and courts of the state apparatus. In many cases, however, the state does

not have these resources, or they are used in an arbitrary, patronizing, and

corrupt manner. There can be great advantages if the coercion and incen-

tives required by development can emerge voluntarily as social pressure from

organized social groupings, and at least partially substitute for state

power.

 To give some concrete examples, groups can generate social pressures

that encourage repayment of credit.1 In some villages in Java, village so-

cial pressures have been successfully utilized to encourage adoption of

family planning. Extensive publicity about family planning generated a mood

of acceptance, and publicly listing non-acceptors created some social stigma.
 2
With such community pressure and gossip, most people decided to participate.

Similar experiences are reported in China.3 Such social pressures can equally

apply to agricultural innovations.

 Group action is useful in many other activities. If extension acti-

vity is concerned with improved public works, maintenance of irrigation

systems, or distribution of irrigation water, some group action by farmers

is essential. Group organization can be very useful in creating new marketing

channels. They can both save farmers the time and energy inherent in in-

dividual marketing, and can offer competition to traders. In many situations,

marketing cooperatives are the easiest to set up because these benefits are


 Dale Adams, "The Economics of Loans to Informal Groups of Small
Farmers in Low Income Countries," Department of Agricultural Economics
and Rural Sociology. Ohio State University, mimeo, 1978.

 Richard Critchfield, "More Food..." p. B 12-13.

 Leonard Chu, Planned Birth Campaign in China, 1949-1976
 (Honolulu: East West Center Communication Institute, 1977), p. 41.