Agricultural Extension

Agricultural extension has grown more collaborative, as suggested by this photograph of a farmer (second from left) consulting with an extension agent, a systems analyst, and a mechanical engineer about conditions in his peanut field in Terrell County, Georgia.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service

Drawing its name from the act of “extending” scientific knowledge to the general public, agricultural extension serves as the bridge between scientific research and farmers. Beginning in the late 19th century, government-funded agricultural schools and research stations developed practices and technologies that were then transferred to farmers by extensionists. This top-down model was used to disseminate new agricultural technologies and was vital to the scale-up of agriculture in the United States. A similar model of extension was used in the global South by colonial administrations and independent governments alike to increase export crop production. Cuts in government spending under structural adjustment led to the decline of government-funded extension and a growing role for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in many such countries. The failures of extension and new technologies to better the lives of small farmers led to calls for greater farmer participation and an overhaul of the top-down extension model. Its scope was expanded to include other aspects of rural development. Although top-down transfer of research and technology—and biotechnology, in particular—persists, agricultural extension has become a more collaborative and participatory practice, where farmer knowledge and experience play a significantly larger role.

[Page 18]The dissemination of agricultural information to farmers is as old as civilization itself. Bountiful harvests fed growing urban populations, provided tax revenue to governments, and fueled armies and the expansion of empires; rulers thus had a vested interest in ensuring good production. Examples of cropping calendars and recommendations for improved farming practices were widespread in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, and Rome. Agricultural research and extension began in China as early as the late Han Dynasty. In Europe, the development of printing technology led to the widespread distribution of treatises on crop and livestock husbandry during the Renaissance. During the Age of Enlightenment, agricultural clubs were founded by gentlemen farmers interested in applying scientific methods to production on their estates. By the early 19th century, itinerant agricultural teachers throughout Europe and North America were hired by landowners to educate their tenants on improved production techniques.