Civitas Status
Project initiator
Period
1 September 2026 – 31 August 2029
Budget
379.000 USD
Funder
Romanian-American Foundation
Partner
University of Georgia, USA

Extension 2.0 is a 36-month systemic reform programme designed to bridge this gap by institutionalising agricultural advisory services within Romanian universities. This initiative builds upon the pilot project implemented between March 2025 and June 2026, during which three extension initiatives were developed at USAMV Bucharest, USAMV Cluj, and USV Timișoara.

What are agricultural extension services?

Agricultural extension services provide information, training, and advice to farmers to help them improve production, adopt new technologies, and develop their businesses. An agricultural extension system has several roles:

It helps farmers adopt new technologies, modern agricultural practices, and sustainable solutions.
It organizes courses, workshops, and field demonstrations for farmers.
It offers consulting and advice tailored to the specific needs of farmers regarding crops, soils, irrigation, mechanization, etc.
It guides farmers in obtaining subsidies and financing for agricultural business development.
It encourages farmers to form cooperatives and organizations to improve market access and resource availability.

What do we aim to achieve?

Within the project, we aim to achieve four objectives:

1. Institutionalise the Extension Framework

To resolve administrative bottlenecks, the project will establish a Working Group (university leadership, MADR, MEC) to draft harmonised university procedures.

2. Strengthen Extension Leadership

To bring about a paradigm shift in our relationship with farmers, we will collaborate with specialists from the University of Georgia to develop training modules aimed at building participatory facilitation capacity within university extension teams.

3. Implement Community-Validated Pilots

The programme will deploy a competitive granting mechanism to fund active pilot projects. These projects will establish collaborative "learning plots" directly on farmers' land, transforming the farm into a "Validation Space."

4. Develop a Sustainable Extension Network

To prevent isolated results, the project will consolidate individual successes into a cohesive national extension network, supported by an open-access peer-learning repository, regular network meetings, and Annual Excellence Galas to ensure long-term peer validation.