ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and former Soviet republics of Central Asia, relevant aspects of institutional development for agricultural information have been supported or ignored in recovery efforts. It provides direction for applying current understanding of agricultural advisory service provision in promoting more realistic and equitable agricultural recovery efforts. Agricultural recovery after conflict must be understood in the context of how farmers and other agricultural actors struggle to understand and respond to the changes that have occurred in markets, technologies, environmental conditions and the shifting roles of the state, farmer organizations and private sector. Post-conflict NGO support is frequently predicated on expectations that the advisory services they provide can be 'handed over' to the government, farmer organizations or the private sector, none of which may have intentions to support smallholder farming. The importance of information in recovery efforts is related to the growing emphasis on supporting the capacities of conflict-affected people to pursue and preserve their livelihoods.
