TIME has come for the actors in the agricultural sector to heed the wakeup call that comes with the impact of climate change.
Whether or not we like it, things have now changed tremendously compared to what we saw of agriculture ten years before.
If I remember very well farmers were initially visited individually in UNIP days and then came the training and visit system, then the participatory extension approach and now the demand driven agricultural advisory services.
Sadly, few farmers are unaware that they have to demand for services they require from their extension workers.
Yet for some extension workers it could mean free time as long as the uninformed farmers cannot demand for their services.
However, the message I have for my friends in agricultural extension is that if farmers cannot demand for their services they will make themselves irrelevant, let alone phase themselves out.
Thinking outside the box by putting their services on demand will make the farmer justify their relevance.
If the extension worker is unable to see gaps in the farmers’ current technologies, no amount of funding will change anything.
ARNOLD SIKAONA – KASAMA (FORMER EXTENSION WORKER)
