5

 A third form of interaction is that the communication system

 would be designed and organized by farmers themselves to provide the

 technical information and services for specific problems they encounter.

 Such a system can be called a "rural development acquisition system."

 These different types of communications systems can be seen in

 the historical evolution of different extension systems.2 When extension

 systems were organized in the United States, Japan, Scandinavia, Holland,

 and elsewhere before the turn of the century, there was little scientific

 agriculture to extend. Instead, the extension systems were principally

 communication networks among local groups of farmers, systematizing the

 identification of superior techniques of advanced farmers and sharing them

 with other farmers. In the U.S., sometimes businessmen played an active

 leadership role of these local groups, because they anticipated that agri-

 cultural development would expand local markets for farm inputs. These

 systems were largely controlled and funded by the farmers themselves;

 extension agents submitted their work plans to farmers' committees for

 approval. Sometimes agents would not come to a village until a local group

 had been created.
 Although this system was controlled by farmers, government

support was crucial. Legislation was needed to give farmers' organi-

zations a legal personality. Government support was also necessary

in the training of staff for these extension systems. Staff for

this type of system in the U.S. almost invariably came from local farm

families; but they were trained at the government supported land

grant college system. In this way was generated a cadre of college

graduates who were literate, educated, and technically proficient,

while at the same time fully familiar with farm activities and essen-

 1George Axinn, "Agricultural Research Extension Services and Field
 Stations," in International Encyclopedia of Higher Education (San Francisco:
 Jossey-Ball, 1978), p. 243.
 2A comparison of thirteen extension systems is available in George
 Axinn and Sudhakar Thorat, Modernizing World Agriculture: A Comparative
 Study of Agricultural Extension Education Systems (New York: Praeger,
 1972).