Financing of agricultural extension services in the world.

In modern conditions the role of agricultural extension services (AES), in addition to the transfer of innovation in agricultural production and farmers’ education, is more diversified in accordance with the requirements of farmers, local development strategies and defined agricultural policy. Under conditions of limited funding by the state authorities, providing different services requested that AES becomes more complex and makes fertile ground for the transfer of part of the advisory activities to other actors, such as private companies and non-governmental organizations, which results in the change of traditional models of extension service organization. New organizational models and new approach to financing of extension services in agriculture are generated. In general, there are two main sources of financing of extension services: the state or the public, which is implemented mostly from the agricultural budget or through a variety of projects funded by the relevant state institutions, and private, which exists particularly in the cases when part of the extension work is provided through private extension organizations, where payment for these services is directly or indirectly transferred to the final users – farmers. However, there are very complex models of financing of extension services in the world, which are most often a combination of these models. In the paper will be given the analyses of the relationship between models of organizing and financing extension services, then the elements that influence the choice of funding model will be displayed, as well as connections between the objectives and the participation of certain actors in the financing of agricultural extension services. Flow of funds from source to end-users will be shown in public funding model, while in the private funding special attention will be given to the degree of coverage of user of extension services and various topics covered by the work of such organized extension services.