencies and
qualifications that contribute to the sustainable long-term
integration of trained people in decent working conditions into the
formal or informal economy, either on an employed or self-
employed basis.
The training of individuals with no solid Basic Education and/or
from disadvantaged social groups must include strengthening key
learning skills (e.g. literacy) and different empowerment methods,
particularly for girls. According to the concept of lifelong learning,
VSD can take place at all educational levels and be acquired
throughout economically active life.
SDC Guidelines For Basic Education and Vocational Skills Development (SDC 2010)
7. RAS, BE, VSD, elements of an integrated Agricultural
Knowledge System
9. Agricultural Extension and agricultural
Education
Agricultural extension and agricultural education
In a broader interpretation, the purpose of agricultural extension (agricultural
education)[1] is to advance not alone production knowledge but the whole
range of agricultural development tasks, such as credit, supplies, marketing
and markets (agricultural process development). In the broadest
interpretation, agricultural extension (agricultural education) provides non-
formal agriculturally related continuing adult education for multiple audiences
(farmers, spouses, youth, community, urban horticulturalists) and for various
purposes (including agricultural development, community resource
development, group promotion and cooperative organizational development).
Agricultural and Rural Extension Worldwide: Options for Institutional Reform in the Developing Countries, FAO Rome November 2001
10. Innovative Agricultural Education
The challenge remains of how RAS and Education can complement, overlap or even
replace each other, and how innovative agriculture education should look like (curricula,
approaches) and how it will be included in both Basic Education and Vocational Skills
Development in order to fulfil their mission: enabling farmers and their families to
make the right (business) decisions for improving their livelihoods.
RAS
BE
VSD
Agricultural Education
