The Feed the Future (FtF) Global Supporting Seed Systems for Development activity (S34D) is a five-year Leader with Associates award created to enhance farmers’ access to a full range of seed choices and options to maximize their responsive decision-making and planning for production. CRS and its partners implement S34D in target trade corridors to promote resilient, nutritious, productive, and profitable seed systems. S34D seeks to improve the functioning of and linkages between formal and informal seed systems and emergency, humanitarian aid and resilience seed programming in Feed the Future target and aligned countries with economic growth, resilience, and emergency seed security programs.

These studies identifi ed essential job competencies of extension professionals, assessed whether these key competencies were covered in current UG extension curriculum, determined the gaps in essential job competencies of extension professionals and recommended competency-based curriculum with 11 process skills and core competencies and 97 subcompetencies for their inclusion in the UG agricultural extension curriculum.

To strengthen the agricultural extension curriculum, the present study was undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa covering Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya during 2021-2023. The population for the study was agricultural extension professionals within these five countries drawn from universities, public- sector organizations, private- sector organizations, and NGOs. Mixed- method research design, comprising quantitative and qualitative approaches, was employed to assess the process skills and competency gaps in undergraduate (UG) agricultural extension curricula with the following research questions and objectives: Research Questions 1. Do extension programs effectively address the needs of current food and agricultural systems? 2. What are the critical job skills and core competencies required of extension workers to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate extension work in today’s changing context? 3. Does the UG curriculum in extension education include education and/or training on these job skills or core competencies? 4. What are the barriers to effectively training extension workers with required core competencies, and how can these barriers be removed? Objectives 1. Review agricultural extension curricula currently in use at AAP member universities at the UG level in Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya. 2. Identify critical process skills and competencies of agricultural extension professionals, process skills gaps, and areas of potential curricular reform. 3. Recommend improvements/reforms of agricultural extension curricula to prepare the next generation of agricultural extension professionals to competently handle EASs delivery. 4. Introduce new/improved curricula among the agricultural extension faculty engaged in training and education in sub-Saharan countries. The study assessed 11 process skills and competencies — program planning; program implementation; communication; information and communication technologies (ICTs; program monitoring and evaluation; personal and professional development; diversity and gender; marketing, brokering, and value chain development; extension soft skills; nutrition; and technical subject matter expertise.