June 6, 2014
Farmers out on a field day
One of the major issues confronting agriculture in Ghana is the lack of clear guidelines for delivering extension services to farmers.
The Ghana Environment and Climate Change Policy Action Node, one of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa’s (AGRA’s) grantees, is working to address this problem by drafting Ghana’s Agricultural Extension Guidelines.
Currently, Ghana does not have agricultural extension guidelines to provide the roadmap for sustainable national agricultural value chain development.
The extension guidelines will incorporate climate change considerations and will improve the delivery of extension and advisory services to farmers, enhance the relationship between farmers and extension officers, and regulate the activities of players in the extension and advisory services to increase agriculture productivity across the country.
For farmers in Ghana, it will mean they will have access to extension services based on international best practice, giving them the support and confidence they need to implement new agricultural practices.
“The development of these guidelines is a great initiative, and goes to the core of what AGRA is trying to do; improve the live hoods of smallholder farmers.
“Smallholder farmers need access to suitable extension services, to make sure the outcomes and knowledge from research is implemented on-farm,” AGRA’s Policy Officer for Land and Environment, Evelyn Namubiru-Mwaura.
Since April 2013, the Policy Action Node (PAN) has been collaborating with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and other local institutions in the development of the guidelines.
The PAN recently held a consultative meeting with key stakeholders in Ghana to discuss the draft guidelines and seek additional input and feedback prior to finalization of the guidelines in September.
For AGRA, these guidelines are an important contributor to the development of agriculture in Ghana as, not only will it be an important policy document for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and other related agencies but, importantly, it will improve the extension services available to smallholder farmers.
“We are happy to be associated with such a great initiative and will continue to intervene in critical areas of national agricultural programs to move Africa’s agriculture forward for the benefit of all, particularly our resource poor smallholder farmers across Africa where agriculture plays a crucial role in economic growth, food security, poverty reduction, livelihoods, and rural development,” Ms. Namubiru-Mwaura said.
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