The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

had access to extension; yet extension is important. In traditional agriculture, farming skills
and knowledge were passed from one generation to the next through “on-the-job training,”
that is, children working alongside parents. This transfer pattern, however, is inappropriate
for agriculture undergoing transformation, hence the need for a modern extension service.
The extension service, therefore, has a vital role to play with regard to the flow of
information. Theoretically, extension services help farmers to improve the efficiency of the
productive factors at their disposal. That is, extension shifts the production function to the
right through more efficient factor-factor combinations. Extension also reduces the costs of
information acquisition. Thus it may be considered a low cost input into the production
process. It is also a form of education, which improves human capital (Mwakubo 1994).
Table 4.2 Contacts with extension staff
Responses Machakos Taita-Taveta Combined
Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %
Yes 31 19.9 57 35.6 88 27.8
No 125 80.1 103 64.4 228 72.2
Total 156 100 160 100 316 100
Source: Field survey, 2003
Extension officers are expected to lay out terraces for the farmers as well as encouraging
farmers to network so that they can harness collective action. However, it is challenging to
improve extension services in the face of dwindling government budgets and reforms that
require the public sector to downsize 15 (Omamo 2003).
When farmers were asked whether they thought the extension service is instrumental
in soil conservation, a large proportion of farmers did not think so (Table 4.3).
Table 4.3 Farmers’ perception of whether or not the extension service enables them to
invest in soil conservation measures
Responses Machakos Taita-Taveta Combined
Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %
Yes 18 11.5 22 14.9 40 13.2
No 138 88.5 126 85.1 264 86.8
Total 156 100 148 100 304 100
Source: Field survey, 2003
These responses depict the farmers’ dismal perception of the contribution of
extension. It also reflects farmers’ low access to extension services, perhaps occasioned by
moribund public sector and information systems (Omamo 2003).
Table 4.4 examines farmers’ perceptions regarding the importance of social activities
(collective action). About 76 percent of the sampled farmers acknowledge the pivotal role of
social capital. The rest (about 24 percent) take the other side on this issue—that social capital
may have negative externalities such as envy.
15 Note that there are public sector, voluntary sector (NGOs and churches), and private sector extension
services. The first has registered a decline, while the second has witnessed an upswing.