Overview of Agricultural and Rural Extension Frameworks; Options

for Institutional reforms in Ghana

Paper Submitted to the GIMPA Journal of Leadership, Management, And

Administration

By

Abdul-Nasser Salifu

Lecturer at

(GIMPA Business School)

October, 2011

Abstract

After a long history of various extension programmes in Ghana, the current National

Agricultural Extension Project (NAEP) started in 1992. The main extension system under the

NAEP is the Training and Visit (T&V) system. This system is based on transfer of technology to

famers for increased productivity. The capacity of small holder farmers to take advantage of

these new innovations depends on many factors including the educational level of men and

women farmers; their household resources, access to markets, the availability of local producer

organisations and their willingness to collaborate with new producer groups.Human and social

capital development of the extension chain is growingly becoming cardinal to the

accomplishement of the mandate of agriculture. It is the focus of this paper to identify important

issues within the agricultural and rural extension service institutions that have contributed

directly to the use of these innovations in improving rural livelihoods and in educating farmers

to use sustainable natural resource management practices for poverty reduction and attainment

of major development objectives.One hundred and thirty Extensions workers (130) sampled for

this study ranked human and social capital frameworks as more vital to the improvement of rural

livelihoods than the traditional transfer of technology technique employed by the extension

directorate. The study also thus provides empirical evidence to conclude that a very high

correlation exist between human and social capital frameworks within the Ghanaian extension

process. The findings suggests that human and social capital should be more recognised by

policy makers as key issues in the extension and rural development process hampering (when

weak) or supporting (when strong) the implementation of agricultural and rural development

policies in Ghana. This paper advocates a shift in emphasis from technology transfer approach

to human and social capital development approach with specific attention on increasing

management skills and knowledge that poorly educated farm households need to double

household income. The continuing market intergration has made it necessary to consider

business management of farms with public extension systems focusing on post harvest handling

of produce and organisation of small scale farmers into viable entities.

Introduction

Agriculture is the backbone of the Ghanaian economy and the major source of income for rural

populations. The importance of agricultural and rural extension to agricultural development is

reflected in the government’s strategic policy documents, Vision 2020 and the Accelerated

Agricultural Growth and Development Strategy (AAGDS). These strategies supported by

agricultural and rural extension services, are envisaged to contribute to the achievement of

average agriculture sector growth of 6% per annum expected to raise total GDP growth from 5%

to annual average of 8% (MOFA).

In Ghana, most farming is characterised by small holder farming and traditional production

methods with large scale commercial farming almost non-existent in most rural communities. As

a result, the implementation of the National Agricultural Extension Project (NAEP) started in

1992 has focused on transfer of improved technology to small-scale farmers with the view to

raising subsistence farming into commercial farming.

According to Swanson (2008), eventhough this traditional role has served many purposes in the

past, there is growing evidence that extension services aimed at improving the human and social

capital of rural populations is the primary driver for agricultural development in sub-saharan

Africa. He argues further that, developing the Agricultural Knowledge Innovations System

(AKIS) within agricultural and rural development framework, will significantly increase the

knowledge and skills of farmers in post harvest handling of high value crops. More importantly,

it will further enhance the leadership and organizational skills of beneficiaries for establishing

commodity specific organisations (CBOs), Socio-economic and Gender Based Organisations

(GBOs), Natural Resource Management Based Organisations (NBOs), Farmer Co-operatives and

Youth Based Organisations (YBOs) in Ghana.

As Extension is not only limited to increased food production, extension and rural development

programmes should be broadened to also capture the actual needs of small scale farmers. In

Ghana for example, agricultural extension’s role is not only to benefit farmers technologically

but also socially, economically and financially. Human and Social capital development

frameworks as opposed to the transfer of technology reflect and serve the diversity of small-scale

farmers’ real needs, which the public extension system often overlooks due to institutional gaps.

Mordern management advisory services through individual farmer group needs is thus adapted to

improve rural livelihoods. Farmer groups must boost their knowledge in farm management in

order to adapt to demands of market economy and improve profitability.

The extension system that builds the human and social capital of small holder farmers is the most

rewarding rural extension measure to beneficiaries in Ghana. It also has a lasting impact on

agricultural production, food security and enviromental management goals. Farm management

extension must focus on all management possibilities of putting technology intervention into

practice for improved access to inputs, commercial marketing channels and enviromental

sustainability (CTA 1997).

The need for enhancing the human and social capital development in extension work becomes

imperative as major changes plague the agricultural and rural development sector in recent years.

Some of the major changes include the success of the Green Revolution increasing the world’s

food supply, the growth of the commercial farm sector particularly in the developed countries;

and trade liberalization, which is contributing to a rapidly developing world food system with

lasting effects on developing countries (World Bank, 2006).

Other internal changes such as the decentralization of Ministry of Food and Agriculture in 1987,

rationalisation of public extension delivery under the national Unified Agricultural Extension

Services (UAES) initiative and withdrawal of MoFA from the procurement and distribution of

agricultural inputs including microfinance and micro enterprise development of rural societies

have also impacted the extension frameworks. According to Adusei (2004), these changes

(internal and external) have a significant bearing on the quality and timeliness of extension

services delivery to small holder farmers. This supports the ealier assertion by Fiadjoe (2000),

that these changes have proved the existing extension frameworks inefficient and has called for

alternate approaches in agricultural and rural extension delivery in Ghana.

It is the point of view of extension scholars that, as more and more production technologies

become private goods and as an increasing percentage of farmers become commercialized

producers, other extension approaches such as the Farmer Field Schools, Outgrower Schemes,

Community Livestock Worker Model, Vocational Farmer Training, Input Supply Extension,

Contract extension will become much more significant to public extension institutions in Ghana.

Accordingly, rural households will be further burdened to find more effective ways of improving

livelihoods if the cumulative effects of these changes are not immediately tackled by a new

public exension policy framework.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new framework for understanding this process with

different roles and approaches that public, private and civil society organisations in Ghana

including Non-Govermental Organisations (NGOs), Private Voluteer Organisations (PVOs) and

Farmer-Based Organisations (FBOs) can play to attain primary goals of increasing food security,

improving rural livelihoods and ensuring the sustainability of natural enviroment.

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS

The term extension was first used to describe adult education programmes in England in the

second half of the 19th Century; these programmes helped extend the work of the universities

beyond campus and into the neighbouring communities (Blackburn, 1984). The term was later

adopted in the United States with the establishement of land grant universities that included

research activities, extension activities as part of the official university mandate to the teaching

function. During the same period the mandate was transferred to the Ministry of Food and

Agriculture.

During the 20th century, most public extension systems in developing countries like Ghana were

centrally funded and top-down in structure. The primary focus was on national food security and

as green revolution technologies became available, extension had a positive impact on

agricultural productivity by helping transfer technologies to small-scale farmers on food

production. Food security targets at national levels were largely achieved throughout the world.

However, while the global supply of major food crops increased during the 1990’s, world food

prices have followed a continous declining trend weakening the income of small-smale farmers

(FAO, 2010). Likewise the record prices for oil and gas contribute directly to the upward trend in

prices for key agricultural inputs, especially fertilizer and fuel in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana,

the increasing concern about the impact of climate change on the socio-economic lives of small

scale farmers as well as the continuing degradation of natural resources in selected communities

have become topical to national planning commission.

Rural development scholars believe these emerging trends can be expected to directly impact

small-scale farmers’ access to basic food products and livelihood. In Ghana, increasing farm

income and rural employment can have immediate and direct impact on increasing food security

at the household level. In most sub-Saharan countries agricultural and rural extension

management studies reveal that, food insecurity is largely a money problem rather than a food

availability problem (Swanson, 2006).

Understanding Agricultural and Rural Extension Delivery in Ghana

Agricultural Extension delivery in Ghana is largely a system of nonformal education. As such, it

is a field of profesional education practice aimed at;

Teaching farmers in their own context and life situasions, how to identify and assess their

own development needs and problems;

Helping them acquire the knowledge and skills required to cope effectively with those

development needs and problems; and

Inspiring them to action; Agricultural Extension education ideally occurs in settings of

Ghana whereby the problems and concerns of those to be helped provide the base for the

instruction that occurs. To help clients in their own context and with their own concerns,

Agricultural Extension at its best focuses on attempting to improve the human condition.

It endeavours to help clients “convince themselves” of the potential merits of scientific

information, new technologies, improved practices and alternative approaches to

managing their own affairs. Extension also undertakes to link clients with evolving

research-based and tested knowledge, technologies, procedures and perspectives that may

be in their own interest and potentially useful to their own purposes. Extension’s mission

in Ghana, is to help Ghanaian’s, in their own social and cultural context, to become more

capable of coping with and solving their own problems.

In Ghana, although Agricultural extension efforts are geared towards the needs of resource-poor

and the socially disadvantaged segments of the society much remains to be done in clearly

defining the parameters of this field. For example what are the unifying elements that comprise a

nucleus for Extension efforts in Ghana?. Those elements are a set beliefs and principles held,

explicitly, or implicitly, by extensionists about what is valuable; how the world works; and how

we can understand, predict and, to a certain extent, control events in the natural world.

Identifying these beliefs and principles in Ghana, should lead us to formulating a new working

philosophy for agricultural extension practice that will address emerging challenges related to

human and social capital frameworks.

Towards a Pluralistic Agricultural and Rural Extension System in Ghana

During the last half century of the 20th century, a number of different extension models and

approaches were promoted by different donors and other organisations, with differing levels of

impacts in the developing world. After most sub-saharan countries achieved independence, most

national extension systems were within the Ministries of Food and Agriculture, and these

agencies were top-down, multifunctional systems that limited resources with little attention given

to resource-poor farmers.

Rogers (2003) argues that the focus was on higher-resource farmers, because they were the

“innovators” and “early adopters” of new technologies. The Training and Visit (T&V) extension

approach (Benor & Harrison, 1977) was built on this model and addressed some of the primary

management issues associated with achieving national food security. However, as outlined by

Anderson, Feder and Ganguly (2006), this model proved to be unsustainable after donor

financing ended in most developing countries.

In response to this T &V extension model, other extension approaches have been tried and tested

during the past decades. These include participatory approaches to agricultural extension which

were espected to build extension-farmer partnerships, engage local farmers in setting extension

programme priorities and to refocus extension activities on the needs of these farmers. Van den

Berg et al (2007) contend that these approaches did not address the structural problem of top-

down extension.

During the early 1980’s, the Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR/E) approach was

initiated to examine current farming systems and then seek ways of increasing the productivity of

these intergrated production systems and forge better linkages between research and extension. A

primary problem faced by this approach is that these efforts were marginally financed because

they were not perceived to be the core functions of extension research (Rivera & Qamar, 2003).

Other rural development models emerged during this period including the integrated rural

development (IRD) programmes that expanded the focus of extension beyond merely increasing

agricultural productivity to improving rural livelihoods. The focus was still largely on

technologies rather than markets. Swanson (2008) report that the participatory and IRD

programmes were a prelude to the emerging trends especialy in transitional countries, where the

focus has clearly shifted to improving rural livelihood within decentralized, farmer-led, market-

driven agricultural extension governance and institutions.

In Ghana, one of the major difficulties with the public institutions is the difficulty in bringing

about institutional change. In practice, bureaucracies in Agricultural institutions of Ghana change

slowly unless there is a major policy intervention at the national level or, more likely if donors

initiate such institutional changes from the outside. Most senior level government managers of

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) run an extension system as bureaucratic institution

and most are resistant to change.

Another problem is the current resource base within the Directorate of Agricultural Extension

Services (DAES) of MOFA, including the current number of extension staff and their level of

training. Salifu (2009) stresses that Ghana has a retinue of extension staff needing information

required mainly for gaining background information for agricultural enterprises, teaching and

communication of research findings to smale- scale farmers who need information to intensify

their cultivation as land size dimishes. He argues further that there is a need for building

extension staff capacity regarding new technologies, so they can deliver extension services in a

more competent manner.

Yet another major problem in Ghana is the current physical, operational and communication

infrastucture within MOFA including lack of in-service training facilities and poorly equipped

agricultural extension staff at the national levels (Anderson, 2007). For example, most regional

(DAES) do not have sufficient operational funds, especially at the field level to cover routine

travel, communication and training costs; therefore many routine extension activities do not get

to targeted beneficiaries. The assignment carried out by extension staff in Ghana, are defined by

senior-level managers and not by the farmers being served.

As a result of these resource and management problems, different types of organisational

arrangements have been tried over the past decades. NGOs and Private Voluntary Organisations

(PVOs) are increasingly involved in rural development programmes thereby privatising

extension services. One of the major advantages of private extension firms is their ability to stay

on the focus, to hire staff they need to carry out a defined task and then manage their resources

efficiently.

Its worthnoting that in moving from technology transfer oriented extension system that is

designed to increase agricultural productivity to a new strategy that seeks to improve rural

livelihoods by increasing farm income and rural employment, significant changes will be

required in the focus, management structure and approach of planning and implementing

extension programmes in the public extension system.

Another major factor is the rapid increase in the economic growth occuring in most sub-Saharan

African countries. The majority of this economic growth is occuring in urban areas, creating an

increasing demand for fruit, vegetables, livestock and fisheries products. This growing demand

for high value products offers important market and employment for rural farm households in

Ghana. However, if small –scale farmers are to produce high value crops they must learn about

new production, processing and marketing to determine whether they can sucessfully pursue one

or more of these new enterprises.

Human and Social Development Frameworks in Extension Process

Agricultural and Rural Extension programmes are people-oriented programmes. The focus of

agricultural extension is on human beings not plants, cattle or vitamins. Extension encourages

farmers to adopt new practices, to improve their communities, and serve in leadership roles. And

whether it is recognised or not, many of the concepts and ideas that are basic to Extension

practitioner roles today are rooted in the social sciences.

Almost from the start such concepts as community, leadership, the social action process and

adoption and diffusion have been a part of the repertoire of skills. They have become almost

second nature for a successful extension staff and are seen as professionalism crucial to the

success of agricultural development programmes in Ghana. And yet with the realization that

these programmes primarily deal with “people” problems, most professional Extension staff are

trained in the physical and biological sciences.

Often their knowledge of the social sciences in Ghana is limited to one or more introductory

Agriculture college courses, some limited in-service, and an abundance of trial and error

experiences. As we review the contribution of social sciences to agricultural development

programming, two categories emerged: those concepts that help extensionists to better

understand the nature of our social enviroment and those that they use to bring about change.

The concepts that we need to understand in our social enviroment are such things as the farm

family, farm community, organisations and the make-up of the rural population. The concepts of

change are adoption and diffusion, the social action process, decision making, small group

dynamics and public policy education. All these are applicable in the areas of agricultural and

rural extension programe delivery.

In bringing about change, extension staff transmits ideas, attitudes and values to clients; share

information; and establish recuring social order within Ghanaian farm communities. Historically

a great deal of the success of the extension’s educational programmes could be attributed to the

trust and confidence placed in staff. Extension staff constitutes the primary groups of local

communities where they work.

Today, formal agricultural organisations establish more structured relationships among their

members. Such organisations are generally created to perform specific goals. Relationships in

formal organisations often evolve into hierarchical decision-making arrangements. A division of

labour and a written set of rules and regulations. In otherwords, they elect officers from

committees and adopt constitutional and by-laws. This brings us to the concepts of power and

leadership in farmer-based organisations.

Power in extension organisations is the ability to influence client actions, to control their

behaviour. It allows some extension workers to impose their will on farmers. Authority as

applied in this sense is the legitimate use of power, or in other words, the sanctioning of a farmer

to act as a formal leader of an FBO. When members elect an officer of FBO, they are

establishing his or her right to serve in a leadership capacity. Influence under these settings on

the other hand, is the exercise of informal power (Hall, 1977). They occupy no formal position in

the formal decision-making hierarchy, but have acquired their power base in FBO through such

factors as wealth, family ties, tradition and age.

Agricultural extension work attempts to identify current leaders and to help promising clients

develop into leaders, anticipating that such clients will use those leadership skills to improve not

only their personal situasions but also the conditions of the members they lead. By relying on

this leader-based approach, Extension is expecting these leaders to spread the impact of its

programmes beyond people directly reached by staff members. In addition, there is an

expectation that leaders will exercise their newly acquired skills in many positive ways well

beyond the scope of the Extension programme.

Therefore, leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an organised group in tasks of

goal setting and goal achievements (Stogdill, 1958). This defintion indicates that leadership is an

aspect of organisation in that it increases the organisational member’s ability to plan and produce

effectively. It also suggests that someone is willing and able to exert influence on group

members. In otherwords, leadership in extension work is concerned with both the leader and the

organisation.

There are many conceptual frameworks used to describe leadership in agricultural development

work. One developed by Vandenberg, et al. (1986) summarizes five perspectives. They are the

trait, behavioral, situasion-contingency, transactional and attributional approaches. The trait

approach contends that there are specific personality characteristics that enable an extension

manager to influence the behaviour of group members. In otherwords leadership abilities can be

explained by the presence of certain leadership traits.

Research studies have focused on identifying these traits. For example, stogdill (1948) examined

literature on the relationship between leadership and psychological traits and came up with 124

individual items. He grouped these into 29 leadership traits, which he then reduced even further

to six characteristics: intelligence, assertiveness, self-confidence, energy, task-relevant ability

and sociability.

This approach has been strongly criticed for ignoring situasional factors, the make up of the

group and other influences. Never the less Extension staff regularly identify existing leaders

based on their individual characteristics. Furthermore, many of the extension leadership training

programmes strive to develop leaders through enhancing individual competencies such as self-

confidence, communication and human relations skills. Although researchers have been unable

to agree on a universal list of leadership traits, most would agree that leaders are distinguished

from followers on the basis of certain traits.

The second approach to leadership is on leader’s behaviour. Leadership is viewed as a set of

behaviours that influences group actions. Like leadership traits, reseaerch efforts have attempted

to identify behaviour that is consistently corrected with effective leadership.The behavioural

approach to leadership is probably most widely recognised by the term “leadership styles”. An

early description of leadership behaviour (Lewin, et al., 1939) referred to as Lewin’s triangle,

cites three main leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, and “laissez-faire”.

Other taxonomies have expanded this list. For example one that is widely used in extension

circles describes five leadership styles (Robinson and Cliford 1972): abdicator, activator,

cavalier, controller and martyr. Training programmes therefore encourage clients to utilize

appropriate leader behaviour based on the needs of the group.

The third approach to leadership in extension practice is the situasion contingency perspective.

According to this view of leadership, the leader’s traits and behaviour are still important, but a

crucial element is added; the situational context. Effective leadership depends on the proper

match between the traits and behaviour of the leader and the needs of the group. That is,

effective leadership depends on the ability of the leader to diagnose the group’s needs and adjust

to satisfy those needs.

The need to analyze a situasion and adjust one’s behaviour accordingly has long been a guiding

principle in all Extension’s work. Theorectically, situasional contingency approach to leadership

prescribes the appropriate leadership behaviour for a specific set of circumstances. However, in

reality, even if a leader is capable of analyzing a wide variety of situasional factors and is skilled

at utilizing different behavioral styles, at its best, he or she has only a rough idea of the most

appropriate leadership behaviour to use. Eventhough situasional –contingency models have not

provided a complete explanation of leadership, this approach has netherleless taught Agric

development workers in Ghana, the importance of considering the effect of situasional factors;

the need to identify and understand not just the leader’s role, but also group members role; and

the value of adjusting one’s behaviour to fit the situasion.

The fourth perspective- the transactional approach is based on the assumption that leadership is a

process by which leaders and group members interact. The theorectical bases are found in

exchange theory in which the leader engages in transaction or exchanges with individual group

members. Leaders must show their competence and trustworthiness to earn the respect of

followers. From this perspective, leadership is the interchange of leaders and group members, not

just the leader influencing the farmer group.

The transactional approach is a very important concept for the educational and decentralized

tradition of extension. This perspective suggests that, rather than spending all our efforts training

leaders, we should also take time to train and inform the followers. Successful leaders after all

depend on effective followers.

The fifth perspective of leadership is the attribution approach. This socio-psychologically based

construct emphasizes perception of leadership by both leaders and followers. Quite simply, “ an

effective leader in extension work is one who is perceived to be effective by clients”

( Vandenberg, et al 1986). Thus, leadership is a role described by others and their perception of

its effectiveness. It is not merely an objective concept to be defined and measured outside of its

context, but is a concept that has meaning attributed to it by the persons involved.

Historically, most leadership studies sought to identify an objective list of leadership traits and

behaviours. This fifth perspective questions the validity of such research and suggests that such

an objective approach may not be meaningful. Instead, it may be necessary to increase our

attention to the contextual setting in which leadership in extension work is found and focus on

how perceptions are formed.

None of these five approaches to leadership is complete in itself; however, each offers a unique

perspective and accompanying insight to agricultural development work. Our responsibilty is to

draw from these concepts the ideas we can use as we develop agricultural and rural development

programmes that depend on effective leadership in Ghana.

Research Data and Methodology

The methodology combined qualitative and quantitative methods in the data gathering process,

analysis and interpretation of empirical results. The study employed a survey design to gain

information from Extension workers and key informants in fifteeen selected rural communities

representing the five different ecological zones of Ghana. In each zone within a district, two

MOFA operational areas were covered to elicit respondents’ view on twenty items identified by

situational analysis, literature review, personal experience and panel of experts as cardinal

variables related to human and social capital development in the agricultural and rural

development process of Ghana.

Extension workers indicated their responses on a five-point likert continuum of Strongly Agree,

Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. This scale was assigned scores of 5,4,3,2 and 1,

respectively. A five-point likert scale type enables a researcher to identify proportion of

respondents taking a neutral position on a perceptive statement in agricultural and rural

development qualitative enquiry (Clason & Dormody, 2011).

Prior to the operationalisation of this instrument, a pilot test was conducted on four (4) extension

workers in the Dangbe-west district who were not part of the study. The data collected from the

pilot study was entered into spss datafile to generate the alpha co-efficient for the sub-scales of

the construct employed by this anlysis. The cronbach alpha co-efficient of 0.76 was derived from

the computer analysis. The test showed that the items on instrument were internally consistent

and 76 percent reliable for data collection on the human and social capital framework for

agricultural and rural development compared to the minimum of 0.50 suggested by Numally

(1967).

The results of this study are based on completed questionnaires from one hundred and thirty

(130) randomly selected extension workers participating in an evaluation study. Those selected

were full time workers of MOFA and Private Volunteer Organisations very convesant with the

FASDEP II, METASIP strategic policy documents for Accelerated Agricultural Growth and

Development Strategy (AAGDS) designed to increase the sector’s annual growth rate to 6

percent per annum based on the long term strategic programme for Ghana ‘Vision 2020’.

Participatory methods of enquiry including the focused group discussions were used to gather the

necessary primary data used in this study.

Method of Data Analysis.

Data was sorted, coded and entered into spreadsheet on the computer using Excel software. This

was then later imported into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows

version 16.0. By looking at trends and commonalities indicated in short answer forms,

descriptive statistics were used to analyze the gathered quantitative data. These included

frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations and Pearson r significant tests.

Results & Discussions

Introduction.

This section presents empirical data on human and social capital development within agricultural

and rural extension delivery. It also determines the degree of association between these two

significant frameworks along the extension delivery chain.

Human Capital Development in Agricultural and Rural Extension Work

This aspect of the study measured perception of extension workers towards the variables

identified to contribute to human capital development in Ghana. This accomplishes the second

specific objective of the study.

Table1. Ranking Mean of Extension workers perceptions towards Human Capital

Development in Agricultural and Rural Extension work (N=130)

Items VariablesMin Max Mean Std

Deviation1 Diversification into selected High value crops,

livestock and fisheries products1.00 5.00 3.47 1.25

2 Post-harvest handling of agricultural produce 1.00 5.00 4.12 1.213 Meeting product quality and traceability

standards for export1.00 5.00 2.85 1.44

4 Agricultural mechanisation, water management, and protective cover crops

1.00 5.00 3.58 1.23

5 Gaining acess to and learning how to use market information

1.00 5.00 2.70 1.21

6 Information technology skills and knowledge on precision farming

1.00 5.00 2.99 1.19

7 Natural Resource management skills on land management

1.00 5.00 2.80 1.02

8 Natural Resource Management skills on water management including drip and irrigation systems

1.00 5.00 2.82 1.03

9 Climate change implications on agricultural production systems

1.00 5.00 2.82 0.93

10 Biological management and biodiversity conservation for livestock production

1.00 5.00 2.82 1.34

Strongly Agree=5, Agree=4, Neutral=3, Disagree=2, Strongly Disagree=1

Table 1 clearly illustrates perceptions towards human capital development in agricultural and

rural development work. As can be seen, the effective building of small scale farmers capacity in

post-harvest handling of agricultural produce (4.12) can go along way to enhancing rural

livelihoods in most Ghanain farm families. This may be due to the fact that staple foods after

production need processing in order to meet stringent market standards and specifications.

Increased knowledge in grading and packaging could enhance the value of primary produce to

attract higher income on the competitive agro-market. Further, improved knowledge and skills

through training on mordern storage techniques of staple foods in Ghana will farmers to draw

maximum profits from the sale of produce during the seasons when food prices are higher. In

order for farmers to draw maximum profits from agriculture the sustainance of the natural

enviroment must be ensured as production is directly linked to soil fertility. However small scale

farmers are still not enviromentally conscious of the hazards of poor agricultural practices to the

enviroment including land and water mangement techniques (2.85). The implication is that

climate change management in Ghana is still a major knowledge gap that must be narrowed for

improved rural livelihoods.

Social Capital Development in Agricultural and Rural Extension Work

This section contends that to improve rural livelihoods, achieve food security at the household

levels and transform rural communities in Ghana, it is essential to organise farmers, farm women

and rural youth into different groups of farmer-based organisations.

Table 2. Ranking Mean of Extension workers perceptions towards Social Capital

Development in Agricultural and rural extension work (N=130)

Items Variables Min Max Mean Std

Deviation1 Organising farm families into commodity-

specific producer groups1.00 5.00 2.93 1.02

2 Organising farm families into Socio-economic producer groups

1.00 5.00 3.03 1.05

3 Organising farm families into Watershed or irrigation management organisations

1.00 5.00 2.85 0.94

4 Organising farm families into gender-based farm organisation

1.00 5.00 3.63 1.19

5 Organising farm families into Farmer co-operatives for input supply

1.00 5.00 4.15 0.98

6 Organising farm families into Rural Youth organisations

1.00 5.00 3.66 4.53

7 Farm organisations for management of favourable policy enviroment for FBO support

1.00 5.00 3.65 1.11

8 Organisations for strengthening Linkages between Research ansd Extension institutions

1.00 5.00 3.89 1.00

9 Organisations for strengthening technical and management capacity of FBO as partners of Research

1.00 5.00 3.76 1.20

10 Building Public-Private partnerships with FBOs to serve in Rural areas

1.00 5.00 3.61 0.93

Strongly Agree=5, Agree=4, Neutral=3, Disagree=2, Strongly Disagree=1

Table 2 shows the ranking mean of extension workers’ perceptions to the social capital

development framework which is the third objective of this study. To this end, the researchers

have asked questions on 10 items related to different farmer groups as shown in the Table. The

highest mean ranks respectively relate to the organisation of farm families into farmer co-

operatives ( 4.17) and youth organisations (3.66) whiles the lowest mean refers to organisation of

farm families into watershed or irrigation management organisations (2.85). This means that

building the leadership, organisational and financial management skills of farmers and rural

youth to effectively manage farmer co-operatives and rural youth organisations is a better option

for institutions to consider for enhanced extension delivery in Ghana. The implication is that

small and medium scale farmer co-operatives and rural youth organisations should develop

linkages with input suppliers and markets through their respective so they can reduce

transportation costs for inputs especially fertilizer. With the inception of the fertilizer subsidy

programme and block farm concept, these social networks will invariably improve the

effectiveness and efficiency of the agricultural extension system seeking to extension services to

contact farmers engaged in these new MOFA initiatives.

Correlation between Human and Social Capital Development

In addition to transfer of technologies, human and social capital development of farm households

to be able to benefit from these new improved techniques constitute important functions of the

agricultural and rural extension work. These are fundamental to increasing the technical and

management skills of all types of farm households in Ghana in view of the fact that most

subsistence farm households lack basic education to enhance their knowledge and skills for

improved livelihoods. Organising farm families into viable organisations as an institutional

measure could be an effective instrument for building long-term capital within rural communities

for enhanced public extension delivery in Ghana.

Table 3. Correlation between Human and Social Capital Development in Agricultural and

Rural Extension work (N=130)

Items Human Capital Development scoresX

SocialCapitalDevelopmentScoresY

X2 Y2 XY

1 3.47 2.93 12.04 8.59 10.172 4.12 3.03 16.97 9.18 12.483 2.85 2.85 8.12 8.12 8.124 3.58 3.63 12.82 13.18 13.005 2.70 4.15 7.29 17.22 11.056 2.99 3.66 8.94 13.40 10.947 2.80 3.65 7.84 13.32 10.228 2.82 3.89 7.95 15.13 10.979 2.82 3.76 7.95 14.14 10.6010 2.82 3.61 7.95 13.03 10,14

X=30.97 Y=35.16 X2=97.82 Y2=125.31 XY=107.69

r = N XY- ( X)( Y)

√{N X² -(X)2 } {N Y² -(Y)2}

r is the pearson’s correlation co-efficient.

r = 12911.1

13304.4

r = +0.97.

Table 3 provides an indication of the correlation between human and social capital development

in agricultural and extension rural extension work. Pearson co-efficient (r), a measure of

association between human and social capital variables on a likert scale was found to be + 0.97.

The tested value of r, at 0.05 (two tailed probability) for a sample size of 130 corresponds to

0.256. This means that the minimum level of r required to be statistically significant at p=0.05 is

0.256. A co-efficient of +0.97 is positive and indicates a very a strong correlation between

human and social capital development in agricultural and rural extension work. The implication

is that increased knowledge of farm households on new techniques of food production,

processing and marketing of agricultural produce will shift attitudes towards organisation into

farmer-based producer groups for enhanced extension delivery. The study concludes that the

greater the knowledge and skills of farm households the higher their chances of belonging to a

farmer based organisation in Ghana. The implication is that most farmer-based organisations

serve the needs of commercial farmers rather than subsistence farmers who constitute over 90

percent of the Ghanaian farming population.

Conclusion

Agricultural and Rural Extension work in Ghana is constrained by weak co-ordination between

public and private enterprises in agriculture, lack of coverage of remote farming areas due to the

high farmer-to-extension agent ratio, and little motivation for extension agents.Transforming a

largely technology –driven extension system into a more market-driven farmer-led system in

Ghana depends on the educational level and skills of senior-level extension staff. There is no

agricultural university in the country and most extension directors and senior staff have a

minimum of a B.sc degree and some may also have post-graduate degrees.

For extension systems to link research, subject –matter specialist (SMS) are expected to have a

minimum of M.Sc. degree but many still have B.Sc. degrees only. An even more critical issue is

their subject matter expertise. As the public extension system give more emphasis to high-value

crops, livestock and fishery enterprises, most SMS will need a different set of skills and

expertise. For example if farmers want to produce pawpaw, they will need to know whre they

can get planting material and about the production management practices to follow in supplying

intended markets during a specific window of opporturnity. Also the SMS will need to know

about post-harvest handling and marketing to ensure high product quality. These highly

specialized skills and knowledge are not common in the Public Extension system.

Likewise,the front-line extension staff hold post-secondary diploma programmes which usually

are terminal programmes making it difficult for diploma holders to return to school and pursue

university degrees. Another issue is the field of study pursued by these diploma holders. Most

diploma programmes are designed to produce agricultural generalists and therefore offer limited

training in any particular subject matter specialization. University graduates major in fields as

agronomy, crop science, animal science, and agricultural economics. Courses in leadership,

management, rural sociology and community development skills needed to organise and build

capital within agricultural communities are also non-existent in Ghana.

To transform the public extension system into a more decentralized and market-driven one,

current extension staff will need immediate in-service training in these important programmes.

Eventhough transforming from top-down technology-driven approach to bottom-up participatory

and market-driven approach is not easy, there is mounting evidence that public extension

systems can be successfully transformed in Ghana. In the view of Swanson (2008), to ensure

this, some fundamental structural and management changes will be required to address key

constraints within extension institutions.

In conclusion, there are important roles to be played by public agricultural extension systems,

private-sector firms and NGOs transfering technologies to Ghanaian farmers, improving rural

livelihoods and maintaing the natural resources. It is hoped that the information in this paper will

help clarify these roles with respect to how these institutions, organisations and firms can work

more closely to bring about sustainable agricultural development through the excellent

management and administration of human and social capital frameworks of agricultural and rural

extension in Ghana.

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