29

 However, in some (older?) extension services, the personnel

 become somewhat elitist and isolated from farmers. These tendencies

.-have been described graphically in Venezuela:
 The agents insist on being addressed as "doctor."...[They]
 never leave their jeeps to visit the houses but instead
 beckon members of the household to their car... The seem-
 ingly foppish cleaning of town shoes with a paper hander-
 chief to remove the mere suggestion of mud and the taking
 of fruit without asking are other perceived manipulations
 of the extension agents' sense of superiority.

 Similarly, in Colombia, "agents wore ties and suits when working in

 the field and refused to eat or talk with their peasant clients."2

 The actual extent to which such behavior is associated with less

 advice and difficulties in communication with farmers is, of course,

 an empirical question meriting careful study; but in any event

 there is a consensus of opinion that farmers will not trust this
 3
 advice, regardless of its accuracy.

 D. Issues in Improving Extension Services

 Despite the difficulty in evaluating extension systems, and

 despite widespread problems, political support remains for extension

 programs, and they are likely to be maintained and expanded. Thus

 the practical challenge is not to gauge whether extension works in

 an overall sense or to list the problems, but rather to make particular

 R. Chesterfield and K. Ruddle, "Nondeliberate Education:
 Venezuelan Campesino Perceptions of Extension Agents and their
 Message," in T.J. LaBelle, ed., Educational Alternative in Latin
 America (Los Angeles: University of California Latin American
 Center, 1975), p. 153. Cited in Dennis Rondinelli and Kenneth
 Ruddle, Urbanization and Rural Development, A Spatial Policy for
 Equitable Growth (New York: Praeger, 1978), p. 92.
 2Allen Jedlicka, Organization for Rural Development (New York:
 Praeger, 1977), p. 23.

 3Rogers argues that communication will be better between people
 who are similar, and calls this the principle of homophily. Everett
 Rogers and F. Floyd Shoemaker, Communication of Innovations (New York:
 Free Press, 1971), p. 210.