Ejisu Municipal Director of Agriculture, Dr. David Anambam, has bemoaned the lack of agricultural extension officers in the country.
Extension officers act as facilitators and sources of information, helping farmers to make decisions and ensure that appropriate knowledge is correctly applied to obtain the best results.
According to him, data available indicate that the ratio of extension officers to farmers in the country is minimal – that is, one extension officer oversees about 1,500 farmers nationwide.
This situation, Dr. Anambam said, is worrying as it affects the output of farmers – who tend to continue using outdated farming methodologies without proper advice.
In an interview with the B&FT, Dr. Anambam highlighted some of the negative effects of not having enough extension officers on farming activities and underscored their importance to growth of the agricultural sector.
He noted that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) accepts at least one extension officer to 500 farmers – meaning the country is still far below the FAO standards and must put in efforts to meet them.
“Averagely, it is 1,500 farmers against one Extension Officer – meaning in three months an officer is supposed to visit 4,500 farmers. The extension officer is crucial for farmers to do better, because they educate them on challenges like climate change impact on farmers, using the right technology, and transfer of knowledge and technology. Farmers have been doing their work already for years, but the extension officer is there to help them improve by employing modern farming practices,” he said.
However, Dr. Anambam believes that going forward opinion leaders, including the farmers themselves, can be formally trained to act as extension officers since they have the practical knowledge – so adding the theoretical aspect to them can bridge the gap.
“The extension officers are so scarce, and what we must do is a training programme whereby we bring the farmers on board; this can help the farmers a lot. It will help them apply their experience to the theory, and that will improve their welfare and income.
“We can also try to re-demarcate our farmer population in the various districts. We have the opinion leaders whom we train locally and they act like extensions of the officer to farmers. The problem with farmers these days is that they want to hide what they do best from their colleagues as if it is a competition, and that doesn’t help,” he said.
