National Agricultural Extension and Research Program Support Project

closed

The National Agricultural Extension and Research Program Support Project will seek to improve farmers' agricultural productivity and incomes through providing support to an integrated, farmer-orientated agricultural extension system and a demand-driven research system. The project consists of six components. First, the agricultural extension component will include participatory diagnosis of farmers' production problems, transfer of farming techniques, particularly to resource-poor and women farmers, and monitoring of the progress of extension and research activities. Second, the agricultural research component will strengthen IRAD (Agricultural Research Institute for Development) research capacity, support operating cost of on-station research work, and train IRAD research staff. The third component will support staff training, assess the market for private agricultural advisory services, and improve human resource management. The fourth component will assist to develop contacts between farmer groups and private sector supplies of agricultural inputs and crop processing equipment, traders, industrial purchasers of agricultural products. Fifth, the village community initiatives pilot project will assist village communities to identify and agree upon rural development priority problems and help the various services and development organizations to provide the quality services needed. The sixth component will support project implementation.