Agricultural services can be provided by a mix of government, commercial, NGO and community organizations. The appropriate mix needs to be developed locally and pragmatically, depending on:

• the relative strengths of local organizations (which are likely to change over time);
• the comparative advantages different organizations have for different tasks.

A balance of competition and collaboration is needed between the different service organizations.

Although government is unlikely to return to the dominant role aspired to in the 1970s and 1980s, it needs to:

• create an enabling environment for other service providers;
• redress imbalance in existing service provision by affirmative action in favour of sustainability and the poorest smallholders;
• regulate potentially dangerous practices.

Sustainability requires a long-term perspective, which governments, like the other stakeholders, find difficult to achieve. Governments can help to create the stable conditions that encourage other stakeholders to take a long-term view. Donors can also support initiatives within government in favour of the longer term and sustainability.

Financial crises within governments have led to NGOs and agribusiness companies being visibly better-resourced than local government (in some cases funding government activities by providing transport, training, etc). This has led to distorted relations and weak accountability which need at least partly to be reversed. Where appropriate, governments should provide some of the funds for local NGOs and CBOs to provide agricultural services, perhaps on a contractual basis, and should encourage agribusiness companies to provide services to farmers to promote increased production of the crops in which they trade.