Effective and Inclusive Agricultural Extension Services in Coastal Bangladesh: Possible pathways
SenseMaker® Use Case
Use Case Description
Use Case Details

The work of IWMI, part of CGIAR and one of our programme members. The team has been using SenseMaker to collect on-the-ground experiences from Bangladesh farmers and agricultural extension agents. Agricultural extension is the process of bringing new research and practices from research to practice and implementation. Through this story collection, the team sought to explore inclusion and effectiveness in the process of agricultural extension. Explore what they have found regarding the reach and effect of training and the role of farmer drive and agency in adapting agriculture.

This study was carried out by the IWMI with funding by CGIAR as part of the Asian Mega-Deltas initiative and in collaboration with researchers from the Bangladesh Agricultural University. Bangladesh, a densely populated country with limited arable land, faces significant challenges in ensuring food and nutritional security. The agriculture sector is crucial, employing 40.6% of the workforce and contributing substantially to the national economy, as well as to the food security and self-sufficiency of millions of smallholder farmers. Smallholders make up approximately 92% of the farming community.

Extension services, enabling farmers’ access to information and technology are a key part of this landscape. While public extension agents are still primary sources for inputs like seeds, fertilizers, irrigation pumps, and machinery to farming communities at free or subsidized rates (BARC 2023), public and private sectors, including input traders and marketing agents, increasingly serve as crucial intermediaries.

New developments in extension services are, however, not equally accessible to all. The adoption of new technology and new agricultural practices is said to be lower among smallholders. Moreover, women, who play a key role in agriculture, tend to be further excluded from access to and availability of new technological innovations and extension services. Our focus in this study was to further understand the agriculture extension gaps, particularly for resource-poor smallholders (least control over land and natural resources) and women.

This leads to the formation of our two main research question that this report will keep returning to, and summarise the findings in relation to at the end:

1. Are extension services inclusive, and:

2. Are extension services effective?

This report is a thorough and comprehensive presentation of the data and patterns collected through SenseMaker through the viewpoint of those two questions.

Explore the overview report of SenseMaker® data:https://thecynefin.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AgriculturalExtension_OverviewReport.pdf

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