Empowering smallholder farmers’ organizations through non-public extension service providers: a case study and lessons from Mozambique

The role and impact of non-state extension services providers have not been studied adequately. In this paper, assess the performance of the non-State extension service provision through farmers organization (FOs) in Mozambique. Using participating methods, focused group discussions, and key informant interviews, provide an assessment of extension services provision to FOs. The result indicates only 3% of the 1264 surveyed FOs were categorized as "type A", the highest FOs rating scale used by services providers (SPs) in the three regions of the country. Effective monitoring and evaluation (regular, analytical, participatory) at field level and close working interaction between the Public Agricultural Extension Services (PAES) and the SPs were of paramount importance to track the progress made in empowering the FOs. SPs' pro-activeness and competence were critical factors to adequately address the various training needs of the different categories of FOs and local services providers.