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In a rapidly changing world, farmers need a package of innovations and services, in addition to continuous access to knowledge and information. Having all this under one roof and in a rural setting can greatly accelerate adoption of innovations and increase benefits to farmers. Farmer training centres have been initiated by many actors, under different forms; for example, Maisons Familiales Rurales1, Songhaï Centres,2 and Agribusiness Development Centres. These initiatives focus on training young individuals and preparing them for a career in agriculture. However, they are less useful in serving the wider farming community for large scale adoption of agricultural innovations. Therefore, new models of community-based extension are under development.



  1. 80% of South Asia's poor live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Agricultural and rural development is key to eradicating poverty and creating conditions for sustainable and equitable growth. An effective and efficient extension and advisory service that offers a...
  2. African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) is a continental platform for mutual learning and innovation among agricultural extension and advisory services providers across Africa. The AFAAS’ goal is to enhance utilization of improved knowledge and innovations for improving...
  3. APEN offers members: a forum for professionals to share knowledge, information, skills and experience across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific the opportunity to join a mentoring scheme to help you improveskills and abilities and a network which opens doors to future employment...
  4. APIRAS — the Asia-Pacific Islands Rural Advisory Services Network— was organized in 2011 to serve as a platform for networking, advocacy, and capacity building for agricultural extension and rural advisory services (RAS) professionals and institutions in the Asia-Pacific Islands Region. Together...
  5. A memberof GFRAS
  6. The Caribbean Extension Provider's Network - CAEPNet is an organisation comprising of Extension service providers from the following countries in the region;Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia
  7. EUFRAS is a European network and representative association of public and private rural and agricultural extension serviceswhich is aligned to the global representative body for advisory servicesGFRASwith associations set up in many other continents. Scope of EUFRAS: Common mandate to assist...
  8. Many see rural advisory services (RAS), also called ‘extension’, as indispensable in efforts to improve agricultural production in smallholder farms in developing countries. However, development specialists have lamented that, bogged by infrastructural and logistical challenges, traditional RAS,...
  9. The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services GFRASis about enhancing the performance of advisory services so that they can better serve farm families and rural producers, thus contributing to improved livelihoods in rural areas and the sustainable reduction of hunger and poverty. Rural advisory...
  10. 06-10-2015 Speaker Bio: Paul E. McNamara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and he is a Visiting Member of the faculty of Njala University (Sierra Leone). McNamara...
  11. The Mekong Extension Learning Alliance (MELA) is a network under the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS)
  12. RELASER is the Latin American Rural Extension Services Network, created in October 2010, in Santiago de Chile.On that occasion, a group of public and private institutions,under the international leadership ofGFRAS(Global Forum for Global Advisory Services), decided to create a space for debate...
  13. The Southern African Regional Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services is a not for profit regional organization of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Systems (AEAS) in the Southern African region. SARFAAS aims at the enhanced utilization of improved knowledge and technologies by agricultural...
  14. From the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services The New Extensionist is a global view of extension and advisory services (EAS) that reinvents and clearly articulates the role of EAS in the rapidly-changing rural context. It argues for an expanded role for EAS within agricultural innovation...