Abstract

CONRADIE, B. Incorporating extension measures into farm productivity models with practical guidelines for extension staff. S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext. [online]. 2020, vol.48, n.1, pp.17-30. ISSN 2413-3221.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2413-3221/2020/v48n1a523.

This study formulates a conceptual model of the knowledge transfer process to evaluate the treatment of extension in a sample of 30 totalfactor productivity models. Three studies did not include a training or extension proxy, 15 studies used singular proxies, and 13 studies employed multiple proxies for visits in the broad sense. Aspects of adoption were considered in 12 studies. Contact with the extension service is best captured with simple dummy variables for visits, training or extension club membership, although there are several good examples of studies that successfully incorporated the quality of the service provided. Quality seems to be more effectively captured with a series of adoption indices, some of which can be quite simple, such as the presence of a disease outbreak, but detailed enterprise-specific technical information is needed to do this well. The advice for an extension service that wishes to embark on this type of monitoring is that it should begin by programming the technical information to be transferred and to use the development of activity charts to build technical skills amongst extension agents. Each activity should include an observable measure of adoption. Delivery should be planned around activity charts and ought to include at least 30% of visits aimed specifically at observing adoption and should devote at least one in 10 meetings to leading a farmer through a process of self-reflection, which includes reflection on the farm's financial performance.

Keywords : Adoption; Best practice; Efficiency outcomes; Impacts; Knowledge transfer; Quality extension.

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