The Impact of Strengthening Agricultural Extension Services : Evidence from Ethiopia
Extension services have been implemented on a large scale in developing countries for decades. However, there is little evidence on their impact on the productivity and welfare of farmers. Our study aims to begin to fill this evidence gap with the...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/788651524747997140/The-impact-of-strengthening-agricultural-extension-services-evidence-from-Ethiopia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29743 |
| Summary: | Extension services have been implemented
on a large scale in developing countries for decades.
However, there is little evidence on their impact on the
productivity and welfare of farmers. Our study aims to begin
to fill this evidence gap with the goal of identifying and
encouraging the uptake of best practices for the delivery of
extension services by governments.Our findings suggest that
strengthening extension services to make them more
responsive to the needs of farmers can induce a switch to
more commercial, market-oriented agriculture.Female-headed
households seem to have benefited equally from the extension
services project but it did not contribute to reducing the
gender gap in agricultural outcomes as their initial levels
of wealth and consumption, as well as labor and capital
endowments were lower.Additional research is required to
identify extension services designs that contribute to
closing the gender gap, by addressing more specifically the
challenges faced by women in areas such as labor and capital endowment. |
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