AP - Global Trends And Challenges In Extension: A Farm Management Response

The paper reviews the dynamics of change in the global environment and its impact on the nature of farming in developing countries. Since farmers are working in a more competitive environment in order to increase income there is a need for their farm businesses to be profitable and adaptable to market conditions. Farmer’s skills and capacity to better cope with this competitive environment need to be enhanced especially in the subject area of farm management. There is a need and challenge to broaden the technical scope of extension to better equip farmers to produce for the market. The paper discusses the response taken by FAO to meet these challenges. A strategy has been developed aimed at strengthening the capacity of extension workers and farmers by preparing and disseminating farm management training and extension materials adapted to the needs of specific countries.

Keywords: market orientation, farm management, extension, training.