Redefining the role of the extension agent in commercializing South African agriculture: an Eastern Cape case study

English: Agriculture and rural development in the Eastern Cape, and in South Africa, are in vital need of revitalization; especially since the people of the communal areas of the Province are often referred to as the poorest of the poor. Organizations, with specific reference to the Eastern Cape's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, use agricultural extension as a vehicle for developing agriculture and the rural areas. Presently, the Department uses the Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR/E) model for this purpose. The objectives for this thesis are to determine: • if this extension model presently used is effective, as well as to determine how to strengthen this model; • the perceptions of extension workers and agricultural researchers on factors supporting effective agricultural extension; • the specific needs of small-scale farmers and how they foresee themselves to become more commercially orientated; • the thoughts of practicing extension workers on the public extension services' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and what they believe needs to be done to make the extension service more efficient and effective; • the thoughts of actors from the agricultural support services - namely actors from agribusinesses and agricultural economists - on what role they see the public extension service should play and the steps that the extension service should take in order to be more effective; and • a new extension model for the Eastern Cape will be determined. This was achieved by consulting relevant literature sources, including the experts in the field on the present developments in extension, as well as using a questionnaire to determine the perceptions of the extension workers and agricultural researchers, a Logical Framework Analysis was used to determine the perceptions the small-scale farmers faced as well as the ways that they believed would solve their problems. Another two Logical Framework Analysis wereused to determine the thoughts of practicing extension workers and actors from the agricultural support services on what they believed is needed to strengthen the extension organization. The results from the study revealed information on global extension developments: perceptions of extension workers and researchers; the actual needs of a rural community and their vision of how to become more commercially orientated; the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the public extension service as viewed by the province's extension workers; the views of the extension workers concerning the problems that they face and ways to solve these problems; the views of the actors from agribusinesses and agricultural economists - collectively known as the agricultural support services - on the problems they have with the public extension service, the envisaged role that they see for the extension service and their envisaged way forward for the extension service in the province; a matrix of the factors linked to effective extension and the actors involved in strengthening these factors; and proposed a new and strengthened extension model. This new model is a decentralized, market-orientated extension model, which incorporate all actors within the agricultural environment and the actual needs of farmers. Involvement of various actors in strengthening the public extension service and the extension workers' skills was also described and is included in the model.