extension agents came from farm families. This ensured some underlying

attitude of respect to the farmers, and reduced the likelihood of a social

gap between agent and farmer.

 The normal training programs for extension agents can easily

 reinforce the notion that extension agents teach farmers. They are taught

 how to convey information to the farmers--how to use demonstration plots,

 local fairs, mass communication, audio-visual aids, felt boards, tape

 recorders, etc., and review research on effective communication techniques.

 They also learn how to select "informal leaders," who can pass information

 on to others. These various communication techniques are important, and

 proper selection among them can do much to assure that information reaches

 the poor. However, only in a few places are extension agents taught how

 to learn from farmers and how to convey information from farmers to scientists.

 In reality, some farmers have a great deal of technical knowledge,

 vast experience, and keen insight into agricultural questions, as many

 extension agents have discovered. Moreover, in many cases, "spontaneous

 extension" systems function very effectively, and profitable technologies

spread rapidly as friends and relatives exchange information, and as merchants

and salesmen buy produce and sell inputs.1 These characteristics of a

rural community render the conventional extension role of transfer of infor-

mation from scientist to farmer substantially superfluous in many cases--a

fact extension systems sometimes realize but must obscure to protect their


 In the U.S., with a far better developed commercial infrastructure
 than most developing countries, the formal extension service is the first
 source of information for farmers only 15-40 percent of the time. In one
 survey only 14 percent of farmers considered extension to be the most
 reliable source of information. Win M. Lawson and Howard M. Dail, "Sources
 of Information for Farmers," Journal of Cooperative Extension 4:3
 (Fall 1966), pp. 163-168.