Title of Success Story

Young Afghanistan and Pakistan Extension Professionals Strengthened Skills In Extension Under US Model

Public Value (now or future)
(Impact:  Who benefits beyond participants and how?  What conditions changed?)

U.S. Total Economic and Military aid to Afghanistan is $11,447,000,000 and to Pakistan $2,854,000,000.  This is a total of 14,301 Million dollars per year.  You reduce the military aid by pulling troops out of the country.  So how do you reduce the economic aid?  One way is to increase their agriculture productivity.  The United States developed our agriculture through the Extension System.
Young Extension professionals in Afghanistan and Pakistan met for the first time to develop connections across countries, within the Extension system, the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. As reported in the newspaper The Nation, Lahore  “Pakistan and Afghanistan joined hands to cope with agricultural challenges by strengthening extension network and enhancing skills among extension workers of both the countries with the cooperation of the United States.”

RELEVANCE
(Why is it important to address this issue with education?  What are the desired changes?)

Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan said that “In a developing world including Pakistan, the aggregate average yields are only 20% of the developed world. Beyond increasing productivity, there is need for significant reduction in postharvest wastage. The past 50 years have seen food booms because of better varieties, more and more taming of water, agro-chemicals and mechanization because of rapid growth of knowledge. The future lies with successful integration of genetically modified crops.  University’s role to empower the agriculture sector for socio-economic development must have community building schemes and pilot projects in place. Small holders and pastoral communities are the most affected and disadvantaged segments of society. We need to work for better dry land agriculture and range management for them.”

RESPONSE
(Outputs: activities, numbers reached, publications, products)

Four universities, Iowa State, UC Davis, University of Maryland, Washington State University, with a grant from USAID, held a 5 day workshop.  Forty two participants from Afghanistan and Pakistan increased their knowledge in US Extension know-how.  Each day focused on a skill used in Extension to transfer knowledge to agriculture producers. Day one; Learning styles. Day two; Conducting needs assessments. Day three; Finding, developing, validating, and distributing research based information. Day four; Designing and developing various forms of communication and delivery aids.

RESULTS (Outcomes:  specific changes that occurred in Learning, Actions, Conditions; how outcomes were measured)

What happened on Day five?  All participants chose a partner, at the beginning of the week, to develop a project that could be used in their Extension work.  Each group presented their project to the whole group.  The project was then reviewed by the other participants and instructors.  Twenty projects were developed, shared, evaluated and used in their Extension work.

Desired Changes
Learning
Actions
Conditions

Each day an evaluation was used to see if the students were learning and understanding the Extension skills delivered by the teaching team.  Here are some comments and survey results;

• A participants comment, “The whole information is organized in well manor it is interesting to revise all basic agriculture knowledge”
• An evaluation after day two indicated that all participants would now use some form of a survey to determine clientele needs.
• One participant wrote that he learned, “How to strengthen the extension work. How the needs of the farmers is evaluated.  What are the issues of farmers and how that could be solved”
• Day three evaluation indicated that, finding objective research based credible information, was very important for over 50% of the participants.
• This participant stated “This workshop is very good and excellent workshop for improve the extension skills and communication experiences to each other. “
• Another participant said “The University has provided ideal linkages for extending skills to the farming communities, and such trainings may be continued frequently.”

Extension Lead(s)
(name, position, counties served, contact information)

Terry Steinhart
Swine Field Specialist
South Central Iowa
Keokuk County Extension Office
Sigourney, IA
Phone: 641-622-3796
tsteinha@iastate.edu

Your Position

­­­­­__X__ Field                                        _____Campus                         _____Both

POW # and Team

 ­­­­­_____100 Corn and Soybean Production and Protection
­­­­­_____ 110 Dairy
­­­­­_____ 120 Farm and Business Management
­­­­­_____ 130 Horticulture: Commercial and Consumer
­­­­­_____ 140 Iowa Beef Center
­­­­­__X__ 150 Iowa Pork Industry Center
­­­­­_____ 160 Natural Resources and Stewardship

ANR Priority (select all that apply)

­­­­­__X__ Global Food Security and Hunger
­­­­­_____Regional Food Systems
­­­­­_____Natural Resources & Environmental Stewardship
­­­­­_____Food Safety
­­­­­_____Sustainable Energy – Biofuels & Biobased Products
­­­­­_____Climate Change
­­­­­__X_  Other Global Extension

Knowledge Areas: (USDA categories)

Continuing Story

___X__ No                _____  Yes (If continuing, what story?)

Major Partners or Collaborators

USAID, Iowa State University, UC Davis, University of Maryland, Washington State University

Where story took place
(Region, campus, multi-regional)

Global Extension Work, Pakistan

Fiscal Year

2011

Multi-state or Integrated (Ext + Research)

Funding Source

USAID Grant

Keywords

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Global Food Security and Hunger, Extension skills