Expanding 4-H In Developing Countries

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

In Africa, crop yields are 80% lower than the United States average, and that productivity is a direct reflection of new technologies not being adopted. The proven solution? Diffusing innovation through school-based agricultural education. G. Umaru Sherriff, executive director and co-founder of 4-H Liberia, says their next step is to deploy 4-H into Liberia’s extension service.

Sherriff… “ We want to have 4-H structure within the, in the government system. We know very well that 4-H as an NGO is challenging, but if we have 4-H as a part of the extension service in Liberia, where it is recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and be part of the system. We wanna reach out more, more schools. So in the next five years we want to meet and reach up to 600 schools. We want to reach out to more, to more communities that do not have 4-H. So right now we are working along with our partners, we are working along with the government because as an organization, we cannot just sit and come up with plan. We must come up with plan based on what government needs and government should be part of that planning process. So we are working along with government to see how 4-H also can be part of the extension services because they have seen what four is capable of doing.”

The goal is to expand the proven model of school based agricultural education.