New Trends in Capacity Development For Agricultural Extension

Today, the world and the agricultural sector face great challenges, and agricultural development systems are subject to increasing pressure due to the challenges of food security, climate change, climate adaptation, and market fluctuations. One of the most important of these vital systems is agricultural extension and its workers. Agricultural extension work does not rise to the level required to meet these challenges. Traditional work is no longer an appropriate option to meet these challenges and achieve an effective response to the needs of farmers and improve their livelihoods. These challenges require the presence of effective systems that help accelerate and expand the transition to sustainable and smart agricultural systems. The role of agricultural extension in the process of converting to agricultural systems is important and necessary because transformation is a process of change, and change means moving from one situation to another. This requires effective extension services, as the farmer may stop from applying some technologies or stopping the transition to sustainable systems, here the role of agricultural extension is focuses on encouraging the farmer to continue and transition to sustainable agricultural systems. The performance of agricultural extension is affected by a group of internal and external factors, and capacities are a vital factor influencing the performance and effectiveness of vital development systems in the agricultural sector, including the agricultural extension system. Therefore, developing these capacities is a basic condition for achieving effective performance of these organizations. In the past two decades, many programs and projects have emerged, and there is a growing interest by international organizations to develop agricultural extension capacities, such as the FAO, the United Nations, Tropical Agriculture Platform, and others. The current paper discusses the contemporary concept of agricultural extension, capacity and capacity development, and the reasons and global trends for its capacity development.