Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is located in West Africa and bordered on the North by Mali and Burkina Faso, on the West by Liberia and Guinea, on the East by Ghana and on the south by the Gulf of Guinea. With a land area of 322,462 km2 the Ivorian population was estimated at 21.6 million people in 2011 of which more than 25 percent are foreigners. Cote d'Ivoire is heavily dependent on agriculture and related activities, which engage roughly 68% of the population. The country is the world's largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans and a significant producer and exporter of coffee and palm oil. Agriculture accounts for 29.2 % of the GDP, and the economy is more sensitive to fluctuations in international prices for agricultural products such as cocoa, oil and coffee (CIA, 2012). The political unrest that started in 1999 continued to damage the economy resulting in the loss of foreign investment and slow economic growth. GDP grew by more than 2% in 2008 and around 4% per year in 2009-10. Despite political instability created by the post-election crisis, in late 2011, Cote d'Ivoire's economy was recovering from a severe downturn of the first quarter of the year (CIA, 2012).
A Brief History of Agricultural Extension Services in Côte d'Ivoire and the Enabling Environment
Since Cote d'Ivoire gained independence in 1960, agricultural extension had gone through several changes mostly characterized by the establishment of several development projects and institutions. Initially, agricultural extension service was entrusted to the Company for Modernization of Ivorian Agriculture (SATMACI) that was responsible for farm advisory and distribution of input and credit to mostly cocoa and coffee farmers. With the establishment of State institutions to develop and manage specific crops or enterprises, extension was shifted to development corporations including the Development Corporation of Rice (SODERIZ), the Development Corporation of Oil Palm (SODEPALM), the Ivorian Company for Textile Development (CIDT), the African Society of Rubber Plantations (SAPH), the League of Plantations in Grand Bereby (SOGB) and the Livestock Development Agency (SODEPRA) (Kouame Kouassi, 2008). These development institutions adopted a Unified Extension Approach (UEA) that came together with the Training and Visit (T&V) extension management approach introduced by the World Bank.
The perceived weaknesses of the structural adjustment policy and the UEA-T&V approach prompted the government to undertake major restructuring of agricultural services. The National Agricultural Services Agency (ANADER) was created by merging three organizations SATMACI (extension services to cocoa and coffee growers) CIDV (extension services to food crop producers) and SODERA (extension services to livestock). ANADER is the coordinating agency for extension services that provides advices for all crops, both cash crops and food crops. It does so through a network of offices distributed throughout the country and a workforce of agents and agronomists residing in villages, in charge of the creation and running of the contact groups and of the discussion of innovation themes and techniques (Romani, 2003). At the national level and with the operating support from the World Bank, ANADER created ten regional extension directorates that were staffed with 3,000 personnel of which 1,500 were field extension workers. In addition, there were about 160 supervisors, 190 production subject matter specialists and 116 farmers' organization specialists. With privatization of ANADER in 1999, producers are expected to pay for extension services and fewer farmers, especially coffee farmers, have sought agricultural extension advices from the institution.
Acknowledgements – Authors and Reviewers
Persons responsible for this report: Andre M. Nnoung, Burt E. Swanson and Andrea B. Bohn