Agricultural Extension Methods amongst African Peasant Farmers

Abstract

It is notorious in many countries that it is easier to devise improved agricultural methods than to get them put into practice by the mass of the farming community. Departments of Agriculture are normally divided between these two functions, i.e. into a research side and an extension side, of which the latter usually absorbs much the larger staff. Research work is so directed as to be always a few jumps ahead of the methods in current use, but its potential must always be limited by the fact that too many improvements cannot be "put across" at once within the limits of expenditure and staff available for the extension side. If, therefore, extension techniques can be improved, a given amount of staff could accomplish more work and research could also go ahead faster, to the general betterment of agriculture.