The 2024 Uganda National Agricultural Extension Week took place on October 29- November 1st 2024, at the Silver Springs Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. Organised by the Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (UFAAS) in collaboration with the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF), and other partners, the event attracted over 240 participants from six countries, including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Madagascar, and Germany.
In a keynote speech delivered by Dr Lilian Lihasi, the Director of Programs at the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), emphasis was on the crucial role of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) in transformation of Uganda’s agri-food system into a robust, resilient, and competitive sector.
Highlighting Uganda’s dependence on agriculture for food security, employment, and exports, Dr Lihasi tracked the evolution of AEAS from colonial times to present, including the integration of ICT and participatory, farmer-centered models. She challenged actors to document best practices and learn from previous experiences in order to achieve better results.
Keynote Speaker Dr Lilian Lihasi, Director of Programs at AFAAS
Dr Lihasi highlighted bottlenecks to effective agricultural extension service delivery such as limited funding, high farmer-to-extension worker ratios, uncoordinated extension, generic content, and climate change. She also referred to regional and continental fora such as the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Summit, and Action plan, where agricultural extension was considered critical to provide targeted agronomic recommendations for smallholder farmers. She called upon actors to strengthen AEAS through several strategies, including documenting best practices, enhanced investments in extension, public-private partnerships, retooling for extension service providers, employing ICTs/digital tools, and farmer-led participatory initiatives. “…It is only the agricultural extension and advisory services system that is able to bring change in times as this, to build resilience of agrifood systems,” remarked Dr Lihasi.
She also cited an example of a public-private partnership initiative between AFAAS and AGRA that aims to deliver sustainable, inclusive, and digitalized extension services, benefiting smallholder farmers across multiple African countries, to enhance resilience, productivity, and market access through coordinated, multi-stakeholder efforts. She urged actors to embrace this and related initiatives to ensure a robust, resilient, and competitive agri-food system.
In her concluding remarks, Dr Lihasi challenged extension actors to be action-oriented in order to create change and to always learn from previous lessons.
Watch the full Keynote speech below:
About the Uganda National Agricultural Extension Week 2024
The Uganda National Agricultural Extension Week 2024 took place on October 29- November 1st 2024 at the Silver Springs Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. Organised by the Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (UFAAS) in collaboration with the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF), and other partners, the event attracted over 240 participants from six countries, including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Madagascar, and Germany.
The purpose of the extension Week was to bring out the value and contribution of the pluralistic Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) in building actors resilience and competitiveness for agricultural development and national economy in Uganda.
Contact: Ms Beatrice Luzobe, Chief Executive officer, UFAAS; Email: ufaas2013@gmail.com