The farmer as an agricultural extension agent in coastal Bangladesh

Key messages

• Coastal Bangladesh, with its unique geographic and climatic conditions, faces distinct agricultural challenges, now exacerbated by climate change.
• Providing agricultural extension services, the process of increasing farmers’
  awareness of, and access to relevant skills, research, knowledge, inputs, and
  technology, is one of the ways in which the country has tried to deal with those challenges.
• However, the process of agricultural extension is itself not without its
  challenges, including the availability of resources, connections, and
  collaboration between the agents involved, inclusion, and effectiveness.
• This study examines the process of agricultural extension on the ground
  from the perspective of its providers (extension agents) and its recipients
  (community members/farmers), based on interviews with, and stories shared
  by several members of both groups in Khulna District. This helps us highlight
  the underexplored importance of farmers’ agency in supporting the
  effectiveness of the extension process.
• Our findings emphasize that a deliberate consideration of community members
  as active participants who can and do shape the process of extension, the
  creation of bottom-up information flows, and the reframing of extension as a
  grounded, ongoing process in policy can have a positive impact on both inclusion and effectiveness

Citation

Joshi, Deepa; Panagiotou, A.; Rahman, M. W. 2024. The farmer as an agricultural extension agent in coastal Bangladesh. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas. 12p.

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163321