- Agricultural Extension Must Become Economic Infrastructure — Dr Opoku Gakpo
Ghana’s struggle to secure affordable food will not be resolved only by distributing fertiliser, developing improved seeds or announcing new agricultural programmes. It will also depend on whether the country can rebuild the human infrastructure that connects scientific knowledge with farmers working in fields, poultry houses and livestock communities.
Agricultural analyst Dr Joseph Opoku Gakpo has placed that often-overlooked link at the centre of the food-security debate, arguing that Ghana must invest more deliberately in agricultural extension personnel and the systems that enable them to work effectively.
His warning exposes a fundamental weakness in agricultural policymaking. Ghana can finance research, introduce climate-smart technologies and promote modern production methods, but those investments will deliver limited returns if farmers cannot understand, trust or apply the innovations being produced.
“Without effective extension services, innovations developed at universities and research institutions may never reach the farmers who need them, limiting the benefits of investments in agricultural research,” Dr Gakpo said in an interview marking World Food Day.
Extension officers are the practical bridge between laboratories and farms. They translate research into decisions about seed selection, soil health, pest control, livestock management, harvesting, storage and marketing. In an agricultural economy dominated by smallholders, their effectiveness can determine whether an innovation becomes a productivity breakthrough or remains confined to a research paper.
Yet Ghana has approximately one agricultural extension officer for every 1,700 farmers, against a Food and Agriculture Organisation recommendation of roughly one officer for every 500 farmers, according to figures cited by Dr Gakpo.
The consequence is not merely lower yields. Weak extension services can produce inefficient use of fertiliser and pesticides, slower adoption of resilient seed varieties, avoidable post-harvest losses and poor connections between farmers and markets. These failures ultimately appear in higher food prices, unstable household incomes and increased dependence on imports.
Dr Gakpo’s intervention is therefore timely. About 10 per cent of Ghana’s population remains food insecure, based on Ghana Statistical Service figures he cited. That means the country’s agricultural challenge cannot be judged solely by national production totals. Food must be available, physically accessible and affordable to households whose incomes remain under pressure.
This is why extension policy should be treated as economic infrastructure rather than a peripheral public service. Ghana routinely debates roads, irrigation, warehouses and processing facilities as essential agricultural investments. Knowledge delivery deserves the same status because physical infrastructure cannot generate its full value when farmers lack timely technical guidance.
The required investment goes beyond recruiting more officers. Extension personnel need transport, digital devices, reliable connectivity, demonstration materials and continuous professional training. They must understand crop and livestock systems, climate adaptation, post-harvest management and agricultural markets. Equally important, they need communication skills that allow them to convert technical information into advice farmers can use.
Trust is particularly important when extension officers introduce unfamiliar or contested technologies. Dr Gakpo cited regenerative agriculture, genetically modified organisms and improved post-harvest practices as examples where scientific evidence alone may not secure adoption.
“Farmers need to understand the technologies and trust the people introducing them. Without that trust, adoption can be difficult,” he said.
Research co-authored by Dr Gakpo and Dr Katherine McKee of North Carolina State University supports this argument. Their study of farmers in Ghana’s three northern regions recommended using trusted intermediaries, communicating effectively, encouraging validation among farmers and building collaborative relationships when introducing new technologies.
That insight matters because farmers are not passive recipients of instructions. They evaluate innovations against experience, local conditions, financial risk and the testimony of other farmers. An extension model that lectures rather than listens may fail even when the underlying technology is sound.
Ghana must consequently move from one-way technology transfer towards a system of advisory partnership. Extension officers should carry farmers’ observations back to researchers, ensuring that innovations respond to real production constraints. This feedback loop would improve research relevance while giving farmers greater ownership of change.
The proposed Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services Bill offers an opportunity to institutionalise that shift. The legislation is intended to modernise delivery and create a clearer legal and regulatory framework for extension services across the country.
Among its proposed measures is a National Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services Council to regulate professionals and oversee standards and training. A regulatory unit would also monitor organisations providing extension and advisory services.
Professionalisation could improve service quality, but regulation must not become another administrative layer detached from conditions in farming communities. Standards will matter only if districts have enough qualified personnel, officers receive the resources required to travel, and performance is measured by changes in farming outcomes.
The framework should also recognise that the state cannot close the extension deficit alone. Universities, research institutes, agribusinesses, farmer organisations, civil-society groups and digital platforms already provide advice. Ghana needs a coordinated system that establishes minimum standards, prevents misleading claims and allows credible public and private providers to complement one another.
Financing will be the decisive test. Governments often recognise extension services in policy documents while allocating insufficient resources for field operations. If Ghana is serious about food security, budgets must reflect the number of officers required, the cost of equipping them and the need to retain skilled personnel in rural districts.
Accountability must accompany funding. Extension programmes should report not only how many farmers attended training, but whether recommended practices were adopted, yields improved, losses declined and farm incomes increased. Gender and age should also be tracked because women and young farmers may face distinct barriers to accessing advice, land, finance and technology.
World Food Day’s 2026 theme, “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow,” captures the promise of science but also its limitation. Innovation does not feed people merely because it exists. It must move from research institutions through trusted advisers into farmers’ decisions, and from increased production into markets where consumers can afford the resulting food.
Ghana may continue producing promising technologies and ambitious agricultural strategies for years. But unless knowledge reaches farmers in a form they trust and can apply, the distance between innovation and food security will remain dangerously wide.
