FAO Launches Asia Pacific Agricultural Extension And Outreach Network

By Minggu Simon Lhasa BANGKOK, Dec 18 (Bernama) -- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Wednesday announced the launch of the Asia Pacific Agricultural Extension and Outreach Network (Apaeon). The new network is designed to share the latest agricultural knowledge among Asia-Pacific governments and other stakeholders and extend that knowledge to front-line farmers, fishermen and other land users, said FAO in a statement Thursday. The joint launch involved FAO, the Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institute and the Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Sustainable Agriculture of ESCAP. FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative, Hiroyuki Konuma said Apaeon's joint launch brought 25 governments and representatives from farmers’ movements together. “This network will work closely with national extension institutions of the region and others to find ways and means of improving extension and outreach programmes by better linking that research with extension services themselves, while promoting professionalism and the use of new technologies,” he added. He said the network was being launched at a time when famers needed more research and extension support than ever. “The challenge before us is how to make the system more effective and to deliver more than before, with fewer costs," said Konuma. The Apaeon network will work to fill the gaps in research and extension by taking into consideration many challenges to agriculture and food production, such as climate change, price hike, lack of coordination in the work of different stakeholders and high costs of inputs and market vulnerability. FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific will host the network for an initial period of two or three years, at which time the function of secretariat will be transferred to one of the participating countries. -- BERNAMA