Romania-s Agricultural Extension Services in an Era of Change

The structural adjustments in the sector have posed some of the major challenges. Under land reform, state-run farms and large collectives have been dismantled and returned to private hands - an estimated 60% of the cultivated land in Romania consists of privately-owned farms of 5-10 hectares each. In many cases, the landowners are Romanians who left for the urban centres during the communist regime and are now returning, with little or no knowledge of how to farm.

To fill the vacuum left by the central system - which previously provided technical training - and to boost productivity, the government of Romania asked Israel to give a course on agricultural extension principles and planning. The course, held on March 14-28, 1996, at an agricultural training centre near the capital city of Bucharest, took place under the auspices of CINADCO and MASHAV, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Centre for International Cooperation. The two-week seminar was given by Michel Isaak, an agricultural extension specialist at CINADCO, and Shaul Manor, formerly of Israel's Extension Service and now a private consultant.

Recalling the course, Isaak explained it was as much about extension theory and the specific needs of Romania as about developing new ways of thinking to suit the new realities. Of the 30 participants, most were directors of agricultural districts, the subdivisions established by the former communist regime, whose careers had been in the central planning apparatus.

"They were used to giving orders, telling people to be in the framework of the law. It was a top-down approach," Isaak said. "As the days went on, we did everything to open these people up, to show them that extension is being open to the farmer, who is a client, and not anymore a worker who can be talked down to."

With this in mind, the seminar began with participants laying down the definition of extension: Extension is a service, where the farmer (an independent decision maker) should be served, and not leaned upon, or imposed upon from above. Extension is an open system. There may be a two-way exchange between the farmer and the service, but the decision is made by the farmer, who must be provided with all the necessary information to make a valid decision. In most cases, the service serves the interests of the farmer, not the government or any other body.

"The two interests can coincide when you talk about export crops or products that can be valuable for the domestic market," Isaak adds. "When there is a market for a specific commodity, it's in the interest of the farmer to grow it at a specific quality to fetch the best possible price." Extension is part of a hierarchy; it cannot survive without research as a backup. "This is characteristic of many countries that I have visited, where agricultural research is in a totally different ministry, in the ministry of higher education or scientific research, whereas it would be advisable to have it under one and the same organizational roof as agriculture and livestock research," Isaak said. Extension has both short- and long-term objectives, which are reached by the farmer, who produces the crop, gets income from the yields, and uses the income to purchase more land, inputs or other products.

The central principle of extension, then, is how to change the professional behaviour of the farmer, to improve productivity and income. "The whole point of extension is to influence, or try to change the behaviour of farmers in a certain direction," Isaak says. For example, an extension service would try to persuade a farmer to prune a vineyard in a different way which has been scientifically proven to increase yield. The components shaping professional behaviour are the means a farmer has at his disposal or will be made available through credit to do a certain task (equipment, land, livestock); the attitude, or desire to do something; and the know-how to perform that activity. Extension then becomes a tool for analysing and planning development. This was the focus of the second week of the seminar.

Participants were grouped by geographical area, and were given a general master plan comprising different steps they would have to take to develop an extension program for two or three crops. To begin developing an extension service, Isaak said, the following must be defined: the structure and size of the farming community - how many small farms, big farms; the needs of the farmers; what specific problems do they face. In the case of Romania, the return of urban workers has created a "patchwork" of varying professional abilities.

"One of the challenges of setting up an extension system is to serve most of those farmers who came back to the land," Isaak said. Another challenge is convincing the small farmers that by pooling resources with other small farms, they can improve their output. This is already happening, on a family-based level, and to some extent regionally, with farmers' associations. But there is still aversion to the concept of a cooperative, which Isaak noted may still be considered a "dirty word." "But farmers have to understand that otherwise they cannot survive economically. They need some kind of cooperative system, through which they can get the inputs at a better price, facilities for marketing their produce. It is pooling resources, not collectivization, a term they so painfully remember. It is, among other things, the duty of the extension service to get these ideas across."

Once the community and its needs are defined, an extension program will seek short- and long-term solutions which could include basic or adaptive research and field trials. Whatever solutions are put forward, they must all stand the test of economic feasibility: Are they affordable? What financing means, such as banking credits, are available? And are they profitable to the farmer? "In the last analysis, the farmer is interested in increasing income, and not yield, or production." From there, immediate recommendations are deduced, and "operational objectives" or expectations of what the farmers will be able to do as a result of the knowledge they obtain through an extension service are drawn up. Once operational objectives are formulated, the methods to convey the information to the farmer must be chosen. These can include lecturing, farm visits, courses, demonstration plots, skill-teaching methods, use of the mass media, or a clever mix of those," Isaak emphasized.

On the final day of the course, each group presented its project. Isaak said he believed that the participants were going away with an idea of "planning such a system." Meanwhile, implementation of an extension program, and all the supporting infrastructure still relies on government support. Though Romania is primarily an industrial country, "it certainly is interested in exporting some of the crops where they have a relative advantage, say fruit," says Isaak. He also said that the drop in production was another incentive to try to help revamp the sector. "They don't want to waste money on importing foodstuff from abroad. The groundwork of an economy of a country is first to provide produce for its own population." And the government seems to be moving in that direction, Isaak added. He pointed to a European Union-financed pilot project underway to establish an extension service in 12 districts.

Romania, like other former members of the communist-bloc, still faces many challenges in the transition to a market economy. But Isaak said he believes some of the first steps are being taken, as he described what he thinks the participants in the seminar came away with: "Openness, an openness to change. A reducing of their fears about whatever changes they are going to implement within their new terms of reference."