Assessment of the Impact of Agricultural Extension Training Programs

To overcome the negative consequences of agricultural reforms, the government of Uganda, with support from the World Bank and other donors, restructured the country¿s extension system, as part of the PMA, from unified public extension to PPP extension system. The reforms of the agricultural sector culminated in 2001 with the establishment of the national agricultural advisory Services organization (through an act of parliament, the national agricultural advisory Services act of 2001) as a semiautonomous agency of the MAAIF to manage the 25-year national agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program. In the PPP arrangement, the government contracts out extension services¿ provision to private individuals and agencies, which were hailed as an efficient means of delivering services to only those farmers who would demand the service, hence creating a demand-driven extension system that would minimize costs (World Bank 2001). Moreover, under the PPP extension system, it is envisaged that the central government will initially shoulder a greater share of the cost of extension services provision but later gradually shift the cost to the local government and the farmers.