Insights towards inclusive Pluralistic Service Systems - FAO 2016

Towards inclusive Pluralistic Service Systems: Insights for innovative thinking.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Royal Tropical Institute

Rome, 2016

This publication was prepared as a background document for the FAO Expert Consultation on “New Directions for Inclusive Pluralistic Service Systems” held in Rome, Italy from 11 to 13 May 2016. 

The promise of pluralistic service systems (PSS) lies in their potential to overcome the constraints and failures of previous approaches to agricultural advisory services – ranging from state-led public sector services focused on a linear transfer of technologies to market-based solutions through privatization efforts. While some positive results are documented, neither purely public nor privatized systems evidently reached the vast number of smallholder farmers in need of services by themselves, or demonstrated long-term impacts on improving rural livelihoods. 

Having a diversity of service providers through PSS has the potential to make services more inclusive, responsive to demand, context-specific and based on multiple knowledge sources. This is particularly relevant, as farmers are highly diverse, differing in resources, gender, market access, crops and livestock systems, and therefore require different types of information and services to achieve sustainable productivity growth and better livelihoods.  Coordination and accountability are among the greatest challenges in such systems. This has triggered a growing debate on the extent to which the emergence of PSS has indeed improved access to advisory services for heterogeneous smallholder farmers. “Access” refers not only to the physical proximity of services, but to their affordability, sociocultural appropriateness and context-specific relevance.  

This paper provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on “inclusive pluralistic service systems”, examining the need for demand-driven service provision, the diverse providers and approaches to service delivery, and the policy considerations and institutional challenges constraining the operation of inclusive PSS. Advisory services comprise:  all the different activities that provide the information and services needed and demanded by farmers and other actors in rural settings to assist them in developing their own technical, organizational, and management skills and practices so as to improve their livelihoods and well-being. 

The role of advisory services thus goes beyond agriculture and includes issues of farmer empowerment, linkages to value-chain actors and to other service providers, and organizational development. Advisory services are considered inclusive if they are: responsive to resource-poor and vulnerable farmers, especially women; tailored to the multiple capacities, needs and demands of farmers; characterized by continuous dialogue and learning between farmers and service providers; and based on complementary services by different actors.  

The review of existing literature is guided by two main research questions:  To what extent do pluralistic advisory service systems serve the needs and demands of smallholder farmers, and what measures can be put in place to ensure that smallholder farmers have access to services that are relevant and responsive to their demands?  

In this paper, section 2 offers an overview of farmer heterogeneity and divergent needs for services, section 3 examines the different categories of service providers. Section 4 covers the types of services that are most inclusive, and section 5 investigates the question of who is able and willing to pay for these services. Section 6 addresses the governance challenges of accountability and coordination, and section 7 translates the insights gained into guidelines for improving the efficiency and inclusiveness of PSS. Section 8 concludes with a series of reflections as input for further debate on how rural advisory services can be made more inclusive for smallholder farmers.       

ISBN 978-92-5-109572-0