allowances can have an important impact on personnel behavior. In

many circumstances, extension agents are regular government employees

with civil service and pension rights, and this inevitably shapes

their behavior. They may be attracted to government service be-

cause of its security and pension. The normal functioning of govern-

ment will influence the behavior of extension workers; if irrespon-

sibility, lack of performance, and petty corruption are not controlled

in other ministries, there is no reason to expect the extension

department to function differently. If college graduates anticipate getting

government work with a pension, it may be naive to expect them to

work for non-governmental agencies (e.g., private cooperatives) without

pension rights. All such factors inevitably affect the functioning of

an extension system and enhance or reduce its ability to serve the needs

of rural poor.

 In many cases, especially when extension services are first

 established, their young cadres may radiate a distinctive enthus-

 iastic spirit inspired by a nationalist yearning to modernize their

 country. For example, one observer described extension agents in

 Peru in the early 1950s in glowing terms: "The agents...are well-

 trained, honest, responsible, very much interested in their jobs

 and in getting results. They show sympathy and understanding for the

 people they are trying to help."l Similar comments might have been

 made about the staff of Ethiopia's Extension and Project Implemen-

 tation Department (EPID) in the early 1970's.


 1Anibal Buitron, cited in Arthur Mosher, Technical Coopera-
 tion, pp. 66-67.