In most states of Australia, agricultural extension policies and practices have increasingly been based on considerations of private/public goods, user pays and cost recovery. In addition, the delivery of extension has been strongly influenced by changing administrative structures and a change in the paradigm within which the extension community operates. These changes have had major impacts, including more extension being delivered by the private sector. There are positive aspects to the changes and, for some issues, they are appropriate. However, we have a number of reservations, particularly about the effectiveness of current extension systems in assisting the adoption of complex environmental and farming system technologies.

Rural research, development and extension (RD&E) has been a significant contributor to making Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries into what they are today—world-leading, productive and innovative industries.

The Australian rural sector includes a diverse range of industries, which largely comprise small family businesses. The incentive and capacity for individual small businesses to invest in RD&E is low, resulting in potential under-investment in RD&E in the rural sector. The government helps rural industries overcome this by providing rural producers with a means of investing collectively in RD&E to benefit their industry and wider community. This is done through the rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs)—a partnership between government and industry in priority setting and funding.

A New Agricultural Extension Policy (NAEP) has been devised and introduced in Bangladesh in 1996. The goal of the NAEP is to: “Encourage the various partners and agencies within National Agricultural Extension System (NAES) to provide efficient and effective services which compliment and reinforce each other; in an effort to increase the efficiency and productivity of agriculture in Bangladesh”.

The broad objective of the agricultural policy is to facilitate and accelerate technological transformation with a view to becoming self-sufficient in food production and improve the  nutritional status of the population.

Agricultural extension is a key component of the strategies and objectives of the Government's agricultural policy. As part of the Government.s responsibility for the establishment of policies, regulations and projects that will ensure sustained agricultural production, the need for developing a New Agricultural Extension Policy was felt.