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Obert Chifamba
Agri-Insight

TODAY I will be digressing from the usual discourse on matters like preparations for the coming season, what weather experts are saying on the season or what stakeholders, including Government, are doing to make the season successful.

My focus will be on an important constituency of the agricultural production process – the extension workers/officers.

Very often, these people are relegated to the backbenches when discussions on preparations for new seasons take place, only to be remembered when something that requires their expertise comes up.

Historically, agricultural extension has mainly involved technology transfer, with the village extension worker transferring knowledge from research stations to farmers by using individual, group, and mass media methods.

In recent times, extension has advanced to play the role of promoting technological development through linking research with community group needs and helping to facilitate appropriate technology development.

With the direction agricultural technology and innovation are taking, the role of extension workers needs not be overemphasised.

It is clear that despite officers playing a critical role in the success of every agricultural season, not many people have taken a minute of their precious time to appreciate how these workers should work with farmers or how farmers should also react to extension advice.

For advisory services to be effective, it is important for communities to know what they expect from the extension workers and what the situation in the communities require the expert to do and how.

This will also allow the extension officer to make a choice and decide on a method, role or even a combination of roles that she needs to play to improve service delivery.

Some situations do not even need technical guidance on how to do certain things but may just require the extension officer to assume the role of an advisor, guide, broker, enabler or facilitator, expert, planner, organiser, negotiator, public relations officer or mentor to name just a few.

Once communities understand this, it becomes easier for the extension officers to discharge their duties more effectively and for the good of production.

On the part of the extension officer it is important to identify and address the issues that communities raise and not impose matters on them.

Naturally, it should be the extension worker’s responsibility to help and support communities to conceptualise and prioritise their problems or needs

In this case the extension worker must lead or guide her clients towards their unfelt needs, slowly and at a pace determined by the client.

The extension officer must lead clients by the hand and help them solve their problems.

Sometimes it is also necessary for the extension worker to tailor make solutions depending on the targeted group of people or individuals to be dealt with.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to problems in most cases, as some matters are peculiar to individuals.

Once the extension worker manages to draw a line between communal and individual problems, the process of solving challenges begins and that is also the point at which farmers begin to appreciate their technical guides’ prowess and credibility in solving matters.

One other important observation is that to be effective, extension services must be participatory.  Farmers must follow advice from the extension workers.

It is therefore important for extension workers to accord farmers the opportunity to participate in solving problems while nurturing strong linkages between them.

This bonding process will allow the extension worker to increase credibility ratings in the eyes of the farmers, which enables them to become a part of the community. Such a relationship gives them citizenship of the community and earns them the licence to talk and be listened to.

The positive results from such scenarios are usually measured through increasing outputs from farmers’ activities.

Extension workers need to be alive to the fact that their job description entails helping farmers and communities to organise themselves and be in charge of their growth and development.

Extension personnel must learn not to tell farmers what to do but demonstrate to them how certain things are done activating the sense of imagination and a desire to try things. Involving them in solving issues helps enhance their understanding while ‘empowering them leads to commitment and action (Chamala, 1990).’

Very often, efforts to address farmers’ problems or sell a new idea fail to make the desired effect because there is no buy-in from the farmers who feel that they are doing things for the extension worker.

Some history lessons here – in colonial Zimbabwe, the colonising powers would enforce the construction of contour ridges in fields and farmers, then, would do it not because they wanted to but out of fear of the repercussions of not playing ball.

The majority did not realise the need to have the structures in their fields and thought it was a way of trying to make farming as difficult for them and would reluctantly comply.

Essentially, contour ridges help direct excess water out of the field and ensure that flooding water does not get easy access to fields damaging crops in the process. Sadly, this important function of contour ridges was overshadowed by lack of clarity on why it was necessary to have them in the fields. Today farmers can construct contour ridges without any misgivings because they were made to understand the important role they play in preserving soil in the fields.

The crux of the matter here is that extension workers play a significant role in the success of agricultural development programmes and farmers need them intensively and continuously for assistance, technical guidance and management.

Their services are essential in the overall agricultural development activities given that most farmers’ level of mastery of technology is still low and requires exhaustive and constant technical and management assistance.

One thing for certain is that for extension services to be effective, they have to be people-centred and should start where the people are, that is, at their level of understanding, interest and degree of preparedness to tug alone.

The long and short of my argument is that extension personnel should have a full appreciation of their clients’ local conditions, the environment, social structure, habits, traditions, attitude and economic status.

For any form of instruction or advice to be effective, it has to be related to what the farmers already know and which they are familiar with.