The national dialogue on farmer centred participatory extension approaches will take its point of departure in the FFS approach but will have a wider perspective in terms of farmer-centred extension approaches. The establishment of a national platform for exchange of experiences will enable the IFMC to benefit from and share lessons learned and practises of other components of AGEP as well as other projects of DAE and other extension actors in the country.
The idea of developing a platform where various progress extension actors can meet and exchange ideas is to systematically strengthen linkage in the field of agricultural extension through close and frequent collaboration between all actors be they public sector, NGOs or private sector. The establishment of a national platform for exchange of experiences will enable the IFMC to benefit from and share lessons learned and practices of other components of AGEP as well as other projects of DAE and other extension actors in the country. Strengthening of the national dialogue on farmer centered extension approaches will be led by DAE. Through structured discussions among all major extension providers, including but not limited to DAE, DOF, DLS, various projects implemented by these organizations, larger NGOs, development partners and private sector companies, a common understanding of different approaches as well as of activities being implemented by the players in the national agricultural extension system will be made.
The platform will encourage actors to exchange experiences both from long term activities and from pilot activities, discuss ideas, consider opportunities for collaboration and ways to avoid duplication and find synergies in current and future projects and activities. Sharing outcomes of evaluations and studies of ongoing activities will also be encouraged through the platform.
By the end of project we will develop “Best practice guidelines” for group extension methodologies in Bangladesh in a useful format for the use of all partners and future participants in agricultural extension in Bangladesh.
For achieving this activities under output-3 of IFMC project document, the project has been facilitating to form a National Platform of Extension Actors in Bangladesh.