Demand Driven Agricultural Advisory Services

from the farmer’s private interests and may have to be promoted or evenenforced by public authorities.This does not mean that demand driven services are irrelevant in the promotionof public interests. If appropriate economic incentives are put into place,farmers may also demand advisory services that assist them in complyingwith publicly promoted or enforced regulations and interventions. Indeed,one of the greatest demands that farmers make on advisory services isoften assistance in completing forms and otherwise following regulatoryframeworks.The offer of funding must be flexible and transparentFunding of extension must be flexible in adapting to the demands articulatedat the local level. A narrow funding policy, focused for example on aspecific crop, distorts motivation in the demand formulation process. Insteadof focussing on demands for services relating to their market opportunities,farmers will frequently direct their proposals towards topics that are beingpushed from above in the expectation of accessing future subsidies.If there are limitations to what topics and contents for advisory servicesthat can be funded, the offer must be made explicit and transparent and bewell communicated to the farming community in order to avoid disappointments.The transaction costs for farmers in demanding services are high,and they should not be encouraged to waste their time asking for servicesthat cannot be provided.Success requires enabling policies, demand,supply and backstopping institutionsPublic sector commitment and clarity are requiredDevelopment of demand driven services requires that policies create anenabling environment for pluralistic development of service supply, and thatthe public sector is committed to making clear the different roles of thepublic and the private sectors in delivery of advisory services. The publicsector must stop the free supply of extension services that can be deliveredthrough the private sector, and instead strengthen its efforts in taking careof public interests and long-term interventions, which are unlikely to attractprivate sector investment.7