Country Profile
The agricultural sector has always been very important in Guatemala. Initially research and extension functions were retained within the Ministry of Agriculture in the Directorate General of Agricultural Services (DIGESA), a centralized agency, and official agricultural extension institution; and the Directorate General of Animal Services (DGESEPE), the official extension agency for animal producers (Stewart, 1985). This form of extension was active in the 1970s at the time the Generation and Transfer of Agricultural Technology and Seed Production Project (PROGETTAPS) was designed in response to policies directed at increasing food production and income of small farmers. But with thirty years of internal conflict, Guatemala extension system began to be dismantled and by the time the Guatemala Peace Accords was signed in 1996, the extension system had ceased to exist. Government efforts to reestablish a national agricultural extension service as a component of the department of agriculture, MAGA (Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganaderia y Alimentacion) was noticeable in 2008 and the formal initiation of the extension service (Sistema Nacional de Extension Agricola – SNEA) was in April 2010 (Smith, 2011). For a full report on the pluralistic agricultural extension system in Guatemala click HERE
The agricultural sector has always been very important in Guatemala. Initially research and extension functions were retained within the Ministry of Agriculture in the Directorate General of Agricultural Services (DIGESA), a centralized agency, and official agricultural extension institution; and the Directorate General of Animal Services (DGESEPE), the official extension agency for animal producers (Stewart, 1985). This form of extension was active in the 1970s at the time the Generation and Transfer of Agricultural Technology and Seed Production Project (PROGETTAPS) was designed in response to policies directed at increasing food production and income of small farmers. But with thirty years of internal conflict, Guatemala extension system began to be dismantled and by the time the Guatemala Peace Accords was signed in 1996, the extension system had ceased to exist. Government efforts to reestablish a national agricultural extension service as a component of the department of agriculture, MAGA (Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganaderia y Alimentacion) was noticeable in 2008 and the formal initiation of the extension service (Sistema Nacional de Extension Agricola – SNEA) was in April 2010 (Smith, 2011). For a full report on the pluralistic agricultural extension system in Guatemala click HERE
Public Sector
Governmental or ministry-based extension organizationsPublic Research Institutions with Extension UnitUniversity-based ExtensionSemi-autonomous Governmental Extension Organizations | The Role of the Agricultural SectorExcellent background information is available in:IICA Annual Report 2009 (in Spanish): www.iica.int/Esp/regiones/central/guatemala/ Publicaciones%20de%20la%20Oficina/B1671e.pdf Related ResourcesGood Extension Management Practices in Central America (English version forthcoming, expected February 2012)
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