Capacity of Public Extension

To exploit the growing opportunities for commercial production of vegetables, the farmers need to change their production system from more subsistence level operation towards more market oriented production. Marketing extension service can facilitate the transition to semi-commercial and, finally, to commercial production systems. For commercialization to succeed however, public extension service requires to change its conventional production and productivity-focused service to achieve self-sufficiency to a service that fosters commercial-oriented development of smallholder agriculture. This transformation, among others, requires the facilitation of linkages among the different actors on commodity supply chain. It further demands enhancing the coordination and integration of various stakeholders. It is debatable whether the public extension in the District is playing these expected roles and, in the first place, has the required capacity to do so in terms of staff, structure, process and incentive and reward systems.