The paper summarises the results of a cross-country study on agricultural extension and its potential contribution to poverty reduction. The study emphasised the importance of livelihoods contexts, including the roles of vulnerability, labour markets, and the state, in determining the rural poor’s ability to take advantage of conventional extension strategies. The study examined the interrelations between wider rural development policies and agricultural extension. It also examined recent trends in the decentralisation of  government services and support to producer organisations, and their relation to extension strategies. The study concludes that a much broader, and more carefully differentiated, approach to extension is required.