Currently, agricultural extension system in Iran is experiencing a radical change to make extension system more effective in helping farmers to be more productive, profitable and sustainable. Basic principles for reinventing agricultural extension are: 1) Focusing on small farmers and enhancing the access to public and private services in agriculture; 2) Starting from grass root level and people/farmer's needs/issues and their demands; 3) Learning from past experiences and develop our own methodology and model of extension; 4) Benefiting from emerging paradigm, latest theories and experiences to inform our collective action. Iranian agricultural extension system has been formulated 8 master strategies to reinforce the changes in the delivery extension services: 1) Restructuring the extension system; 2) Renovation of all extension sites for optimized exploitation and management of facilities and capacities; 3) Human resource development through promotion of training scales and employment of skilled staff at institutional levels; 4) Reorganization of extension media aiming at reconsideration in their context and connection to the clientele; 5) Networking agricultural knowledge and information system to enjoy information and communication technology and further dissemination in the sector; 6) Restructuring and developing of production cooperatives to identify the bottlenecks and formulate new policies for improvement; 7) Studying and assessing farming systems to discover the ongoing status at all sub-sectors concerned; 8) Reorganizing and expansion of non-governmental institutions in agriculture sector. The most important new programs of extension services are: Integrated Participatory Crop Management (IPCM), Comprehensive Production and Extension Model Sites (CPEM) and Learning Focus Sites (LFS). In all of these activities, extension administration tries to delivery innovation and empowers the small farmer in order to increase the agricultural productivity. Mostly these programs are Local community based, farmers-led and village based, capacity building activities, environmental friendly, multi- stakeholder activities, Integrated Management system, impact assessment, and innovative platform activities
For better efforts in development of the farming community, agricultural extension services have always focused on farmers’ resources, activities and capabilities. And this has proved to be an important standing point in the rice growing state Tripura of North East...
In order to realize the potential of agricultural innovation in family farming, national priorities of sustainably increasing food production and productivity, and reducing hunger and poverty, require rural knowledge institutions to be stronger and communication processes to be improved. This...
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) partnered with the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) in 2011 to conduct a series of policy dialogues on the prioritization of demand-driven agricultural research for development in South Asia. Dialogues were conducted...
The innovation system perspective acknowledges the contributions made by all stakeholders involved in knowledge development, dissemination and appropriation. According to the specific agricultural production system, farmers adopt innovations, modify them or innovate on their own. This paper examines the role...
The paper, prepared for the "High Level Policy Dialogue on Investment in Agricultural Research for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific" (Bangkok Thailand; 8-9 December 2015), presents the Common Framework on Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (CDAIS).The framework is a...
