Voluntary training and certification programs for ‘crop advisors’ may provide an effective way to promote growth in agricultural output and efficiency in the developing world. Trained crop advisors work with farmers personally and at local levels to train growers in best practices and provide expert advice on matters ranging from seed selection, nutrition, and pest-control to post-harvest management.

A model for such programs can be found in the American Society of Agronomy’s Certified Crop Advisor Program. Since 1992, more than 37,000 people drawn from local communities throughout the U.S. and Canada have voluntarily applied to participate in the program. Nearly 13,000 of these have met certification standards.

The CCA program is coordinated nationally by the ASA in collaboration with the Soil Science Society of America and is administered by state and regional boards at the local level. Volunteers with agricultural and natural resources backgrounds—typically from universities, government agencies, or agribusiness—staff the local boards and determine local ‘curricula’ and exams to supplement basic nationally standardized requirements.

To become a CCA, a candidate must have a B.Sc. in agricultural field or at least four years professional experience in agriculture. Candidates can then participate in online self-study or classroom-based preparatory programs administered by the ASA before taking certification exams.

In India, the ASA has recently worked with the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals to create an autonomous Indian CCA program to promote crop advisor programs in the South Asia. In India alone, the program’s coordinators believe that efficiency gains from basic CCA support could produce an additional 5 million tons of grain annually and increase the yearly incomes of six million poor rural households by at least $350.