Harnessing student-oriented extension schemes for University driven agricultural transformation in Africa

The role of student-oriented extension services in socio-economic transformation is increasingly being acknowledged but less developed in African universities. A few agricultural-leaning universities are growingly integrating students in community engagement activities with the view of improving impacts at community-level learning and innovation. Analysis of the student-oriented extension schemes on the basis of Gulu University Model shows that host communities hold positive perceptions about these approaches. However, these extension schemes are seemingly more cost-effective in rural based universities which tend to have many farming households in the neighbourhood or near distance farmsteads from the university campuses. Notably, the performance of student extension service at community level is influenced by nearness of farmstead distance to the university, social support and faculty supervision support to students. In view of the exceedingly high extension worker to farmer ratio typical of many African countries, we recommend policy prioritization of student-oriented agricultural extension services for public funding in universities so as these intervention approaches can be exploited to complement existing public and non-public extension systems in facilitating community-based learning and innovation.