ABSTRACT

Purpose

To assess the extent to which privatised extension service, which is premised to be demand-driven, delivers downward accountability to smallholder farmers who are both owners and users of agricultural services.

Design/methodology/approach

The research collected data through focus group discussions with smallholder tea farmers and key informant interviews after which the information were corroborated with semi-structured interviews with 104 smallholder farmers.

Findings

Our findings show that KTDA (Kenya Tea Development Agency) extension service has in recent years embraced methodologies that allow two-way information exchange and farmers’ involvement in planning, implementing and evaluation of extension programmes. While this transition has provided opportunities for increased accountability and empowerment of smallholder farmers, downward accountability is limited by among others; presence of multiple accountabilities, a heavy top-down governance structure, higher incentives for upward accountability, limited resourcing of extension delivery, excessive workload and unrealistic targets on the part of extension staff and weak extension–research–farmer linkages.

Practical implications

The findings of this study may be used by policymakers, extension practitioners and organisations delivering extension services to improve downward accountability and quality of advisory services

Theoretical implications

The paper contributes to the debate on outcomes of privatisation on extension provision using the accountability lens in an area dominated by perceptions on costs and payment for the services.

Originality/value

The literature on downward accountability on privatised extension services is lacking. The paper also extends the framework for assessing the performance of pluralistic extension services to develop and apply a framework for assessing downward accountability in privatised extension.

中文翻译：

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私有化农业推广对小农茶农向下责任的影响

摘要

目的

评估以需求驱动为前提的私有化推广服务向既是农业服务所有者又是农业服务使用者的小农提供向下责任的程度。

设计/方法/方法

该研究通过与小农茶农的焦点小组讨论和关键知情人访谈收集数据，然后通过对 104 名小农的半结构化访谈证实了这些信息。

发现

我们的研究结果表明，KTDA（肯尼亚茶叶发展署）推广服务近年来采用了允许双向信息交流和农民参与规划、实施和评估推广计划的方法。虽然这种转变为加强问责制和赋予小农权力提供了机会，但向下问责制受到其他因素的限制；多重责任的存在、沉重的自上而下的治理结构、对向上责任的更高激励、推广实施的资源有限、工作量过大和推广人员的目标不切实际以及推广-研究-农民联系薄弱。

实际影响

政策制定者、推广从业人员和提供推广服务的组织可以使用本研究的结果来提高向下问责制和咨询服务的质量

理论意义

该文件有助于在一个由对服务成本和支付的看法主导的领域使用问责制镜头就扩展条款私有化的结果进行辩论。

原创性/价值

缺乏关于私有化推广服务向下问责的文献。该文件还扩展了评估多元化推广服务绩效的框架，以开发和应用一个评估私有化推广中向下责任的框架。