Agricultural Extension Services Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Agricultural Extension Officers, NGO Agriculture Programme Staff and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-AA-039

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with farming systems, agricultural projects, rural development or farmer-facing work.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Extension staff must turn agronomic evidence, market signals and farmer experience into advice that households can use within their land, labour, cash and risk constraints. Weak services often rely on one-way messages, generic demonstrations and activity counts; they miss seasonal decisions, exclude women or remote producers, and cannot show whether practices changed. The result is low trust, uneven adoption and poor use of field staff time.

This course builds the operational skills required to plan and deliver agricultural extension services through public agencies, NGOs, producer organisations and commercial advisory teams. Participants map an Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), diagnose needs with Participatory Rural Appraisal, facilitate adult learning, run Farmer Field School sessions and create farm-specific technical and business advice. They also address demonstration management, gender and safeguarding, digital channels, market links, monitoring, referral procedures and field work planning. Cases cover smallholder crop and livestock systems, input and output markets, climate risks and donor-funded service targets.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with cases, facilitated group work, advisory simulations and planning clinics. Participants test communication choices, interpret farm and service data, and receive feedback on their decisions. Each participant leaves with a practical extension service design pack: stakeholder map, needs-assessment tools, session plan, demonstration protocol, monitoring framework and 90-day workplan. The five-day instructor-led format is available in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online; training runs 08:30–16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours daily. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Map agricultural advisory actors, relationships and gaps using an AKIS stakeholder map
  • Conduct participatory farmer needs assessments using seasonal calendars, transects and problem trees
  • Facilitate adult-learning sessions using questioning, demonstration and feedback techniques
  • Develop farm-specific crop, livestock and market advisory messages from field evidence
  • Design inclusive farmer group activities that address gender, youth and accessibility barriers
  • Apply gross margin analysis and partial budgets to farm enterprise decisions
  • Build an extension monitoring framework with indicators, data sources and feedback loops
  • Prepare a costed 90-day extension workplan aligned with seasonal priorities

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Conduct more credible farmer consultations and identify seasonal advisory priorities
  • Lead participatory group sessions without relying on lecture-style delivery
  • Give economically grounded advice using gross margins and partial budgets
  • Plan demonstrations and follow-up visits around actual production decisions
  • Present extension results using clear indicators, evidence and workplans

For your organisation

  • Improves consistency of field advice across extension officers and delivery partners
  • Raises farmer participation through better timing, facilitation and inclusive outreach
  • Links advisory activities to measurable adoption and service-quality indicators
  • Reduces wasted field travel through caseload, route and seasonal planning
  • Strengthens evidence for programme reporting, partner management and funding decisions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can map an agricultural extension system and define service roles, relationships and gaps.

  • Public, private and producer-led extension roles within pluralistic advisory systems
  • AKIS mapping of research, input suppliers, markets and farmer organisations
  • Extension policy mandates, decentralisation arrangements and local accountability channels
  • Diagnosing information gaps, service constraints and seasonal decision points
  • Segmenting farm households by enterprise, resources, gender and market access
  • Advisory service portfolios: individual visits, groups, demonstrations and digital channels

Participants can plan and facilitate farmer learning sessions that produce clear agreed actions.

  • Adult learning principles: relevance, experience, practice, reflection and feedback
  • Facilitation plans structured around objectives, timing, materials and participation
  • Questioning funnels that move from observation to farmer-led diagnosis
  • Active listening, paraphrasing and probing during farm advisory conversations
  • Managing dominant voices, conflict and misinformation in producer groups
  • Visual aids, local language and low-literacy communication techniques
  • Session closure using agreed actions, responsibilities and follow-up dates

Participants can identify advisory priorities with farmers using structured participatory assessment methods.

  • Participatory Rural Appraisal tools: transects, seasonal calendars and resource maps
  • Problem-tree analysis separating root causes, effects and assumptions
  • Farm household interviews covering labour, assets, production and income
  • Gender analysis with access, control, workload and decision-making questions
  • Ranking constraints through pairwise ranking and matrix scoring
  • Validating findings with farmer groups before advisory priorities are set

Participants can convert technical evidence into practical advisory messages and demonstration plans.

  • Good Agricultural Practices translated into farm-specific advisory messages
  • Integrated Pest Management thresholds, scouting records and non-chemical controls
  • Demonstration plot protocols comparing treatments, costs, yields and farmer observations
  • Soil health recommendations based on sampling, organic matter and nutrient balances
  • Climate-smart practices: water management, diversification and weather-informed decisions
  • Livestock advisory priorities covering feed, housing, health and biosecurity
  • Referral boundaries for veterinary, pesticide and regulated technical advice

Participants can incorporate farm economics and market requirements into extension advice.

  • Gross margin analysis using enterprise costs, yields, prices and margins
  • Partial budgeting for proposed changes in inputs, practices or enterprises
  • Seasonal price analysis and post-harvest loss reduction options
  • Market mapping from producers through aggregators, processors and buyers
  • Recordkeeping formats for cash costs, labour, inventory and sales
  • Advising on collective marketing, contracts and quality requirements

Participants can organise group-based extension methods with clear learning and follow-up arrangements.

  • Farmer Field School cycles: observation, analysis, decision and action
  • Lead farmer selection criteria, role boundaries and support arrangements
  • Planning farmer-to-farmer dissemination without overstating peer trainer expertise
  • Organising field days around learning stations, evidence and farmer questions
  • Producer group governance: membership, records, meeting rules and grievance routes
  • Demonstration follow-up schedules linked to crop stages and adoption decisions

Participants can plan extension services that reduce barriers and protect participants from harm.

  • Gender-responsive extension scheduling around workloads, mobility and care responsibilities
  • Youth engagement through enterprise pathways, digital channels and leadership roles
  • Disability inclusion checks for venues, materials, transport and communication
  • Do-no-harm screening for land, household power and resource conflicts
  • Safeguarding procedures for consent, referrals, reporting and confidential records
  • Reaching remote farmers through radio, mobile messaging and decentralised meetings

Participants can select and manage digital channels for timely, responsible farmer advice.

  • Selecting digital channels by connectivity, literacy, cost and message urgency
  • SMS and voice-message scripts for time-sensitive agronomic advisories
  • Data protection principles for farmer contacts, consent and data sharing
  • Digital advisory logs capturing question, response, referral and follow-up
  • Weather and market information checked against source reliability and locality
  • Combining remote advice with field verification for complex farm problems

Participants can monitor extension reach, quality and results using practical evidence systems.

  • Results frameworks linking activities, outputs, outcomes and service objectives
  • Indicator definitions for reach, participation, knowledge, adoption and income
  • Baseline, target and disaggregation choices for credible extension reporting
  • Data collection protocols using registers, observation checklists and short surveys
  • Outcome harvesting to document unexpected changes and contribution evidence
  • Feedback loops that revise service content from monitoring findings
  • Reporting dashboards for managers, funders and community accountability meetings

Participants can prepare a realistic seasonal extension workplan with resources, risks and follow-up actions.

  • Extension workplans aligned with crop calendars, staffing and transport constraints
  • Caseload analysis balancing visit frequency, group sessions and referral time
  • Route planning that clusters farm visits and protects follow-up commitments
  • Budget estimates for demonstrations, materials, communication and local travel
  • Risk registers covering weather, disease outbreaks, insecurity and misinformation
  • Personal 90-day application plans with milestones, evidence and supervisor discussions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. AKIS stakeholder mapping template
  2. Participatory farmer needs-assessment toolkit
  3. Farmer learning session plan
  4. Demonstration plot protocol
  5. Extension monitoring framework
  6. Costed 90-day extension workplan

Who should attend

  • Agricultural Extension Officers — need practical methods for farmer diagnosis, advisory delivery and follow-up
  • NGO Agriculture Programme Staff — need accountable extension systems for smallholder and resilience programmes
  • Field Coordinators — need to organise staff caseloads, demonstrations and seasonal workplans
  • Producer Organisation Officers — need stronger member advisory, group learning and market support services
  • Government Agriculture Officers — need participatory approaches for decentralised public extension services
  • Agribusiness Field Agents — need responsible advisory methods linked to inputs, production and market quality

Skills and tools covered

Extension service designParticipatory diagnosisFarmer facilitationFarm advisory methodsExtension monitoringField work planning

Tools and standards

Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems, Participatory Rural Appraisal, Farmer Field School, Outcome Harvesting

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce extension methods, followed by sector cases, group analysis and facilitated discussion. Participants work with realistic farmer profiles, seasonal production calendars, advisory records and service data. Simulations develop consultation, questioning, referral and group-facilitation skills. Teams assess extension choices for crop, livestock and market situations, then receive structured feedback. Application planning connects the methods to participants’ own service areas, farmer groups, delivery targets and field constraints.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with farming systems, agricultural projects, rural development or farmer-facing work. At least six months of experience in extension, field coordination, producer support, agronomy, livestock services or programme delivery is useful. Participants should be comfortable discussing crop or livestock production decisions and working with simple tables. A degree in agriculture is not required, and no advanced statistics, software skills or prior training in participatory methods is assumed. The course does not replace specialist agronomy, veterinary or pesticide-certification training.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have some exposure to agriculture, rural development, farmer support or field programme delivery. The course assumes no advanced agronomy, statistical analysis or specialist digital skills.

Bring examples of your current extension materials, workplans, reporting forms or farmer communication challenges if available. A laptop is useful for live online delivery and helpful in classroom sessions, but it is not essential.

It is designed for extension officers, NGO field staff, government agriculture personnel, producer organisation staff and agribusiness field agents. It is most useful for people who advise farmers directly or manage others who do.

Agronomy courses focus on technical production knowledge, while project management courses focus on budgets, schedules and delivery controls. This course focuses on how agricultural advice is diagnosed, communicated, delivered, monitored and improved with farmers.

Participants leave with templates for stakeholder mapping, farmer diagnosis, learning sessions, demonstrations, monitoring and work planning. These can be adapted to a current crop season, livestock service, producer group or programme area.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30, providing about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations, feedback and application planning across the ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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