33

 Daniel Benor proposes that the prime (or sole) responsibility

of the extension agent be conveying agricultural information. "It is

important...that...the agents are not diverted from their task of advising

farmers by any conflicting demands to perform other services." Other

agencies should perform other tasks.1 The extension agent should be

able to focus attention exclusively on bringing information to farmers.

Arthur Mosher, however, suggests other functions are important, and that

there is an evolution of extension systems in which the function changes.

Extension agents function first as "encouraging companion" for local

innovators; then as a source of technical information; then as a contact

person to help sophisticated farmers get information from subject matter

specialists; then as a group organizer to facilitate discussions about

the politico-economic framework that affects agriculture; and finally, as

a stimulator of general development.2 Whether or not Mosher's categories

are precisely accurate and inevitable in a system being designed for the

rural poor, it is certainly correct that there are a variety of extension

needs, and these needs are always changing as development proceeds. Benor

may have accurately gauged the level of development in Turkey and India,

and may be correct that farmers there now need information. But this

observation should not exclude the possibility that other tasks may be

more relevant in other situations.


 Daniel Benor and James Harrison, Agricultural Extension, The
Training and Visit System (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1977),
pp. viii, 11.
 A.T. Mosher, "A Note on the Evolutionary Role of Extension
Work," Land Economics 42:3 (August 1966), pp. 387-389.