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Knowledge investment supporting the adoption of environmentally friendly farm practices is a key driver behind innovation processes in agriculture, yet impact evaluations and financial assessments of existing initiatives remain scarce despite dramatic changes in orientation, organisation and intervention. This report examines the role, performance and impact of farm advisory services, training and extension initiatives in the OECD area to foster green growth in agriculture. Based on a series of case studies, the report discusses a range of methodological issues and the merits of the different types of providers, and identifies best practices in sustainable agricultural management.

Agricultural advisory services, training and extension initiatives play an important role in supporting green growth in agriculture and enabling farmers to meet new challenges, such as adopting environmentally sustainable farming practices and improving their competitiveness. At present, there is renewed interest in agricultural advisory services in many countries.

Investing in knowledge to support the adoption of environmentally-friendly farm practices is commonly perceived as a key driver behind innovation processes in agriculture. Yet changes at the national and global levels have led to dramatic changes in the orientation of advisory services, how these are organised, and their methods of intervention. This report examines the role, performance and impact of farm advisory services, as well as the training and extension initiatives undertaken in the OECD area to foster green growth in agriculture. The merits of the different types of providers are also discussed and the experience of selected OECD countries presented.

This chapter discusses the evolving role of advisory services, training and extension initiatives, and the diversity of users and providers in the OECD area. The use and merits of the different types of providers, alone and in combination, are also discussed. Examples of the experience of countries across the OECD area are presented.

This chapter examines different types of advisory, training and extension measures, focusing on technical advice, agri-environmental knowledge transfer between researchers and farmers/advisers, training in agri-environmental management, peer group and cooperative initiatives and measures based on information and communications technology.

This chapter summarises the key findings and lessons learned from five case studies: the Australian Primary Industries Research, Development and Extension System; The Canadian Growing Forward Program; “Soft” measures in England and Wales; the Farm Advisory Services in Greece; and the Sustainable Farming Fund in New Zealand.

This chapter proposes guidelines and lessons for best practice to improve the effectiveness of advisory, training and extension measures to achieve green growth objectives in the agricultural area.

This chapter discusses the conceptual and analytical issues surrounding the evaluation of the performance and impacts of training, advisory services and extension initiatives in the agriculture. The key objective is how these can be best provided to farmers in order to encourage and enable long-term, environmentally beneficial changes in farming practices.