This week’s SASAE conference puts agricultural extension in the spotlight. Extension officers are vital to food security and farmer support, yet many are overburdened and under-resourced.
Director-general Mooketsa Ramasodi said it is important for the government to empower extension services as they play a crucial role in food security and the livelihoods of farmers.
“Behind every successful farmer is a committed extension officer, a supportive institution, and a system that works. The best people that the country can ever have are extension officers, the people who bring billions of rands worth of exports into this country through their hard work in helping and empowering farmers.
“Extension officers often are the invisible hand, the forgotten hand, but they are the most important people in the ecosystem of the department,” he said.
Not enough extension officers to handle demand
Ramasodi urged extension officers not to get tired but push through as they are the voices of the farmers in places where the farmers are not able to be.
Retired deputy director Elijah Ramafoko, who spent decades training farmers for the Northern Cape department of agriculture, land reform, and rural development, said the government needs to increase their support for extension services.
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“Our extension officers need to be on the same par with farmers, the use of technology needs to be increased, extension officers need to be exposed to the latest technology, they need to have an understanding of climate change, biosecurity and financing. Farmers need extension officers who can give them solutions.
“The relationship between a farmer and an extension officer needs to be strong, and while extension officers try their level best to make things work with what they have, the government needs to make things easy for them. Expose them to as much information as possible,” Ramafoko said.
An extension officer who asked not to be named said there is a need to hire more officials as the demand has increased, and the current officers cannot match the demand.
“While much has been done in terms of extension services, the improvement that is needed is in hiring more people. The ratio between a farmer and an extension officer is very scary. I am responsible for about 50 farmers, and this is from small-scale to commercial.
“I am unable to see all these farmers in a year, because my work is not only visiting farmers it includes administration, meetings and workshops. It is unfair that a farmer only sees me on their farm once on six to eight months,
“I think if that can change, it will make life much better. We are supposed to be the bridge between the farmer and government, but we need more bridges for farmers to reach government,” the extension officer said.
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