| dc.description.abstract | The study was conducted to assess the functionality of the sub county farmers’ fora under the NAADS programme. It focussed at assessing the organisational and the technical capacity of the sub county farmers’ fora in championing the interest of the farmers and facilitating their demand for agricultural advisory services. The study aimed at answering the following questions: What is the capacity (organisationally and technically) of the sub county farmers’ forum as a local institution for agricultural service delivery? How effective is the sub county farmers’ forum in championing the interest of the farmer groups and influencing processes plus challenging institutions which make key decisions in the provision of agricultural advisory services is concerned? To what extent are farmers effectively demanding for agricultural advisory services? What opportunities and challenges exist for private and public partnership in the delivery of agricultural advisory services? The study design employed qualitative methods of data collection. Tools used for data collection include: focus group discussions, structured questions and key informants interviews. Secondary data was also collected both from published and unpublished sources during the research process. The study found out that the technical capacity of the sub county farmers’ fora especially the parish coordinators and the sub county NAADS executive is still weak. The existence of proper leadership structures has not necessarily translated into effective functionality of the sub county farmers’ fora. It is evident from the findings that the sub county farmers’ fora are not controlling processes and structures through which the NAADS programme activities are delivered. Consequently the sub county farmers’ fora on many occasions failed to champion the interest of farmers in Serere County. This is evident from the fact that 68% of the farmers interviewed echoed that issues raised up to the sub county farmers’ fora were not attended to. The study also found out that farmers in Serere County are not effectively demanding for agricultural advisory services and this has been precipitated by the absence of service providers on the ground. Coupled with this, the level of farm planning and specialisation among the NAADS participating farmers is very low. Agricultural production is still largely practiced at subsistence level; and there are no indications in the immediate future of farmers driving the delivery of agricultural advisory services A number of recommendations have been put forward to ensure effective functionality of the sub county farmers’ fora. These include among others: developing a systematic approach to farmer institutional development, establishing linkages with the agricultural colleges for comprehensive training of farmer institutions, development of farm plan models for the various priority enterprises to ease up planning of agricultural advisory service, and to enhance the demand for them from farmers In conclusion, the functionality of the sub county farmer fora is weak. It is not effectively facilitating farmers to demand and access agricultural advisory services as expected, and neither is it influencing processes under the NAADS programme. However, despite this weakness, farmers observed that the delivery of agricultural advisory services in the current programme is relatively better than in the previous agricultural extension systems. | en_US |
