agents both confidently encouraging very different planting dates for

cotton. Or they may find recommended inputs unavailable, or marketing

opportunities inadequate.

 What are reliable sources of accurate, relevant information for

an extension system? There are two major sources of information: the

scientific community (both domestic and international) and the farmers

themselves. There are, however, vast problems in organizing regularized

communication with either group, particularly from the farmers. In theory,

an extension organization is supposed to be a bridge or link between

scientific researchers and farmers, providing two-way communication and

"feedback." In practice, however, most extension systems emphasize

dissemination of information from scientist to farmer, and do not adequately

carry information from the farmer to the scientist. In Kenya, for example,

Leonard has found, "The processes of feedback and technical innovation

have proved weak in the Ministry of Agriculture, particularly below the

national level."2 Upward communication is difficult because of the geographic

dispersion of extension agents, social (and sometimes racial) barriers

that exist between junior and senior staff, and an intellectual inability

and bureaucratic reluctance of junior staff to suggest changes in general
 3
recommendations.

 When extension agents fail to provide feedback from the smaller,

poorer farmers, a class bias emerges in the feedback process into the

research system. New technologies are "induced" by the specific requirements


 Uma Lele, p. 65.

 2Leonard, Reaching the Peasant Farmer, p. 160.

 3bid., p. 162