Worldwide policy trends in agricultural extension: Part I

Agricultural extension is one of the oldest and most important prototypes for technology-transfer organizations. The purpose of this paper is to help policymakers to keep track of how extension is developing in countries throughout the world. Such attention is especially warranted as extension has come under attack both in its identification with the public sector and in how that tie is expressed. Five fundamental models for organizing extension are outlined: farmingsystems research and extension, farming-information dissemination, training and visit, communications for technology transfer, and the cooperative-extension system of the U.S. Part I of this two-part paper outlines the major policy issues raised by these models and Part II (to be published in a later issue) will provide an in-depth discussion of a central issue underlying these models: the appropriate role of public- versus private-sector extension.