Guide to extension training - Food and Agriculture ...

1 Guide TO extension training FA 0 training Series No. 11 Guide to extension training P. OAKLEY AND C. GARFORTH Agriculture extension and Rural Development Centre, School of Education, University of Reading, UK FOOD AND Agriculture ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 1985 The designations employed and the presentation of mate-rial in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever by the Food and Agriculture Organi-zation of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed are those of the authors. P-67 ISBN 92-5-101453-1 The copyright in this book is vested in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any method or process, without written permission from the copyright holder. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction desired, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

2 FAO 1985 Printed in Italy Foreword This Guide to extension training is a new edition of a text which was orig-inally written by Bradfield in 1966 and later revised in 1969. In this new edition we have largely kept to the basic structure and broad content outline of Bradfield's 1969 revision, except for a completely new first chapter. We have, however, considerably reorganized the material and rewritten it entirely. Bradfield's text was based almost wholly on extension experience in Malawi and drew its examples and approaches from that country. In this new edition we have drawn upon our joint experiences with extension in the three principal continental regions of the developing world -Asia, Africa and Latin America -and have used material from these regions in the text. Since the mid-1960s there have been a number of changes in the conception and practice of extension , and we have included such changes in the text, and generally brought it up to date. The purposes of this Guide are several.

3 First, it is intended to be a text for those involved in the pre-service and in-service training of extension personnel. Second, we hope it can be used directly by extension agents in the field as a resource text in support of their extension activities. The text is a Guide , and we have tried to lay out the material in an appropriate way. We hope that the style of the text will be useful for an extension agent who needs to understand the basic aspects of a particular extension issue. The Guide is directed toward extension agents in general. Of these, and given the importance of Agriculture in rural areas, agricultural exten-sion agents will be the greater number. The principles and methods of extension examined in this text are also relevant to those who work in extension in fields other than Agriculture , such as home economists, com-munity development workers or health workers. This Guide is written within the context of rural development and agricultural systems to be found in what we refer to as the developing world.

4 We have drawn our material from e~xtension practice in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Although the principles of extension are applicable in any context, the analysis and discussion in this Guide are in the context of the above three continental regions. In writing this Guide we have had to make decisions about the use of certain terms and in order to avoid misunderstanding we feel we ought to point these out. Vl When referring to the extension agent in the text we refer to he or his. This use of the masculine is not a lack of respect for female extension agents. However, it is our view that there are more male extension agents in different parts of the world and to use he/she or his/her jointly through-out the text would have been cumbersome. When we use he or his, there-fore, we are referring to extension agents in general. We use the term farmer throughout the text to refer to the rural people with whom extension agents work. We realize that this is a very general term, and that we cannot talk of the farmers as a whole when we refer to the different groups of rural people with whom extension works.

5 We discuss this issue in detail in Chapter 3. Our use of the general term, farmer, is to indicate the extension client and is not intended to suggest that all rural people can be placed in the same category. , We would like to acknowledge the usefulness of the original text of Bradfield, which has served as a basic structure for this new edition of the Guide . A word of thanks also to Christopher White for preparing the illustrations for the text so competently and under pressure of time. Our thanks also to Diana McDowell, Lois Pegg and Jane Thompson for efficiently and cheerfully preparing and typing the text, and to Bridget Dillon for proof-reading. Finally, our appreciation to FAO for the oppor-tunity to bring our different experiences together in the preparation of this Guide . We certainly hope that it will prove useful to the many thousands of extension agents who work with millions of farmers throughout the world to increase food production, promote . rural development and improve their standard of living.

6 Peter Oakley and Christopher Garforth Reading, United Kingdom October 1983 Contents Page Foreword v 1. The framework of development 1 The concept of development 1 Agricultural and rural development 2 Principles of rural development programmes 7 The importance of extension 8 2. Understanding extension 9 The concept of extension 9 Principles of extension 13 extension and education 16 Types of extension 20 3. Social and cultural factors in extension 23 Social structure 23 Culture 29 Social and cultural change 33 Social and cultural barriers to agricultural change 37 4. extension and communication 41 Communication 41 Mass media in extension 45 Audio-visual aids in extension 60 5. extension methods 67 Individual methods of extension 68 Group methods of extension 75 Types of group extension methods 78 6. The extension agent 91 The role of the agent 92 Knowledge and personal skills 94 Public speaking 97 Report writing 100 The use of local leaders 101 Vlll 7. The planning and evaluation of extension programmes 105 Stages in programme planning 108 Evaluating extension programmes 114 8.

7 extension and special target groups 121 extension and rural women 121 extension and rural youth 124 extension and the landless 128 Bibliography 131 Case-studies 133 Index 141 1. The framework of development The concept of development All rural extension work takes place within a process of development, and cannot be considered as an isolated activity. extension programmes and projects and extension agents are part of the development of rural societies. It is, therefore, important to understand the term development, and to see how its interpretation can affect the course of rural extension work. The term development does not refer to one single phenomenon or activity nor does it mean a general process of social change. All societies, rural and urban, are changing all the time. This change affects, for exam-ple, the society's norms and values, its institutions, its methods of produc-tion, the attitudes of its people and the way in which it distributes its resources. A rural society's people, customs and practices are never static but are continually evolving into new and different forms.

8 There are dif-ferent theories which seek to explain this process of social change (as evolution, as cultural adaptation or even as the resolution of conflicting interests) and examples of each explanation can be found in different parts of the world. Development is more closely associated with some form of action or intervention to influence the entire process of social change. It is a dynamic concept which suggests a change in, or a movement away from, a previous situation. All societies are changing, and rural extension attempts to develop certain aspects of society in order to influence the nature and speed of the change. In the past few decades, different nations have been studied and their level of development has been determined; this has given rise to the use of terms such as developed as opposed to developing nations. In other words, it is assumed that some nations have advanced or changed more than others, and indeed these nations are often used as the model for other, developing, nations to follow.

9 This process of development can take different forms and have a va-riety of objectives. The following statements illustrate this: Development involves the introduction of new ideas into a social sys-tem in order to produce higher per caput incomes and levels of living through modern production methods and improved social organization. 2 Development implies a total transformation of a traditional or pre-modern society into types of technology and associated social organi-zation that characterize the advanced stable nations of the Western world. Development is building up the people so that they can build a future for themselves. Development is an experience of freedom in deciding what people choose to do. To decide to do something brings dignity and self-respect. Development efforts therefore start with the people's poten-tial and proceed to their enhancement and growth. Much has been written about the process of development, and the approaches which developing nations should adopt in order to develop.

10 Reviewing this literature it can be concluded that a process of develop-ment should contain three main elements. Economic. The development of the economic or productive base of any society, which will produce the goods and materials required for life. Social. The provision of a range of social amenities and services ( , health, education, welfare) which care for the non-productive needs of a society. Human. The development of the people themselves, both individually and communally, to realize their full potential, to use their skills and talents, and to play a constructive part in shaping their own society. Development has to do with the above three elements. It should not concentrate upon one to the exclusion of the others. The economic base of any society is critical, for it must produce the resources required for livelihood. But we must also think of people and ensure their active par-ticipation in the process of development. Agricultural and rural development This Guide is primarily concerned with rural extension and with the liveli-hoods of farmers and their families.