Improving Agricultural Extension Systems for Wider Adoption of Technologies

Ethiopian farmers are increasingly becoming interested in adopting new and improved agricultural technologies. The government extension system is also pushing for wide adoption of some of these technologies. However, current adoption levels of these technologies is quite low. The major explanations for the low adoption levels are: 1) Lack or low level of awareness about the technologies among farmers. Having the largest concentration of extension agents in Africa (about 16 per 10 farmers), number of contacts between farmers and extension agents does not seem to be effective in promoting adoption of improved agricultural technologies in Ethiopia. 2) Many farmers cannot afford to cover the costs of adopting the new technologies, especially as a package. Therefore, most farmers either don’t adopt any of the technologies or at best adopt only few components of the technology package(s). Therefore, the overall goal of the proposed project is to improve the livelihoods of rural communities and national food security in Ethiopia through wider adoption of more sustainable and productive agricultural technologies and farming practices that also help in enhancing resilience to climate change. The specific objectives of the project are: 1) to develop effective and inclusive extension service delivery system(s); 2) developing and testing different extension and change-agent profiles, including relevant capacities and skills for process facilitation particularly for multi-stakeholder processes; and 3) Designing innovative technology packages including user-friendly, inclusive and low-risk credit delivery systems. The project aims at realizing these objectives by identifying and testing, through inclusive and gender-sensitive research, options that can alleviate the information and liquidity constraints and promote wider adoption of improved agricultural technologies and NRM practices.