Extension Services Intensification in BAMSCOS
24-04-2020 09:14:35
Background
As you do your part in slaying this dragon called COVID-19, you can spare some minutes to go through a case study on the project we are currently running with BAMSCOS focusing on productivity increase through good extension services.
BAMSCOS (Baringo Agricultural Marketing Services Cooperative Society Limited) was set up in 2012 initially to champion the interest of all the cooperatives in Baringo County. Over time and due to the dominance of dairy cooperatives within the County, they've evolved to become a serious player in the dairy value chain. Having succeeded in convincing their 19 affiliated primary cooperatives to jointly market their members’ raw milk, the next target for BAMSCOS has been and still is to build sufficient flow of the raw materials and capital for them to invest in their milk processing plant of which the construction is currently underway.
Productivity increase through good Extension services
In 2017, Agriterra facilitated the Sustainable Services workshop in which a solid foundation was laid to strengthen and structure extension services offered by BAMSCOS. The extension team focused merely on breeding; only 4 extension officers were employed and there was no active use of lead farmers. The workshop brought forth a financially sustainable system to cover extension costs through a milk fee; recruitment of more extension officers and a clear focus on animal fodder, feed and feeding to improve productivity and reduce the decline of milk during the dry season.
In 2019, with the support of a grant from NUFFIC and the technical expertise of Agriterra and KIT (tropical institute from the Netherlands) BAMSCOS intensified its extension strategy to increase the productivity within the next three years. The dairy union was supported to re-look at their extension strategy and come up with a commensurate structure to help in the precise execution of this developed dairy intensification strategy. Part of the strategy is coaching of extension staff to enhance their training and communication skills for higher adaptation levels among farmers. A Kenyan dairy trainer is providing the training with distant backstopping by KIT and Agriterra.
“We are grateful for what Agriterra has done to us throughout our partnership, however, this intensification of extension services to our members has been the game-changer in our region”, Rogers Changwony, manager of BAMSCOS.
Results
This project has helped BAMSCOS to reorganise their value proposition to its membership by prioritising how they could all get access to the much-needed extension services. The 19 primary cooperatives (PC) affiliated to BAMSCOS are of different sizes, therefore some could afford to hire extension officers, others couldn’t.
Through this project, an extension structure was arrived at, that made sure, that individual members from all the 19 PC could get access to the extension support regardless of their size. This meant utilising the existing extension staff as well us coming up with extension coordinators at the PC level to coordinate extension activities and to support PCs with no extension staff. This structure is then complemented heavily by the aspect of lead-farmer concept to support the entrenchment of the extension services.
When asked about the tangible results of this support so far, the chairman of the extension sub-committee of the board had this to say:
“Through this intensification of the extension services, our members' deliveries increased by 29% in 2019, excluding the investments we made in our hay farm and other direct investments made by the members themselves in their farms, worth thousands of dollars”.
Of course, to maintain this growth momentum, a lot of effort is being put on reaching more members though the recent recruitment of 10 new extension officers through Agriterra’s jobs!jobs!jobs! programme.
Conclusion
To conclude, Mr Rogers Changwony believes that they have achieved their first initial milestone as they work towards realising their BHAG; that of processing, packaging and marketing their milk due to the now assured production of the key raw material-milk.
They will continue to cement this growth momentum as they build on their internal capital to invest in the processing machinery soon.
The objective of this workshop is to support a farmers’ organisation or cooperative in developing a farmer-led and financially sustainable advisory services system. The advisory services support the members to enhance productivity by promoting efficient and climate-smart good agricultural practices addressing the needs of the farmers. Good advisory services can not only enhance productivity and member commitment but also result in better farm income and cooperative business.
The 3-day workshop is designed for a small group of representatives from board, management, lead farmers and the extension or advisory staff. Before the workshop, an advisory services check is being conducted to identify the quality of the current advisory services system.
Author
Wilfred Chepkwony is an Agriterra business advisor based in Nairobi, Kenya. He joined Agriterra in January 2013 to support the Agribusiness advisor to better offer the highly demanded advisory services to the rapidly growing client portfolio in Kenya. His passion lies in developing sustainable businesses with a well-articulated growth strategy that can be sustainably supported by business fundamentals.