The new Constitution of Nepal (2015) has initiated federal, provincial, and local governments in Nepal, each bestowed with respective rights, responsibilities, power and authority. While developing the new mechanism of governance, the Constitution has given immense authority as well as responsibility to local governments, which is unprecedented and has never been experienced before in the history of Nepal. Along with the restructuring of the state, the institutional mechanism of the agriculture sector has also been restructured. The agricultural extension service delivery system is currently trying to adjust to the changing institutional and policy context introduced by the new federal structure.

This brief discusses some of the challenges before Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) in Nepal as it tries to adjust to the new governance structure and proposes potential ways forward to strengthen EAS delivery. It also draws heavily on the outputs of the policy dialogue entitled “Agricultural Extension System in Federal Nepal” jointly organized by the Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA), the South Asia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) and the Nepal Policy Research Network (NPRN) on 9 April, 2019, at Kathmandu.