National Agricultural Extension and Research Project

The project was national in scope but focused primarily on communal areas farmed by small-scale farmers. The communal areas were varied in quality and suitability, ranging from land that is suitable for cropping (mostly maize, cotton, sorghum, millet and groundnuts) to land that is suitable only for grazing livestock. Production of many crops had decreased and farm incomes have declined as a result.

The project’s objective was to improve productivity and incomes for smallholder farmers in the communal areas by providing agricultural extension services and research targeted to the needs of smallholder farmers. In particular, it worked to set up better linkages between communal and commercial farming areas. Project activities included:

• reorganizing agricultural services to provide extension field staff with support in fields relevant to communal areas
• increasing the effectiveness of extension workers
• strengthening the agricultural services training programme
• investing in research activities directly relevant to communal areas

Source: IFAD