The situations of Agricultural Extension in Yemen: A quick Overview

Ismail A. Muharram Khalil M. Alsharjabi

Agricultural Research and Extension Authority (AREA), Dhamar Tel: (6) 509 416 POBox: 87 2 85 Dhamar Email: area@y.net.ye

Key Words: Agricultural Extension Achievements Constraints Importance

Improvement prospective Yemen. Abstract: Since its foundation, agricultural extension has made considerable contributions towards the qualitative and quantitative improvement of farm production. Examples of these contributions are: introducing a number of high yielding varieties of some crops, disseminating and encouraging farmers to use modern farm technologies such as fertilizers, machines and equipment, agri-techniques, and pesticides. The number of qualified male and female extension staff has increased along with necessary infrastructures such as buildings of Agricultural Blocks, Extension, training, information, and Rural women improvement centers, and nurseries. But, extension is facing several problems stemming from poor financial and organizational position, and unbalanced distribution of human and material resources between regions and areas. Among other pitfalls, extension work in the past has focussed on irrigated, male farmers and, in particular, cash crops like vegetables and fruits, at the expense of rainfed farming, male farmers and livestock production. This paper includes suggestions for improving extension ability to overcome problems and obstacles. Suggested measures would, hopefully, enable extension to cope with multiplicity of changing circumstances, and with the economic, financial reforms being adopted by the government, with concepts of National Extension Strategy, and Aden Agenda. The proposed actions also gain importance in the light of the efforts being made by the Government towards preparing a new project recently renamed as the Farming Community Development Project (FCDP) formerly known as Agricultural Technology Project (ATP). FCDP is expected to have positive contribution towards improving the Yemeni extension system in line with current policy guidelines and orientations of Yemeni Government. I. Constraints Facing Agricultural Extension: Agricultural extension is being handicapped by a number of constraints, some of which can be briefly stated, in no order, as follows: 1. Institutional and Organizational Aspects: Inappropriate inherited organizational setup that is disproportional to the limited government financial resources. This coincides with the lack of adequate institutional and technical support for public extension services. This situation is aggravated by the improper selection of extension methodologies and

approaches. All these factors have affected the overall technical performance of field extension services. Weak extension management and supervision at national and regional levels. Absence of legislation organizing various agricultural profession including extension, farm consultative and advisory services such as granting licenses or permits for specialists professional practicing and services delivery. Absence of supervision, monitoring and evaluation, of activities relating to extension human and material resources development at national level. Poor distribution of available extension human and material resources at each of the national, regional, local and farming system levels on one side, and on the other among the different regions, areas, and agri-ecological zones throughout the country. The distribution of these extension resources is unbalanced in some cases and/or areas. Extension personnel may appear as if they are idles and in a masked-unemployment situation in a region of agriculturally high importance. In another situation, there might be a large number of, and perhaps better trained and qualified staff in another region or area of much less importance. Weak coordination among extension services at regional and national levels as well as between extension and other relevant agencies. Low educational levels of extension staff specifically among field level male and female agents. Limited number of female staff in all existing, active and evolving extension service provision agencies , i.e. public, cooperative and private agencies. Absence of suitable plan of human resources development for agricultural extension that could ensure coping with new policies and surrounding changes and directions. Low organizational status/position of EXTENSION within the institutional structure of various Agricultural Offices (AOs), Agricultural and Rural Development Projects (ARDPs) and Authorities (ARDAs). Such organizational status also vary from one agency to another, i.e. department, section, division, unit etc. ) Lack of job description for extension staff jobs and tasks to be performed by each employee such as managers, supervisors, Specialists, Agents, Technicians etc. This is also aggravated by the absence of well-defined staff requirements according to a certain criteria such as actual number of staff

needed, with what qualifications, and specialization, for what posts, and for what districts/areas/regions. Avoidance of extension staff to work and/or live in Agricultural Extension Centers (ECs) and Blocks (ABs) in view of their distance from populated areas and their deprivation of basic services. Additionally, some ECs and ABs are not furnished. Furthermore, those extension staff working for private agencies do not enjoy any privileges and/or securities benefits except the relatively higher monthly salaries as compared to the presently lower governmental salary scale. Multiplicity of job assignments pouring on extension personnel form numerous general and specializing Agricultural and Rural Development Projects operational in the country at certain areas, regional and national levels, with various sources of funding with differing fields of interest, scope and working mechanism. Those projects compete each other to attract extensionists to serve their mandates and implement their programs and activities according to their plans utilizing some of the logistical and financial resources available to them. Extension services accept such assignments in view of their current totally un-funded or poorly financed programs. However, such exercise lacks any coordination or technical supervision on basis of a unified line of commands or management principles. Lack of monitoring and evaluation system of the ongoing research-extensionfarmers (R-E-F) coordination linkage mechanism so as to properly manage and improve such mechanism. On the other hand, participation of female specialists and extension agents in these linkages is very low. This is being the case, the evolving research and extension programs from such linkages would not reflect the needs and problems of a large number of female segments of the farming communities rendering both programs as insensitive to gender. 2. Financial and Material Resources: Low operational budget allocated for agricultural extension activities accompanied with the absence of transparency that could enable better utilization of whatever though limited budget. Low salary scale and incentives for agricultural extension personnel. Unavailability of machines and equipment especially transport vehicles, which are presently outdated and depreciating with no repair and maintenance. Some extension services are totally with no benefit of even a single vehicle or a motor bike for that matter. Vehicles are being looked at as luxuries. Absence of a rewards and punishment system and accountability in AOs, ARDPs, and ARDAs.

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Technical Aspects: Lack of adequate and suitable agricultural technology recommendations packages for various areas covered by extension especially for rain-fed production/ farming systems areas, for female and male producers, and for crops and livestock producers. Unavailability of regular and active information service catering to the information needs of extension personnel and providing them with the right information on new modern technologies and other relevant information and knowledge in the right form, through the right channels and in the right time. Limited extension expertise, and as a result, programs and activities in a number of areas such as rain-fed farming, livestock, improved management of natural resources, gender and rural women, agricultural cooperatives, post harvest techniques and marketing, population education, and aspects relating to socio-economics such as market analysis, cost analysis of production and marketing, information, promotion and public relations, competition among others. Reliance of extension services on traditional extension approaches and its lack for most recent extension approaches such as participatory extension, rural advisory extension, farming system extension, farmer-to-farmer extension or extension through paraprofessional local agents and the like.

II. Suggestions for Activating Agricultural Extension: On the basis of identified constraints and obstacles, the following suggestions are proposed for overcoming them and activating agricultural extension: Due importance need to be given to extension by the Ministry of Agricultural and Irrigation and its various departments, AOs, ARDPs, and ARDAs. This has to be manifested in institutional, legal, administrative, financial support that needs to be linked to the required technical backstopping and coordination, and to be enhanced with necessary adequate moral and political support. Issuing a ministerial decree that enforces and necessitates all agricultural agencies to develop and maintain effective cooperation and coordination relations with each other, that is crowned with appropriate mechanism for efficient information exchange/flow and transparent transaction. This required mechanism should cut across all levels affecting extension starting from Ministrys HQ, various units involved in financial and administrative supervision on one side, and AREA on the other being the extension technical backstopping body responsible of improving the countrys extension system, its performance, and enhancing its outputs. Allocating adequate annual operational budget for agricultural extension activities provided the presence of procedure that ensures making the available fund at the hands of the extension departments.

 Improving the salary scale and incentives of extension personnel Developing a monitoring and evaluation system alongside with incentive and promotion code or procedure for extension staff. Promoting the present generally weak and low organizational status of extension by elevating it into a more realistic position that conforms with and reflects its importance. This restructuring of extension would also enable overcome the problem of organizational differences and discrepancies inflecting the present institutional position and form of extension in various agencies. This would also entails defining extension roles and responsibilities at national and regional levels. Such readjustment would have to take into account too various internal and external changes and resultant new trends and policy guidelines especially program budgeting, the needs for rules and regulations including job description and criteria for occupying extension posts at all levels and working circles. Conducting a comprehensive evaluation study of extension in different areas representing various extension agencies, approaches and farming systems. The results of the study could serve as basis for possible measures concerning redistribution of extension staff, resources and facilities. It will also help in improving extension approaches and methodologies; formulating human resources development plan; staff rationalization, and possibly in developing recruitment guidelines for extension especially female staff. The study would be the basis for estimating required human and material resources for improving extension service capable of working in the light of changes, assimilating new policy orientations and line of thinking including decentralization and local governance, and able to forge partnership with the private and cooperative sectors. Setting up suitable coordination linkage mechanism between extension services and the cooperative and the private sectors, with flexible and varied options capable of achieving the aims and interest of various agricultural and rural developments partners. III. Expected Roles of Farming Communities Development Program (FCDP) in Agricultural Extension: Preparing and reorienting all extension agencies under which various extension services is functioning, involving all levels of management and staff with the aim of enabling them comprehend and deal with the new government policies and directions. Some of the suggestions towards achieving this are as follows: Organizing a number of expanded meetings, and orientation trainingcum-workshops that are well planned and focused on the implications of the new government policies with regards to extension and the role of

extension in absorbing and translating economic, administrative and financial reform program within its mandate, programs and field activities. Organizing another similar activity to serve as a National Extension Conference aiming mainly at reviewing and revising the Aden Agenda and the National Extension Strategy. The major output of the conference should be in the form of a plan with a time frame, implementing responsibilities, implementation requirements, and measurement indicators for each activity in the plan. The FCDP may take up all or selected part(s) of the plan to include in its action plan or logical framework. Partners in agricultural development in the government, the private and cooperative sector should attend and actively participate in all or some of the suggested activities as suitable. They may be partially or totally involved in implementing, monitoring and /or evaluating the plans or recommendations produced. Some of the suggested orientation activities may be organized utilizing existing linkages and institutional bodies such as the Expanded Meeting(s) presided over by the Minister for higher level management of Ministry and its various national and regional agencies, the Regional Technical Coordination Committee(s), the National Extension Committee, and the like. Defining the directions of projects operations and working mechanism in a number of Experimental Pilot Activities (EPAs), with the objectives of, first, preparing and fostering capabilities of private and cooperative sectors to assume new roles and responsibilities in accordance with guidelines indicated in the National Extension Strategy and Aden Agenda. Any modified versions of same documents need to be considered in such activities for preparing the various sectors including public extension services to conform and undertake roles and responsibilities with common understanding and coordination. The adopted EPAs need to be subjected to a vigorous M&E procedure so as to formulate lessons learned on the use of certain new approaches and activities under the Yemeni conditions. On bases of the experimentation results necessary adjustment have to be made prior to any recommendations for replication of these EPAs. Accordingly, in delineating possible extension relating activities especially the EPAs, essential modification is required maintaining EXTENSION as a state duty in the short and medium terms till adequate field results are gained from the FCDPs EPAs. On bases of FCDP experiences, through the first phase, new directions and changes could be made with respect to the Government role of extension in particular and the redistribution of these roles among different partners. Nevertheless, a support and enhancement of the role of the cooperative and the private sector as extension service providers need to gradually start in selected areas, within the framework of the EPAs, with following crops believed to prove feasible at present: - Fruits Mango Citrus (Mareb and Saadah) - Livestock Veterinary services (Large scale Dairy Farms)

- Poultry (all area) - Small Scale Projects Funded through low interest small loans, (Dhamar) Supporting the extension role of AREA and the institutional development aspects of its ETD on basis of AREAs foundation Presidential Decree, National Extension Strategy, Aden Agenda, and in the light of their modifications expected in the planned Agricultural Strategies Conference of Aden University-Agricultural Faculty, or the suggested National Extension Conference. There is a need also to foster and institutionalize AREAs relationships concerning extension with various relevant agencies under which extension is operating considering legal, organizational and financial dimensions affecting such relationships, including gender issues and rural women development. Identifying extension organizational constraints in different agencies and areas using the diagnosis tools of Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) to so as to define problem, priorities, and possible solutions with the involvement of all concerned parties. Accordingly, a number of solutions identified may be transformed into programs and activities for implementation, if not at the national levels, at least in the selected areas to be covered under the FCDPs Pilot activities. The suggested National Extension Conference may serve as another supportive mechanism towards achieving the expected output of this proposed activity. Conducting PRAs in the selected areas to be covered by the project so as to identify problems and priorities facing farmers, which need to be converted into research, and extension and other programs for presentation to different services providers to compete for their execution. Training and qualifying extension staff on bases of the results the Training Needs Assessment (TNA) survey carried out as part of the activities leading towards the National Agricultural Training Strategy being pursued by AREA. The TNA covers different segments relating to agricultural development such as managerial and technical extension staff and the cooperative and the private sector. Offering required assistance to concerned agencies in the agricultural sector towards setting up employment policy in the sector; rationalizing extension human and material resources, improving extension operational expenditures, finalizing a salary and incentives scale for extension personnel; and finally developing performance evaluation scheme. Focusing on a number of extension activities in selected areas with involvement of the whole extension service that covers the selected specific zones. However, to save experimentation time and reach quick results, different EPAs may be assigned in each district or in different area.

 Fostering and activating existing institutional bodies (i.e. extension services, technical committees, coordination units, national extension committee, the multi-disciplinary teams etc. ). Creating transparent transaction between extension services and AREA on basis of which these services could use the allocated budgets of extension programs approved by AREA in accordance with the policy and strategy documents, the results of PRAs, and the agreed upon format of extension program budgeting approved by the NEC. The same procedure needs to be reinforced to include all, non-extension, activities of AOs and other agencies. This, however, requires that extension departments be given more authorities and control over the allocated budget. Providing requirements for extension work in selected areas such as machines, equipment and furniture. Developing an active and typical information service that caters to the information needs of extension personnel in all fields relating to their work, in a suitable and timely manner through the right channels with proper contents systematically and regularly. Supporting extension research and studies aiming at: testing and evaluating extension approaches and methodologies applied by the project; and revising and formulating local versions of tested approaches and methods and packaging them for replication under Yemeni conditions. This includes studies on commercialization of selected farming technologies, technology adoption and impact, attitude of researchers, extensionists, and farmers towards new extension approaches and methods, Gender issues, local communication networks and effect of communication strategies used by the project, extension training methods, Factors affecting formal and informal government, private and cooperative intra-and-inter- agency communication and coordination, and the role of the private sector in agricultural development etc. Enhancing cooperation and coordination relations between agricultural extension and all other government and civil agencies relevant to the context of agricultural and rural development. Linking extension output to present and future population policy in particular and to the overall government development policy in general.

References:
1. Alsharjabi, Khalil M. & Ismail A. Muharram (2001) Fostering the Role of Agricultural Extension under the new economic and financial Reform policies in Yemen, A Conference Paper prepared for the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), Dhamar, Yemen (in Arabic). Alsharjabi, Khalil M., and Lambertus Vogelzang, 2000 , Technology Dissemination Activities in Yemen : A Review Paper , AREA/Agricultural Sector Management Support Project-ETC2, Dhamar , Republic of Yemen . Alsharjabi, Khalil M., 1999 , Communication Behavior of Research and Extension Personnel in Relation to Research-Extension Linkage Mechanism in Yemen, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis , Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (formerly APAU), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. AREA/ETD (2001) A Review and Analysis of Extension Programs of the farming seasons 2000/2001. AREA/ETD, Dhamar, Yemen. AREA (1997) The National Agricultural Extension Strategy, AREA, Dhamar, Yemen. MAI-General Directorate for Rural Womens Development, 1999. Gender Policy on Agriculture and Food security. MAI-General Directorate for Rural Womens Development, Sanaa, The Republic of Yemen. MAI (2000) The Aden Agenda : A Structural Reform Framework for the Agricultural Sector, MAI-Agricultural Sector Management Support Project, Sanaa, Yemen (in Arabic). Muharram, Ismail A. (1998) Agricultural Research and Extension in Yemen: The Present Situation and Future prospective, AREA, Dhamar, Yemen. The World Bank (1999) A note on Agricultural Strategy in Yemen. The WB Office, Snaaa, Yemen.

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This Article Appeared in Issue no. 5, The Yemeni Journal of Agricultural Research and Studies, AREA, Dhamar-The Republic of Yemen.