On the two points related to the risks of exposing the grain to public
view, imagining that you are the extension worker leading the
discussion, you could make some direct suggestions. You could
explain that, if theft is a serious problem in a particular area, there
is nothing wrong with storing the maize in sacks inside the house-
provided it has been dried and treated properly and the storage
conditions are satisfactory.
Three difficulties remain:
 the conservative influence of tradition;
 the doubts about the amount of grain actually being
 lost;
 the expense of any improvements.
On the first of these, there is a counterbalancing point already
written up-the desire of farmers to be respected within the
community as being progressive and successful. This counterbal-
ancing point may, however, not be obvious to the group until you
point it out and explain it. To relate the two views you might say
something like, "Sometimes it is the farmers who break away from
their traditional practices, and adopt a new method, who are looked
up to by their neighbours and become respected as leading farmers
in the community."
The final two "restraining" forces would need more exploration and
debate. Here another technique-brainstorming-could be in-
troduced which facilitates the pooling of ideas within a group.

BRAINSTORMING
Again, this is a very simple technique, but one which can be most
effective in generating group ideas about solutions to any given
problem. You ask the members of the group to suggest ideas which
you immediately write up on a large sheet of paper or blackboard.
The key factor is that any idea is welcomed, however wild it may
seem. In this collecting phase the emphasis should be on quantity
rather than quality. Also, it is important that each idea is "logged"
without any comment. And the list should be completed before any
discussion takes place.
Let us imagine that you adopt this technique with the women's
group at the stage reached in the discussion of how to convince
husbands about the benefits of the On-Farm Grain Storage Project
messages. Of the final two areas of difficulty--doubts about loss
and the expense of improvements-you take the question of loss: