1 min
Any nation that can boast of food sovereignty has strong and efficient knowledge system along its food supply chain. Over the years, there is an increasing demand of food production due to the increasing population in the World. In most developing countries, providing sufficient food for its increasing population is a big problem as there exists a production deficit due to poor productivity.
There is a huge gap between knowledge of the production process and farmers' practices. New information or new technologies hardly trickle down to the farmers and it becomes more difficult for farmers in most remote areas. The farther a farmer is to the city, the more unlikely they will get new information and the poorer their productivity. Thus, there is an urgent need to bridge this gap and increase productivity irrespective of their locations.
Developing our agricultural extension system cannot be overemphasized in improving our local knowledge system where relevant agricultural information can easily be generated and disseminated efficiently to those in need of them. Over decades, the public-led extension system has not been able to solve this problem because of its weak structure and inability to sustain its processes, thus the need for a private extension system has become mandatory. In recent years, private extension organisations have led some major reforms using different extension approaches to bridge the knowledge gaps amongst farmers, but more work is still needed especially as regards their legal framework and structure for them to be able to be sustainable and achieve their goal.
Therefore, we need a proper and working extension system that helps to overhaul the former weak system and incorporate the roles of the different stakeholders - and actively recognise private extension service delivery as a model for food security. This would help to change the perception of various stakeholders to embrace private-led extension system as the future of the developing countries.
Therefore, we need to accept the reality that without bridging the knowledge gaps amongst farmers, productivity would continue to decline. We cannot afford to lose our food sovereignty when there are available arable lands in our countries. Therefore, we need to support more initiatives and organisations providing private extension services to our farmers, especially smallholder farmers in order to provide the required knowledge to improve productivity and achieve zero hunger. Knowledge cannot be erased and would always take a top spot to achieve food security. There is no power (food sovereignty), without knowledge! Let us start acquiring it today.
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
Developing our agricultural extension system cannot be overemphasized in improving our local knowledge system where relevant agricultural information can easily be generated and disseminated efficiently to those in need of them. Over decades, the public-led extension system has not been able to solve this problem because of its weak structure and inability to sustain its processes, thus the need for a private extension system has become mandatory. In recent years, private extension organisations have led some major reforms using different extension approaches to bridge the knowledge gaps amongst farmers, but more work is still needed especially as regards their legal framework and structure for them to be able to be sustainable and achieve their goal.
Therefore, we need a proper and working extension system that helps to overhaul the former weak system and incorporate the roles of the different stakeholders - and actively recognise private extension service delivery as a model for food security. This would help to change the perception of various stakeholders to embrace private-led extension system as the future of the developing countries.
Therefore, we need to accept the reality that without bridging the knowledge gaps amongst farmers, productivity would continue to decline. We cannot afford to lose our food sovereignty when there are available arable lands in our countries. Therefore, we need to support more initiatives and organisations providing private extension services to our farmers, especially smallholder farmers in order to provide the required knowledge to improve productivity and achieve zero hunger. Knowledge cannot be erased and would always take a top spot to achieve food security. There is no power (food sovereignty), without knowledge! Let us start acquiring it today.
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
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