Extension Week Sub-themes
a. Strengthening Agriculture and Agricultural Extension & Advisory Services (AEAS) Policy Environment and Institutional Frameworks.
This subtheme examines how to prioritize policies to achieve the interconnected goals of managing the food systems, recovering the economy, and achieving environmental sustainability. It views AEAS as a key tool for empowering farmers and rural communities as lifelong learners and innovators in regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions. It examines the existing policy frameworks, principles, and criteria for designing, implementing, and evaluating AEAS; the existing frameworks that outline principles and criteria which provide insights into developing shared policy goals, identifying smart strategies, assessing policy compatibility, aligning policy instruments, and factoring sustainability into short and long-term policy decisions with respect to agricultural extension and advisory services on regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions. Discussions, following the presentations will focus on pragmatic policy options that empower agricultural stakeholders, promote sustainable practices, and facilitate a positive impact on the environment and rural communities
b. Capacitating and Supporting AEAS Demand and Delivery Systems for Access and Quality Improvement.
This subtheme explores how organizations that support and facilitate people engaged in agricultural production solve problems and obtain information, skills, and technologies to improve their livelihoods and well-being with respect to regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions. It expounds the organizational and institutional factors that support and facilitate the problem-solving, information-seeking, skill-building, and technology adoption processes of AEAS. It demonstrates open and flexible AEAS environments that widen access, stimulate learning and innovation, and encourage AEAS providers and farmers to be critical and creative thinkers with the capacity to cope with change.
c. Mobilizing AEAS and Research in multi-stakeholder Innovation Platforms for Resilient Regenerative Agriculture & Nature based Agri-production and marketing systems.
This subtheme explores how to mobilize AEAS and research in innovation platforms for resilient regenerative agriculture (RA) and nature-based Agri-production and marketing systems. Within this framework, it examines the trends, types, depths, and designs of practices associated with innovation platforms for RA and nature-based Agri-production and marketing systems. It also seeks to showcase studies and success stories that:
- Highlight innovations that build bridges between the AEAS and research providers’ understanding and the value-chain actors’ learning.
- Showcase successful innovation practices that engage value-chain actors. How are value-chain actors building resilience and sustaining ecosystem services provisioning?
- Demonstrate open and flexible innovation environments that widen access, stimulate learning and innovation, and encourage AEAS and research providers and value-chain actors to be critical and creative thinkers with the capacity to cope with change.
d. Leveraging Digital Potentials for AEAS & Regenerative Agriculture
This subtheme explores how to leverage digital potentials for AEAS and RA. It examines the design of digital products and agricultural extension and advisory services, digital literacy through a variety of training or capacity-building activities, connectivity scenarios and changing needs, and bundling digital services, roles of incubators, accelerators, and innovation hubs of digital tools and technologies, digital service portfolio, on-crop insurance, weather updates, market information, digital ethics, data protection and inclusiveness into the creation of digital products, tools and services related to agricultural extension and advisory services. It also seeks studies and success stories that:
- Demonstrate adaptive and inclusive digital environments that enhance access, learning and innovation, and tackle digital ethics, data protection, and inclusiveness challenges.
- Showcase effective digital scenarios that connect the digital providers’ knowledge and the AEAS providers’ and farmers’ learning
e. Adopting Inclusive Strategies/Approaches for Service Provision, Human Capacity Strengthening and improving research and entrepreneurship in AEAS and RA
This subtheme will examine collective actions, systems-oriented extension approaches, coordinated, regulated pluralistic extension services, Farmers Field Schools and other approaches applied to the scaling of regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions. The subtheme further explores how to adopt inclusive strategies and approaches for service provision. It takes a broad view of AEAS that have a central purpose of empowering all farmers and rural communities as lifelong learners and innovators and which have a key role to play in the development of sustainable and resilient agriculture and the promotion of nature-based solutions. Within this framework, it examines the collective actions, systems-oriented extension approaches, coordinated, regulated pluralistic extension services, Farmer Field, Business Schools, grassroots extension systems, the Village Based Advisors and Living Labs approaches, and other approaches applied to the scaling of sustainable agricultural practices. It also seeks studies that:
- Highlight innovative service situations that build bridges between the AEAS providers’ understanding and the farmers’ learning
- Demonstrate successful service practices that engage farmers and rural communities
Similarly, the subtheme explores how to strengthen human capacity and improve research and entrepreneurship in AEAS and RA. Within this framework, it examines the concepts of technical competency, communication skills, group facilitation skills, and management functions such as programme planning, ethics, monitoring and evaluation and leadership development.