Analysis On The Township Extension Service Effectiveness And Future Development Strategy

Chinese agriculture is facing both opportunities and challenges created by China's entry into WTO and economic globalization. To cope the challenges, China had initiated the institutional reform of agriculture extension system since 2002. The new township agriculture extension centers were established in the rural areas. The new system, after 3-years implementation, however, could not meet the demand and requirement of the agricultural development.In this paper, we studied the township level agriculture extension centers in Yong-ning County of Guangxi. By using the methods of empirical studies and participatory rural appraisal the authors analyzed the current situation of the township agriculture extension centers, the assessment of different stakeholders toward the new system and the factors that restrict the functions of the township centers. Based on the findings, the authors also made recommendations for improving the service function and efficiency of township agricultural extension centers.Major findings of the investigation are as follows:1. After the institutional reform, the new agriculture extension centers were combined of some professional units including planting, livestock, aquaculture, agro-mechanical, etc. The centers were administered directly and thoroughly by the township governments. The superior agriculture organizations could hardly control the centers.2. It was good for the township government to administer the personnel, finance and permanent assets. But, on the other hand. it was very hard for the centers and agriculture department to implement their responsibilities to agriculture and farmers because they must submit to the township government first instead of the agriculture and farmers.3. For the farmers and the agriculture, the new system is not as efficient as the old one. The relationship of the farmers, agriculture extension centers, township government and agriculture are confused.4. It was very hard to raise money for the centers, especially in planting industry because the township government had to allocated the funds base on the whole societies instead of the agriculture only.5. There is very limited opportunity for service staff to qualify themselves by training and other education programs.6. The new extension system could not exert the tow functions of the agriculture extension.