Visiting a


THE ADVANTAGE OF FARM VISITS


Farm The one-to-one meetings on your round of visiting can achieve a
 number of benefits:
 D Acquiring first-hand information about the
 problems being faced by farmers in your area;
 L1 Establishing good relationships;
 ] Publicizing more formal and group field
 demonstrations;
 D Identifying potential contact farmers;
 El Monitoring the impact of a particular project;
 ED Giving closer attention to a particular farmer's
 needs;
 L] Teaching specific skills;
 a Reinforcing skills learned during an earlier visit;
 ED Enabling a "whole family" approach.
 This last point should be elaborated. As discussed in the Introduc-
 tion, the word "he" has been used rather than "she" throughout the
 manual-for reasons of stylistic convenience rather than from an
 assumption that all farmers are male! In fact, many farmers are
 women; and, anyway, you will want to have contact with both the
 husbands and the wives as much as possible. If you can talk to them
 both together, then fine.

 RECORDING A VISIT
 Since you have so many contact and follower farmers to keep track
 of, you will not be able to do so effectively unless you keep brief
 records of your meetings with them. You will need to record such
 things as the purpose of each visit, your own observations as to
 what has been happening in the shamba, what occurred during
 your visit, and what follow-up was agreed.
 On the next page is an example of the kind of record sheet or card
 you could use for each visit.


Chapter 6