THINKeEXTENSION

There are many reasons people working in Agriculture, Natural Resource Management or Environment (hopefully people not working in any of these fields removed from the others) should THINKeEXTENSION. This morning, I was reminded of another when I read this report on Hunger in the Philippines.

Extension is a business of reaching out, of enabling, a business of dare I say it “Yes We Can”.

One Laptop Per Child OLTP is a “Yes We Can” idea and a movement with a mission to provide school age children in developing countries with their own laptop. This type of initiative will fuel the trend, that will see 3 Billion people online in the next couple of years. OLTP is an amazing effort that gives people access to ideas that can improve their world, and maybe some that won’t (however in an information age, we all need to learn to filter good ideas from bad).

To my way of thinking the concept that links these two ideas (world hunger and universal internet access) is eExtension. If we can be laptops to every school child in the world, using eExtension we can get good Extension Support to the whole of planet. Whether your audience in within a 50km radius or global, good eExtension will enable healthy vibrant agriculture (producing good food and fibre) and a healthy environment (producing good air, water, climate and the countless blessing that come from our planet).

“Yes We Can”

(apologies and congrats to Obama)