Within AGRITEX, there is little information on how many farmers it is actually reaching and servicing. The extension agency offers a blanket public good service, which farmers are expected to use. Large-scale commercial farmers perceive AGRITEX as generally not competent to provide advisory services to their subsector. The majority of these farmers rely on support services from private agro-based companies. Within the smallholder sector, farm households have adopted fully the use of maize hybrid seed, but the adoption and use of supportive technologies, such as fertilizers, pesticides and recommended agronomic management practices, is generally well below 40 percent across the country (Mudimu, 1998).
AGRITEX is only able to recommend technologies that were made available 15 to 20 years ago. The problems of inappropriate technology are most serious in the low-rainfall and marginal agro-ecological zones (i.e. agro-ecological regions III to V). Most farmers indicated that, where they have not adopted recommended technologies, they use either technologies from their own informal experiments or modifications of recommended technologies. AGRITEX has neither systematically identified farmer-developed technologies that work nor adapted these for extension to other farmers in other wards, districts or provinces. This problem has been compounded by an ever-dwindling operating budget and lack of transport, which have also severely limited extension agents' contract with farmers. According to one key informant, "AGRITEX's financial woes and the government's expectations are like trying to milk a cow without feeding it", a scenario reflected by too many demands and insufficient financial backing.
Several other organizations provide agricultural services to large-scale and smallholder farmers. These services range from NGO-funded, community-based, production-oriented projects, which are aimed at income generation and improved family health and welfare, to the provision of agroservices by private companies. The current relationship between AGRITEX and NGOs is that AGRITEX is used as a technical service to back-up NGO-funded projects. AGRITEX mobilizes the farmers, helps to organize them so they can receive the service and, working hand-in-hand with project staff, provides advisory services to both project staff and farmers. All private sector agroservice companies work with AGRITEX when extending their commercial services to agricultural producers. AGRITEX personnel mobilize and organize the farming community to facilitate the commercial activities of these private sector companies. In addition, AGRITEX services are used to provide farmers with technical backup and advice on utilizing the technologies. The heavy reliance on AGRITEX makes it a principal actor in the local extension system. Its weaknesses and the constraints it faces have repercussions throughout the local extension system.
Achievements of the last 20 years include: increased production of crops such as maize and cotton by communal farmers; national development through participation in and the initiation of rural development projects; and restored confidence in professional and technical extension services. AGRITEX has also countered the damage caused by loss of experienced personnel by embarking on a staff development programme, which has strengthened its professional image. In rural areas, the agricultural extension system provides more than extension. It has also played a major role in rural people's development efforts through rural development projects that are planned, initiated and facilitated by AGRITEX; this has been the agency's most significant achievement since independence. AGRITEX has been disbanded under recent restructuring within the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, thereby placing research and extension functions under the same directorate.