AGRICULTURE PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION

APPROACH

May,2024

Presented by: Sinoya Mukalipi

Sinoya.Mukalipi@zari.gov.zm
sinoyamukalipi@gmail.com

+260977319655
 What’s PEA?
It’s the method in Agriculture extension services that emphasizes the
active involvement of farmers and other stakeholders in the process of:

Technology development

Dissemination and

Application
 KEY FEATURES OF PEA
1. Farmer involvement -identifying their problems, experimenting with
solutions, evaluating outcomes to ensure that technologies and practices
promoted are relevant to their needs and conditions.

2. Collaboration – Extension agents, researchers, stakeholders, farmers work

together.
This partnership enhances mutual learning and the adaptation of
technologies to local context.

3. Empowerment-Empowers farmers by building their capacity to make

informed decisions, thereby increasing their confidence.
KEY FEATURES OF PEA continues…..

4. Feedback loops- Continuous feedback from farmers is used to refine and

improve technologies and extension methods, making the system more
dynamic and responsive.

5. Flexibility-Approach is flexible and adaptive, allowing for modifications

based on real-time experiences and changing conditions.

6. Sustainability-By focusing on locally appropriate solutions and farmer

empowerment, the participatory approach aims to create sustainable
agricultural practices and systems.
 EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

1.Farmers field schools soon to be called “Hubs”

 EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

2. Participatory rural appraisal

 EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

3. On farm trials
 EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

4. Community based extension

 EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

5. Participatory technology development (PTD)

EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

Zambia alliance for agroecology

climate smart agriculture alliance

6. Learning alliances-partiners among various stakeholders

EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

7. Innovation platforms
EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATORY
EXTENSION APPROACH METHODS.

8. Farmers participatory research

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL
EXTENSION APPROACH AND
PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACH

CONVENTIONAL EXTENSION APPROACH PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACH

 CONVENTIONAL vs PEA
CONVENTIONAL
ASPECT EXTENSION APPROACH PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACH

Objective Disseminate pre-developed Co-Develop and adapt technologies with farmers.

technologies to farmers.

Role of the farmer Passive recipient of information Active participants and co-reserachers in the
extension process

Decision making Top-down, led by extension Bottom-up, with decisions made collaboratively with
agents and researcher farmers.

Methodology Primarily focuses on training, Emphasizes experimental learning, group discussions,

demonstrations, and lectures and on-farm experimants.
 CONVENTIONAL vs PEA
ASPECT CONVENTIONAL
EXTENSION APPROACH
Expert who provides solutions
Extension agents Role and advice to farmers
Unidirectional from extension
Knowledge flow agents to farmers
Limited, as farmers are seen
Innovative Development mainly as adopters of technology
Formal and often limited,
Feedback Mechanisms usually through surveys and
reports
Often rigid, with standardized
Adaptability recommendations
PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACH
Facilitator who supports farmers in problem-solving
and decision-making
Multidirectional With knowledge exchange among
farmers, extension agents, and researchers.
High, as farmers are involved in the development and
adaptation process
Continuous and informal, through regular interaction
and discussion
Flexible, with practices tailored to local conditions and
farmer needs.
 CONVENTIONAL vs PEA
PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACH
ASPECT CONVENTIONAL EXTENSION
APPROACH
Maybe less sustainable as it does Generally more sustainable as it builds on local
Sustainability not always consider local context knowledge and resources
needs.

Focus Technology transfer and adoption Capacity building, empowerment, and sustainable
rates development
 BENEFITS OF PEA
When PEA is successfully implemented it will result over time the following
benefits:
1. Improve Community or farmers’ self-confidence, self-reliance and belief in
their capacity to improve their standard of living largely on their own.

2. Increase Farmers’ demand for quality services

3. Improve cooperation spirit among farmers leading to viable farmer
associations and groups.

4. Ability to identify, prioritize problems, analyze and find solutions with little
external interventions.

5. Increased/improved collaboration among stakeholders in target areas

 PEA TOOLS
i. Transect walk
ii. Community Resource Mapping x. Focused Group
iii. Venn diagrammes (Institutional Discussions (FGDs)
Analysis) xi. Secondary Data Review
iv. Seasonal analysis
v. Historical analysis
vi. Pairwise Ranking-priorities first
vii. Wealth ranking
viii.Problem tree
ix. Objective tree
 CHALLENGES OF PEA IN ZAMBIA
1. Un-harmonized understanding of PEA among actors in the sector.
2. Piece meal training of staff leading to sub-standard understanding of the
approach.
3. Failure for coordination among different players in the agriculture sector.
4. Extension services under many Ministries.
5. Poor infrastructure (Housing, servicing centres).
6. Inadequate transport (remote farmers).
7. Inefficiency (Officer : Farmer ratio-current situation 1:1000 instead of
1:400).
8. Lack of enough funding.
THE PEA CYCLE AND KEY STAGES

The PEA Cycle follows a logical sequence of stages:

1. Preparation
2. Diagnosis
3. Needs Assessment
4. Training and Exposure
5. Action Planning
6. Resource Mobilization
7. Implementation
8. Monitoring and Evaluation
 1.PREPARATION

Involves the following:

Training of facilitators.
Creating awareness among key stakeholders.
Identification of target communities/farmers.
Entering the community/meeting farmers for
purpose of building trust.
 2.DIAGNOSIS

This examines community in terms of practices, opportunities, problems

they encounter and their causes.
Critical information is obtained by use of various tools such as
-secondary data
-community resource mapping
-transact walk
- focused group discussions
The community is able to analyze the socio-economic and
environmental conditions of their village for problem identification and
finding solutions.
 3.NEEDS ASSESSMENT
 these are interventions which need to be tackled for
the community or farmers to move forward or
progress
The aim is to identify needs which when addressed
will help individuals and interest groups to implement
a chosen economic activity
Action plans are then formulated to address the
members’ felt needs.
 4. TRAINING AND EXPOSURE
Different types of training can be
conducted depending on the type of needs
identified
The farmers’ inadequate technical abilities
in poultry production can be addressed by
training in broiler production
 5. ACTION PLANNING
This involves in a participatory manner the
identification of:
Activities to be done
Resources required
When activities needed to be done (including time
frame)
By who (responsibility)
 6. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
This means looking for resources required to
implement the enterprise. These may
include:
Cash
Land
Equipment
Veterinary Medicines
 7. IMPLEMENTATION

This is simply the implementation of the

work plan to realize the set objective.
For instance, raising day-old broiler chicks
using the FFS Model in order to reduce
incidence of Ant-Microbial Resistance (AMR).
8. PARTICIPATORY MONITORING AND EVALUATION
 With the community involvement this can
be done at all stages of the cycle and at the
end of the enterprise
Assesses progress made so that necessary
adjustments can be made
Indicators can be decided with community
The PEA facilitation cycle
Preparation Diagnosis

Monitoring Needs
and Evaluation Assessment

Training
Implementation and
Exposure

Resource Action
Mobilization Planning
“”LETS DISCUSS AREAS WE ARE DOING
RIGHT AND THOSE AREAS THAT WE
STILL HAVE CHALLENGES””

Then what can we do to improve.