Introduction to Agricultural Extension

By

Daimon Kambewa

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 Background of Agricultural Extension in Malawi

Definition of agricultural extension

Agricultural extension is an ongoing process of getting information or technology to

people (the communication dimension) and then assisting these people to acquire the
necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to utilize the information or technology
effectively (the educational dimension).

In a narrow sense, agricultural extension is known as non-formal adult education for rural
population in crop husbandry, animal husbandry, home economics and related subjects.
Thus in a narrow sense agricultural extension defines the area to which it is applies. It is a
service or a system which assists farm people, through educational procedures, to
improve farming methods and techniques, increasing production efficiency, and income,
bettering their levels of living, and lifting the social and educational standards of rural
life. The narrow view of agricultural extension is that it is primarily a means of
information delivery to farmers – thus the function related to the transfer of officially
sponsored technology being promoted by a commercial firm or a government. This view
reduces extension to the question of methods for delivery of technologies

In a broader sense extension covers a wide range of sectors including non-agricultural

programs such as rural health, family planning, community development, transport – to
reach different groups of people with different messages. The need for the broader view
is that there are many institutional options related to agricultural extension. These include
rural development projects, functional literacy, promotion of technology, decentralization
etc.

Agricultural extension is not the same as technology transfer, rather, it is an essential and
major part of technology transfer, which is teaching farmers about improved agricultural
technology and how to use it. Thus agricultural extension differs from technology
transfer in the sense that:
It teaches farmers management and decision-making skills because new technologies
demand these skills
Extension helps rural people to develop leadership and organizational skills, so that
they can better organize, operate and/or participate in co-operative, credit societies
and other support organizations, as well as to participate fully in the development of
their local communities

Agricultural extension is also not the same as advisory services in that the later are
designed to advise farmers on improved farming techniques, which would help to
increase productivity and profitability of the farming enterprises. In turn farmers
implement benevolent government plans for the development of the country’s economy.

Agricultural extension differs basically in the method of approach to the problems of the
farmer and his/her family. Extension gives priority to farmers’ wishes, teaching them
how to overcome their problems and developing in them a sense of pride in their

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achievements. Helps farmers achieve their objectives. For example, the current emphasis
in agricultural extension is participatory in nature, which advocates:
bottom up rather than top-down approaches
client centered rather than teacher centered approaches
demand –driven rather than traditional top-down

The purpose of agricultural extension

The goal of agricultural extension process is to enable people to use skills, knowledge
and information to improve their quality of life, their families and their communities. The
objectives are:

To train people how to raise their living standards by their own effort using their own
power and material resources with minimum assistance from government and/or
organization
To arouse people to recognize and take interest in their own problems and to
overcome their problems
To teach the people to solve their own problems
To persuade the people to act on their problems
To create a sense of pride among the people in their achievement
To use local leaders, farmers organizations for wider coverage
To link research and farmers/people

Historical Perspective of Extension in Malawi

In 1903

Extension work began in colonial times as a result of estates requiring better higher
agricultural productivity. The extension work was first recorded in 1903. The extension
work started with distribution of free cotton seed by British cotton growers association.
Extension agents then were called traveling officers and they taught cultural practices
associated with cotton production. The aims of the cotton growers association were:

To increase cotton production

To support cotton industry in Britain

However the extension work at that time had limitations at farmer level. Mostly there
were inadequate support resources. For example, no credit, poor markets and no
protection from unscrupulous profiteers

In the 1940s

There developed efforts to modernize agriculture. In order to achieve this, the colonialists
found it necessary to force African farmers to increase their farm productivity.

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In 1946

Natural resource ordinance was formed which enforced coercive approaches to extension
made it compulsory for all African households to follow certain prescribed farming
patterns such as:

early land preparation

early planting
correct spacing
uprooting old crop stock by certain dates after harvest
soil conservation measures

Violators were punished through fines and short-term prison sentences. These regulatory
measures were more seriously enforced from 1950 after the 1948 famine. Colonial
authorities partly blamed the famine on the weaknesses of traditional African farming.
Extension workers saw their role as enforcers of agricultural regulations rather than
advisors. This created suspicion in farmers about the extension agents. Arrival of
extension agents into a village caused a lot of panic. Some farmers tried to win favours
from extension workers by giving gifts eg. Eggs, chickens etc. Some farmers just avoided
the extension agents e.g. running away

1950s

Master farmer training schemes

A more widely adopted approach was the master farmer training scheme, which
originated in the 1950s as a way to develop competent farmers. In pre-independence
Malawi, most extension agents'efforts to improve smallholder agriculture followed this
approach. The objective of master farmer training was to spread modern, scientific
farming techniques in communal areas. Master farmer certificates and badges were
awarded to communal farmers who adopted and practiced improved methods. This
extension approach was based on the "trickle-down" theory of extension, in which a few
progressive farmers receive extension and information, which they are expected to pass
on to other farmers through farmer-to-farmer dissemination and demonstration. One of
the successes of these schemes was the high adoption rate of very visible innovations
such as hybrid maize. However, the program failed to produce notable yield increases in
many African crops because the marketing of surplus crops was difficult.
The Master Farmer Training Scheme involved:
Selection of progressive farmers
Concentration of resources to such farmers
They were called master farmers
Given permission to grow certain crops like tobacco, coffee, tea
Provided credit facilities
Received constant and friendly visits by extension workers
Extension efforts supplemented by printed materials to them

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Despite all this ordinary farmers still suffered a coercive extension approach. Coercive
extension approaches sometimes caused direct conflicts between extension workers and
farmers. The nationalist movements for independence further fueled such conflicts.
Nationalists’ leaders encouraged civil disobedience. Strikes and general refusal of
extension workers. Led to repeal of all agricultural legislations with independence in
1964.

1964 Independence
After independence several things happened including:

The Department of agriculture directed to abandon all regulatory practices

Extension followed a more persuasive and educative approach. Emphasis was still on
cash crops
Research emphasis was also on cash crops like cotton, tobacco, gnuts etc
Richer farmers basically grew cash crops
Therefore extension was targeted to those few rich farmers

1960-1970s

This period saw the birth of individual approach alongside mass media. Mass media
basically included: radio, puppet shows, magazines

In the 1980s

Government changed to block extension approach. This is discussed further later.

In the 1990s

There have been new players coming into agricultural extension services during the
1990s, including:
non-governmental organizations
the commercial private sectors
Farmer organizations are also of increasing prominence.

But low productivity continues to be the major constraints among smallholder farmers
often due to promotion of technologies that were supply- rather than demand driven. The
current socio-economic and political environment present challenges to Extension
service, which demands a radical change in the extension system. Malawi is now a
multiparty country with democratic principles. The decentralization process is in
progress, which is aimed at bringing responsibility for service provision closer to the
people. The country is also experiencing shrinking public resources that make it unable to
finance the extension service as before. These changes are presenting challenges that
necessitate a transformation in agricultural extension.

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Extension Challenges

There are a number of challenges facing extension that require a response from the public
sector and other stakeholders. The following are among the key challenges facing
extension:

Democratization

Democratization, which has swept Africa in the recent past, has not spared Malawi and as
a result the society is opening up. People know that to survive they have to be proactive
and thus farmers are demanding more from the public sector. For extension service, this
is a challenge because in the past there were fewer demands on the service and the mode
of extension did not generate an open, critical response from the people. This requires
extension services to reform their approaches in order to respond or deal with the
numerous demands effectively. Democratic principles are at the heart of good extension.
As such, extension services, now than ever before have, chance to contribute to the
democratic transformation of society on the assumption that people will be more open to
interact and share ideas.

Market Liberalization

In addition to democratization, market liberalization has seen the emergence of new

players. Farmers are not restricted as to which crops to grow, livestock to keep or which
markets to sell their agricultural produce to. This has given the farmer greater choice, but
in order to take advantage of market liberalization, farmers need new skills not only on
production, but also in farm management and marketing. The new demands bring fresh
challenges for those who provide agricultural extension especially that there is inadequate
capacity among farmers to absorb changes due to inadequate managerial skills and
limited land resource. At the same time, market liberalization assumes that market
structure is available. With these problems, some farmers may not participate in the
market economy. The challenge for extension is, therefore to become more specialized
and diverse at the same time to respond to the new requirements of farmers and the sector
as a whole. Expertise must be available to people who want to deal with specialized
products but at the same time it is in the public interest to provide also for those in danger
of lagging behind

HIV/AIDS crisis

HIV/AIDS in Malawi is having serious negative impact on productivity of the

agricultural sector, the very backbone of Malawi’s economy. Firstly the impact is felt
through the reduction of the productive work force, both from extension staff and farming
community. The demographics of the farming community are changing with increased
numbers of households headed by children. The challenge to agricultural extension is
firstly, to maintain a healthy, energetic human resource both in the extension services and
in the farming community and secondly to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS. In
addition to this there is need to integrate HIV/AIDS mitigation measures in the

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agricultural development programs on the assumption that a healthy nation is a
productive nation. Programs factoring in HIV/AIDS awareness in agriculture should be
strengthened. The intensification of labour saving technologies, which will help, reduces
the drudgery on the farming community. The types of training and advice offered must
take into account the changing demography.

Greater attention also needs to be given to HIV/AIDS and agricultural education in

primary schools and higher levels. This requires building cooperation with agencies in
the health and education sectors in the fight against HIV/AIDS crisis. Staff in the
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security also needs HIV/AIDS education.

Decentralization

With the coming of the new democratic dispensation, government has decided to devolve
power to the district level on the assumption that interventions are more effective when
the decision making process is at the lowest level of action. Decentralization is an
opportunity to bring the control of extension closer to the people and offer services that
fit better with the local situation. But this will bring dramatic shift in roles and
responsibilities. The present capacity at the district level as far as agriculture is concerned
is not adequate to cope with increasing demands for every district assembly to have
qualified staff. There is therefore a big challenge to enhance both technical and
management expertise at the district level in order to deal with increased demands.

Shrinking public sector resources

Financial and human resources available to the public extension service in Malawi are
shrinking. In real terms, funding from government coffers to the public extension service
has been shrinking decreasing since 1990. During the same period, there has been
decreasing numbers of staff in the public extension leaving the service with lowly trained
and inexperienced staff to execute public extension programs. There has been erosion in
technical expertise, which together with the financial situation makes, makes the public
service largely ineffective and unsustainable. This has also caused a reduction in staff
morale as a result of inadequate operational funds hence farmers do not get the services
they need and deserve.

To respond to this challenge, there is need for the public extension service to exercise
greater accountability, transparency and prioritization for every aspect affecting the
discharge of its responsibilities. Decentralization and farmer control of their destiny will
both contribute to the necessary improvements. Furthermore, pluralism, through the
mobilization of other extension providers from the private sector, non-governmental
organizations will also help respond to the challenge of shrinking public resources.

Public sector reform

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Public sector reform program, that the Government of Malawi is currently undertaking, is
calling for downsizing and streamlining of public agencies on the assumption that a well
trimmed organization becomes more efficient and effective. While Ministries and
Government departments are being required to reduce their numbers of staff and to
streamline their roles and functions, extension services in Malawi are highly dependent
on very public service delivery channels that must shrink. Thus there is a danger that
services mat become even more inaccessible to many farmers than before, with fewer
experts who will face higher demands arising from such influences as democratization
process. To respond to the problem, there is need to seize the opportunity of promoting a
greater role of other actors and agencies particularly farmers organizations in the
provision and delivery of extension services.

Coordination

Since the early 1990s there has been an increased number of stakeholders involved in
extension, making co-ordination of extension service activities a growing challenge.
There are now more farmer organizations, NGOs and private sector agencies, often with
different approaches for the delivery of extension services. Lack of coordination means
that donors and NGOs tend to introduce approaches of their choice, and this has been a
challenge to maintain coherence and quality in the delivery of extension services in
Malawi. Diversity and pluralism (having more extension service providers on various
issues and using different methods) need to be embraced but complemented by effective
co-ordination. In order to improve coordination among the many stakeholders in
extension there is need to have clear policy guidelines to orient all stakeholders towards
complementarity and synergy in the roles they play in the provision of and delivery of
extension services

Explaining the shortcomings of agricultural extension services

Agricultural extension with its aim to transfer information or technologies has

shortcomings which require to be explained. Focusing organizational failures and socio-
political explanations can do this.

Organizational failures

Analysis of the extension services in Africa has one thing in common and that is that
failures of extension are explained by the structure of the extension services. Its structure
can be classifies into institutional, dealing with the question of who should deliver
extension services; organizational, thus how the organization of extension services are
structured; managerial, thus focusing on how the system is managed (e.g. number of
visits and linkages between extension and research), and methodological, thus how
extension staff interacts with the farmers.

It therefore means that institutional, organizational and managerial problems explain the
poor performance of extension service. This is clarified by the fact that staff do not visit

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the farmers frequently, the staff lack training. Recent attacks have focused on institutional
dimensions where the question is whether extension service should be the monopoly of
the sate or private sector or civil society should also be involved. More recent attacks
have challenged the existing methods as rigid and excluding the voice of the farmers
(Anderson and Feder, 2004). They argue that farmers are not passive recipients, rather
they should be put first, hence the should actively be engaged in the process of
identifying problems and consequently suggest solutions to their problems (Chambers
1983).

Socio-political explanations

Besides organizations shortcomings of the extension services there are socio-political

reasons that explain the poor performance of the services. Historically it is argued that
farmer’s reluctance to follow extension advice is part of the larger process of social
protest against colonial rule (Isaacman 1989, Beinart 1984, 1989), as well as the colonial
government’s attempt to preserve or change social identities (Delius and Schrimer 2000,
Kalinga 1993). The socio-political dimension reveals the lager ideological picture of
extension services, different from a mere technical orientation. However, the socio-
political dimensions mainly focus on the conflict between the extension guidelines and
the existing organization or production, thus the focus is on the social conflicts and
negotiations between the colonial state and the smallholder farmers. This focus neglects
the important micro-economic aspects of the conflicts, and therefore the question of
agricultural development at a local level.

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Diffusion of Innovations

1. Name of Model or Theory: Diffusion of Innovations

2. Originator(s) and professional background:

Gabriel Tarde: He was the main European forefather of the diffusion field. He was a
French lawyer and judge by occupation. He was very innovative and ahead of his time.
He observed certain generalizations about the diffusion of innovations that he called the
laws of imitation, today it is called the adoption of an innovation.

Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross: Neal Gross received his PhD in Sociology from Iowa State
University in 1946. He was a researcher at Iowa State University from 1946-1948. He
then took a faculty position at the University of Minnesota from 1948-51 before moving
to Harvard University. Bruce Ryan was a graduate assistant for Neal Gross.

The British and German-Austrian Diffusionists: They were a group of anthropologists

that emerged in England and in German-Austria. The viewpoint of each school was
similar, and both are considered roots of diffusion research. Diffusionism: was the point
of view in anthropology that explained social change in a given society as a result of the
introduction of innovations from another society (Rogers, 1995, p. 41).

3. Approximate year of origin:

Early 1900’s: Gabriel Tarde, beginning of his diffusion observations.

1920’s: The beginning of anthropological research tradition in diffusion.
1960’s: An explosion of diffusion investigations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
began.

4. Circumstances or events that led to model/theory development:

Diffusion research did not develop from a single discipline or a single event. Different
disciplines led to the development of this theory, the first discipline involved was
Anthropology. Among the other research traditions that led to the expansion of this
theory were: Early Sociology, General Sociology, Rural Sociology, Education, Public
Health and Medical Sociology, Communication, Marketing and Management,
Geography, General Economics, and other traditions.

Two important specific events that contributed to the development of the theory were the
Iowa hybrid seed corn study conducted by Ryan and Gross and Tarde’s analytical
observations made from viewing legal cases and societal trends.

5. Purpose of model/theory:
The theory’s purpose is to provide individuals from any discipline interested in the
diffusion of an innovation with a conceptual paradigm for understanding the process of
diffusion and social change.

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6. Brief description of model/theory:

The theory’s main constructs

Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that analyzes, as well as helps explain, the adoption
of a new innovation. In other words it helps to explain the process of social change. The
main terms used include Diffusion: the process by which an innovation is communicated
through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special
type of communication in that the message concerns a new idea. Innovation: an idea,
practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption.
Newness is a key word to innovation. It may be expressed in terms of knowledge,
persuasion or decision to adopt. The perceived newness of the idea for the individual
determines his/her reaction to it (Rogers, 1995). Communication: the process in which
participants create and share information with one another. Social change: the process by
which alteration occurs in the structure and function of a social system. A social system
is defined as a set of interrelated units that are engaged in a joint problem solving to
accomplish a common goal. Adoption: a decision to make full use of an innovation as
the best course of action available.

Therefore, diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through

certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Thus, the four main
elements of the theory are the innovation, communication channels, time, and the social
system.

Main elements of innovation diffusion

1. Innovation or Technology

In agricultural we mostly deal with technological innovations. Technology is a design

for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in a cause-effect relationship involved
in achieving a desired outcome. A technology has two components and these are
hardware and software. Hardware includes the tool that embodies the technology as
material of physical objects. Software on the other hand includes the information base for
the tool. Sometimes a technology may entirely comprise of information.

Technological innovation creates some kind of uncertainty in the minds of the adopters.
Uncertainty: the degree to which a number of alternatives are perceived with respect to
the occurrence of an event and the relative probability of these alternatives. Implies a lack
of predictability or structure. This uncertainty is in two ways:
a) Uncertainty about expected consequences (effectiveness)
b) Uncertainty about the efficacy (power or capacity to produce desired effects) of the
innovation in solving an individual’s felt need or perceived problem.

The second uncertainty provides the motivation that impels an individual to exert an
effort in order to learn about the innovation. Once the information-seeking activities have

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reduced the uncertainty about the innovation’s expected consequences to a tolerable level
for the individual, a decision to adopt or reject the innovation will be made. If the
individual uses the innovation, further evaluative information is obtained and the
uncertainty further reduces

Software information – which is embodied in a technology and serves to reduce

uncertainty about the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome.

Innovation-evaluation information – the reduction in uncertainty about an innovation

expected consequences.

Characteristics of an Innovation or Change

Relative Advantage: The degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the
idea it supersedes. This can be measured in economic terms but social –cultural –
religious, prestige factors, convenience and satisfaction (e.g. mgaiwa vs ufa) are also
often important components.

Compatibility: The degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with

existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters. An innovation that is
not compatible with the norms and values of the social system will not be adopted as
rapidly as an innovation that is more compatible. Adoption of an incompatible innovation
often requires prior adoption of a new value system

Complexity: The degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand

and use. The more complex the innovation is perceived the lower the rate of adoption.
Trialability: The degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited
basis. Innovations that are easily experimented enjoy higher rates of adoption.

Observability: The degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others.
Innovations whose results are more visible enjoy higher rates of adoption

Re-innovation: the degree to which an innovation is changed or modified by the user in

the process of adoption and implementation.

Note: Innovations that are perceived by individuals as having greater relative advantage,
compatibility, trialability, observability, and less complexity will be adopted more rapidly
than other innovations (Rogers, 1995).

Important issues the change agent should consider

The change agent or person introducing the innovation in a social system should take into
consideration the following aspects: the characteristics of the target population (the
adopter categories), the characteristics of the innovation or change itself, and the
stages of adoption. Each of these three categories should be analyzed and planned for,
when introducing an innovation or change.

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2. Time

Time is involved in the innovation decision process by which an individual passes from
the first knowledge through its adoption or rejection. Factors influencing time taken
include:
• The innovativeness of an individual
• The characteristics of the innovation. This influences the rate of adoption
• The time an innovation diffuses through a social system. If its addressing a serious
problem that people are facing.

3. The social system

Units of a social system may be individuals, informal groups, organizations or sub-

systems. A common characteristic of social system is the sense of community. People
have a sense of belonging – the we – feeling - which gives the group solidarity. Each
member is aware of and recognized his/her role in the community and the group takes
responsibility for the members in need. The social system has a structure and frequently
occurring communication structure.

A social structure is the patterned arrangement of the units in the system. It gives
regularity and stability to human behavior in the social system. A society can be seen as a
system of roles, each of which involves relationships between people, patterns of
behavior, rights and duties associated with each particular position. Every person has
many roles, e.g. you are a son, daughter, student, friend, citizen. You also have economic,
political, religious and recreational roles. In each of these roles, certain relationships are
established. In this case social structure is the pattern of social relationships among
members of the social system. Social structure therefore includes all of its roles and
social organization. An individual’s behaviors in a society is structured by the roles
which he/she fills and the organization he/she belongs to.

System norms: these are established behavoiur patterns for the members of a social
system. They are generalized expectations about behavior that are learned in the course of
socialization. Norms define a range of tolerable behavior and serve as guide or standards
for the members of the social system. In a social system there is likely going to be deviant
behavior. This is the behavior that deviates from the social norms. However, society puts
punishments for such behavior and these include low credibility, being ignored or
ostracized.
A communication structure on the other hand is a differentiated element that can be
recognized in the patterned communication flows in a system. It is an informal type of
structure that exists in the interpersonal networks linking a system member. A social
system as well as a communication structure can facilitate or impede diffusion of
innovations.

The adoption process for an innovation

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Farmers or people in general go through a logical problem solving process when
considering an innovation. Stages of adoption include:

Awareness: extent to which a target population is conscious of an innovation.

Interest: personal intrigue on the innovation.

Evaluation: a farmer weighs advantages and disadvantages of the technology

Trial: experimenting with the innovation.

Decision: adopter decides to continue, quit, or re-create the innovation.

Adoption: continuation or integration of the innovation into lifestyle.

1. Awareness

It is the first stage in the adoption process. Farmers hear about the innovation. Many
times people use mass media as an approach for creating awareness because it reaches
many people.

2. Interest

If the innovation is applicable to the farmers’ or individual’s situation he/she becomes

interested in the innovation. He/she then becomes interested in getting more information
about the innovation.

3. Evaluation

At this stage the farmer or an individual gets in the process of weighing the advantages
and disadvantages of the innovation in his or her own environment. Opinions of
neighbours, friends and family are likely to be very important at this stage. Opportunities
for direct observation, demonstrations and field days are helpful to make farmers evaluate
the innovation.

4. Trials

The farmer tries an innovation having weighed the advantages and disadvantages and
found that advantages weigh more. At this stage the farmer needs individual help.

5. Decision to adopt or reject the innovation

After trying the farmers adopt or reject the innovation. However, farmers are usually at
different stages in the process of adopting or rejecting an innovation.

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Innovation and adoption categories

Rate of adoption: this is the relative speed with which an innovation is adopted. This is
influenced by innovation characteristics, the social system as well as communication
system.

Innovativeness: this is the degree to which an individual is earlier in adopting new ideas
than the other members of the social system. A graphical explanation of the rate of
diffusion: The new idea or innovation typically moves slowly through a societal group as
it is first introduced. Then, as the number of individuals trying the innovation (the
adopters) increases, the diffusion of the new idea moves at a faster rate. The diffusion
phenomenon initially follows an S-shaped curve. The curve shows the slow rate of
adoption of an innovation by the adopters at an early stage. The diffusion curve increases
as the number of adopters also increases. Then, after the possible new adopters naturally
decrease, so does the diffusion curve. Hence, the total diffusion of an innovation would
follow in reality a Normal curve. The social group determines the diffusion then, and
each social group of adopters can be designated in the curve. Studies have shown that for
every innovation there are usually innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority
and laggards.

Innovators: are venturesome, cosmopolite, risk-taking, information seeking, with a

higher financial status, urban contact. Innovators have ability to understand and apply
complex technical knowledge. They also have the ability to cope with high degree of
uncertainty. Usually they are not respected in the social system but they play an
important role in launching the new idea.

Early Adopters: greatest degree of opinion leadership, respected by other members of

social group. They are local elites and role models – as they are not too far ahead of the
others. Potential adopters usually consult them. They make judicious decision, hence,
decreases uncertainty. They cover subjective evaluation. Strategies with a motivational
emphasis may be most effective at getting them involved in the diffusion process.

Early Majority: they are deliberate, thus they are there because most people are doing it.
They seldom hold leadership positions. They frequently interact with peers. They adopt
new ideas just before the average member of a system.

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Late Majority: they are skeptical in their approach to the innovation. They adopt new
ideas just after the average member of a system. The pressure of peers is necessary to
motivate adoption. Intervention strategies that help them to overcome barriers are needed
to get them to take up the innovation.

Laggards: these are labeled traditional. They are last in a social system to adopt an
innovation. Their point of reference is the past. They are suspicious about innovations
and change agents. They pay little attention to the opinions of others. Usually they have
limited resources and they are risk averse.

Socio-economic evaluation of adopters has to look into age, education, literacy, social
status, upward mobility in social status, size of the units, e.g family, commercial
orientation, attitude towards credit, specialization. Generalizations show that early
adopters are more likely going to be better on these socio-economic characteristics.

Opinion leadership: this is the degree to which an individual is able to influence other
individual’s attitude or overt behavior informally in a desired way with relative
frequency. It is earned and maintained by the individual’s technical competence, social
acceptability and conformity to the system’s norms. Generalizations show that:
• A social system which is more oriented to change tends to be of opinion leaders who
are innovative
• Conformity to the social norms tends to make opinion leaders serve as models for
innovative behavior
• In a system, there are both innovative opinion leaders and also leaders who oppose
change
• Opinion leaders can lead to the promotion of new ideas or they can head an
opposition
• Opinion leaders tend to be more exposed to all forms of external communication,
more cosmopolite, have higher social status and more innovative
• The leaders are at the center of all communication networks
• They can be worn out and lose credibility if overused and deviate so much from the
social norms

Change agents: is an individual who influences client’s innovation decision in a

direction deemed desirable by the change agency. He/she usually seeks to obtain the
adoption of new ideas but can also attempt to stop adoption of innovations deemed
undesirable. Change agents are normally professionals with qualification e.g. extension
workers

Change aide: this is less than professional change agent. He/she is intensively in contact
with clients to influence their innovation decision.

Types of innovation decisions

• Optional innovation decisions: these are individual and independent of the decisions
of other members of the social system

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• Collective innovation decisions: these a consensus innovation decisions
• Authority innovation decisions: the decisions to adopt or not are made by relatively a
few individuals in the system who posses power, status and technical expertise.
• Contigent innovation decisions: these are innovation decisions which can only be
made after a prior innovation decision.

Consequences of innovations

1. Desirable versus undesirable: depending on whether effects of the innovation are

functional or dysfunctional to the social system
2. Direct versus indirect: depending on whether the changes to an individual or to the
social system occur in immediate response to an innovation or as a second – order
result of the direct consequence of an innovation
3. Anticipated versus unanticipated: depending on whether the changes are
recognized and intended by the members of the social system or not.

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Communication in agricultural extension

Communication is a process by which participants create and share information with one
another. Diffusion is a particular type of communication since it involves new ideas.
Communication involves the innovation, the sender (the one who has new knowledge),
channel and the receiver.

Communication is a core of extension work. Extension workers must be skilled

communicators. They must stand at a crucial intersection of communication networks.
These networks encompass the rural population, the various service centers in town and
cities such as markets, suppliers, experiment stations, educational facilities as well as
national government agents.

Communication process is a process whereby meanings or idea are transferred from one
person to another. The main elements are: source, receiver, message and channel.

Source: this is a person whose ideas or meanings are to be transferred to another person
Receiver: this is the person to whom the ideas or meanings are to be transferred to
Message: this is what is to be transferred from the source to the receiver
Channel: this is the medium through which the message travels from source to receiver

Stages of communication: These include source or creation, encoding, message,

transmission, channel, receiver, reception, decoding, and assimilation.

Stage 1. Creation: this involves conception of the idea to be communicated to someone

else.
The message must be expressed in such a way that the receiver understands it correctly
and precisely. It is important that a one should be sure that the receiver knows what is
being said. Hence, it is important that the person communicating is clear about what he
wants to communicate. A poorly conceived idea will almost certainly result in poor
communication.

Stage 2. Encoding: the meanings and ideas in thoughts are structures of the mind. They
cannot be seen or heard or felt by others. In order to enable them to be transmitted from
one mind to the other they must be translated or encoded into symbols. Symbols in
contrast ideas can be seen, heard or felt by others. They represent the ideas and meanings.

Words, gestures, pictures, music even horning of the car horn are symbols. Different
means and situations require different symbols. The choice of a symbol is an important
matter and it is not always simple. Therefore we need to choose symbols, which express
our ideas and are appropriate to the receiver. This means that it is important that one
encode ideas into symbols which he/she is sure will be correctly understood by the
receiver. The encoded ideas are what is referred to as the message.

NB. Good communication requires small doses of information and very clear symbols.

18
Stage 3. Transmission: an idea or meaning that has been encoded into symbols is called
a message. Once the idea or meaning has been encoded into a message it must be
transmitted to the receiver. What is important to note is that communication goes
through chains or networks. These include face to face and this is the commonest but not
simple. But it is known that the longer the chain the more likely the meaning will get
distorted on the way.

It therefore means that the word symbol has to be transmitted to the receiver through
various forms either spoken or written and displayed, gestures have to be made, pictures
have to be shown, the music has to be performed etc. In other words there are many ways
of transmitting the message and these include: speaking, writing, singing and making
gesture - facial expression

Choice of the channel for transmission depends on the total communication process
including who is the source, who is the receiver, distance, length of the message,
technical and financial means available and time. The source must make sure that the
message will reach the receiver accurately and completely.

Stage 4. Reception: the first three steps are within the range of the source. Once
transmitted the process is no longer under the control of the source. Reception of the
message depends on environmental factors and the state of mind and readiness of the
receiver to receive it. The environmental factors include noise, poor lighting, distance
between the source and receiver either in space or time. Some of the factors can be
manipulated by the source but others cannot.

The receiver on the other hand must be able to receive the message. The ability to receive
the message depends on attentiveness of the receiver, the pre-disposition towards the
source. One principle of human communication is that it occurs most frequently between
individuals who are alike- thus homophilous. Homophily is the degress to which pairs of
individuals who interact are similar in certain attributes such as beliefs, education, social
status and the like. There is a strong tendency by people to choose those who are like
them to interact with. The reasons for this are that – birds of the same feathers flock
together. Thus the people usually belong to the same groups, live and work near each
other and are drawn by the same interests. Communication between homophilous people
is likely to be more effective. This is because the people share common means, they have
mutual sub-cultural language and are alike in personal and social characteristics. Their
communication is more effective in terms of knowledge gain, attitude formation and
change and behavior change.

However, communicating innovations involves heterophilous individuals. Heterophily is

the degree to which pairs of individuals who interact are different in certain attributes like
belief, education, social status etc.

The ability and readiness to receive the message depends on predisposition towards the
channel. Once the message is received we have to be concerned with the completeness of
the received message.

19
Fidelity is the congruence between message as transmitted and message as received.
Fidelity is influenced by the environmental conditions, as well as the type and number of
5 senses of the receiver that are activated. These are seeing, hearing, touching, smelling,
tasting.

Seeing is more reliable than hearing. Touching can be reliable where appropriate but not
suitable in most situation. Tasting and smelling are less useful for most forms of
communication. It is argued that it is better to use more channels so that the receiver
receives with more than one sense.

Stage 5. Decoding: having received the message, the receive must decode it in order to
comprehend its meaning. The success of decoding depends on the receiver’s knowledge
of the symbols used. It does happen sometimes that we receive messages which are
incomprehensible e.g. due to differences in the language used. In such cases we try to
communicate to the sender that we do not understand. A more serious situation occurs
when the receiver thinks he has understood the message when actually he/she has not.
This results in misunderstanding. Misunderstanding is more serious because it can remain
undetected until the outcome makes itself felt. This illustrates the importance of
feedback.

Feedback is a process where one sends back the message to the source or sender. This
makes communication as a two-way process. The original sender becomes a receiver
when the original receiver sends a reply. The reply will tell the original sender whether
the message was correctly understood or not. The reply also enables the source if
necessary to adjust his symbols and channel them to the particular needs of the receiver
and the situation. These feedbacks can be done through writing, radio and television.
However, there are many situations where immediate feedback is not possible, for
example due to distance.

Stage 6. Assimilation: once the message has been decoded some idea or meaning takes
place in the receiver’s mind. This idea or meaning must be integrated with other ideas
and meanings already existing in the receiver’s mind. That is, in order to make sense of
the decoded message the receive must relate it to what he already knows and assimilate it
within the total information available to him. Without such assimilation the decoded
symbols will remain meaningless. The receiver may be able to repeat them like a child
picking sound from the environment but will not attach meanings to such sounds.

Successful assimilation depends primarily on what other ideas and meanings are already
in the receiver’s mind. The more life experience a person has, the more likely will his
store of knowledge contain elements with which he can make sense out of the new ideas
and meanings. The opposite is also true.

Factors affecting fidelity in communication or common barriers to communication

1. Language: send your message in words that the receiver will understand.

20
2. Noise: this is any factor that distorts the quality or a signal or message. It can
constrain hearing ability
3. Distractions: These are other aspects which interfere with or distract one from the
communication process
4. Communication chain or too many steps: do not form a long chain in the
communication process. This normally results in the right message sent but the wrong
message received
5. Listening difficulties: listening is a special skill that involves
• Being attentive
• Looking attentive
• Feeding back what the other person has said to show that you have heard and
understood
• Processing what the other person has communicated
• Including the other person’s ideas and views in the feedback

6. Lack of feedback: communication is a two-way process and all parties must share a
common understanding of what is being communicated. This can be ensured by
giving clear consistent and regular feedback
7. Distrust: if the receiver or sender distrusts the credibility or sincerity of the other
person, this could result in suspicion, which will undermine the communication
process. The message may be heard but may be discounted or discredited
8. Emotions: emotionally charged situations usually distort communication. What is
being communicated gets buried under strong but irrelevant feeling. Indifference,
apathy, unconcern and insensitivity are some of the emotions that distort
communication. On the other hand enthusiasm, friendliness, concern, sympathy,
calmness, politeness and rationalism promote or result in good communication
9. Culture: everyone comes from a specific cultural background with his/her own
language and view of the world. Communication between two parties is usually
difficult if they come from different cultural backgrounds, unless each is sensitive to
the other’s background.

Overcoming communication barriers

1. Empathy: adjust to the world of the receiver. Fit your message to the receiver’s
vocabulary, interests and values. Empathy is the ability of an individual to project
himself or herself into the role or situation of another.
2. Feedback: give feed back
3. Use face-to-face communication: where possible you can adapt the message to the
receiver’s situation
4. Use reinforcement: activate several senses in the receiver
5. Re-emphasize: repeat and emphasize important points
6. Language: use direct and simple language – avoid ambiguity and jargon
7. Channels: streamline communication channels

21
Learning and Teaching in Extension

Extension is an educational process for bringing about the maximum number of desirable
changes among the people, which involves both learning and teaching and needs some
tools or methods commonly known as extension-teaching methods. It is, therefore,
necessary here to understand what is meant by learning, teaching and extension methods.

Learning: this is the process whereby new behavior patterns are acquired. In other words
learning'is the process by which an individual, through his own activity, attains a
'
change in his behavior. It is an active process on the part of the learner. The essential role
of an extension worker is to create effective ' learning situations'
. An effective learning
situation requires the following essential elements:
1. An instructor (an extension worker, e.g. an extension officer or a village-level
worker)
2. Learners (the farmers, the farm women and the youth)
3. Subject-matter (the recommended improved practices, such as the seeds of high-
yielding varieties, fertilizers, balanced diet, etc.)
4. Teaching material, such as a flannel-board, a blackboard, charts, models, samples,
slides, filmstrips, etc.
5. Physical facilities, such as sitting accommodation, good visibility, etc.

The extension worker should skillfully manipulate the elements of the learning situation
and provide satisfactory learning experiences for the people. The farmer, the farmer
women or the farmer youth are the focal points in the learning situation. The main aim of
an extension worker is to bring about a change in behavior of the people with the help of
a combination and use of different elements. All the teaching should be carried out
according to the needs and resources of the local community or group.

Teaching: this is the art of changing people’s behavior by facilitating the learning
process. In other words, ' teaching'is the process of arranging situations in which the
things to be learnt are brought to the notice of the learners, their interest is developed and
desire aroused, i.e. they are stimulated to action. For example, if we want to teach the
farmers the use and advantages of chemical fertilizers, we do this by conducting
demonstrations on their fields, showing them how the fertilizers are applied, and compare
the yield of the fertilized crop with that of the crop to which no fertilizers has been
applied. After seeing the beneficial effect of fertilizer, the farmer is convinced and
motivated to action and starts using fertilizers regularly.

Learning and teaching aims at imparting knowledge and skills and changing peoples’
attitudes. Knowledge is what is perceived through one of the five senses. However, it
should be known that only remembered knowledge is effective knowledge. Skills are
actions or activities a person is able to perform rapidly and smoothly. The two types of
the skills are motor skill – these are the activities carried out with limbs. Mental skills are
those performed with the brain, e.g. solving mathematical problems. Attitudes are
generalizations. They form the predisposition about something. They are also known as
complex structures of mind made up of knowledge, beliefs, emotions and evaluations.

22
They include person’s habitual ways of thinking about his or her social behavior. It is
common that we feel uncomfortable when faced with facts which contradict with our
attitudes. Sometimes we take trouble to prevent this from happening. Attitude being
habits upon which we are accustomed to, do not easily change. Cognitive balance of
attitude refers to the fact that attitude must be consistent with one another as well as with
our personal experience.

Extension Education as Science

The term extension was first used in the United States of America in the first decade of
this century to connote the extension of knowledge from the Land Grant Colleges to the
farmers through the process of informal education. In India, the terms community
development and extension education became more popular with the launching of
Community Development Projects in 1952 and with the establishment of the National
Extension Service in 1953. Since then, Community development has been regarded as a
program for an all-round development of the rural people, and extension education as the
means to achieve this objective.

Extension education is an applied behavioral science, the knowledge of which is applied

to bring about desirable changes in the behavioral complex of human beings usually
through various strategies and programs of change and by applying the latest scientific
and technological innovations.

Extension education has now developed as a full-fledged field, having its own
philosophy, objectives, principles, methods and techniques, which must be understood by
every extension worker, and others connected with the rural development. It might be
mentioned here that extension education, its principles, methods and techniques are
applicable not only to agriculture but also to veterinary and animal husbandry, dairying,
home science, health, family planning, etc. Based upon its application and use, various
nomenclatures have been given to it, such as agricultural extension, veterinary and animal
husbandry extension, dairy extension, home science extension, public health extension,
and family planning extension.

Differences between formal education and extension education

It may, however, be mentioned here that when extension education is put into action for
educating the rural people, it does not remain formal education. In that sense, there are
several differences between the two. Some of these differences are:

Formal education Extension education

1. The teacher starts with theory and1. The teacher (extension worker) starts with
works up to practical. practical and may take up theory later on.
2. Students study subjects. 2. Farmers study problems.
3. It has no fixed curriculum or course of
3. Students must adapt themselves to the
study and the farmers help to formulate the
fixed curriculum offered.
curriculum.

23
4. Authority rests with the teacher. 4. Authority rests with the farmers.
5. Class attendance is compulsory. 5. Participation is voluntary.
6. Teacher teaches and also learns from the
6. Teacher instructs the students.
farmers.
7. Teaching is only through instructors. 7. Teaching is also through local leaders.
8. Teaching is mainly vertical. 8. Teaching is mainly horizontal.
9. The teacher has more or less9. The teacher has a large and heterogeneous
homogeneous audience. audience.
10. It is rigid. 10. It is flexible.
11. It has freedom to develop programs locally
11. It has all pre-planned and pre-
and they are based on the needs and expressed
decided programs.
desires of the people.
12. It is more practical and intended for
12. It is more theoretical. immediate application in the solution of
problems.

Objectives of extension education

The objectives of extension education are the expressions of the ends towards which our
efforts are directed. In other words, an objective means a direction of movement. Before
starting any program, its objectives must be clearly stated, so that one knows where to go
and what is to be achieved. The fundamental objective of extension education is the
development of the people.
Agricultural extension in our country is primarily concerned with the following main
objectives:
The dissemination of useful and practical information relating to agriculture, including
improved seeds, fertilizers, implements, pesticides, improved cultural practices, dairying,
poultry, nutrition, etc, to ultimately improve all aspects of the life of the rural people
within the framework of the national, economic and social policies involving the
population as a whole.

Principles of extension education

The extension work is based upon some working principles and the knowledge of these
principles is necessary for an extension worker. Some of these principles, as related to
agricultural extension, are mentioned below.

Principle of interest and need: Extension work must be based on the needs and interests
of the people. These needs and interests differ from individual to individual, from village
to village, from block to block, and from state to state and, therefore, there cannot be one
program for all people.

Principle of cultural difference: Extension work is based on the cultural background of

the people with whom the work is done. Improvement can only begin from the level of
the people where they are. This means that the extension worker has to know the level of

24
the knowledge, and the skills of the people, methods and tools used by them, their
customs, traditions, beliefs, values, etc. before starting the extension program.

Principle of participation: Extension helps people to help themselves. Good extension

work is directed towards assisting rural families to work out their own problems rather
than giving them ready-made solutions. Actual participation and experience of people in
these programs creates self-confidence in them and also they learn more by doing.

Principle of adaptability: People differ from each other, one group differs from another
group and conditions also differ from place to place. An extension program should be
flexible, so that necessary changes can be made whenever needed, to meet the varying
conditions.

The grass roots principle of organization: A group of rural people in local community
should sponsor extension work. The program should fit in with the local conditions. The
aim of organizing the local group is to demonstrate the value of the new practices or
programs so that more and more people would participate.

The leadership principle: Extension work is based on the full utilization of local
leadership. The selection and training of local leaders to enable them to help to carry out
extension work is essential to the success of the program. People have more faith in local
leaders and they should be used to put across a new idea so that it is accepted with the
least resistance.

The whole-family principle: Extension work will have a better chance of success if the
extension workers have a whole-family approach instead of piecemeal approach or
separate and unintegrated approach. Extension work is, therefore, for the whole family,
i.e. for male, female and the youth.

Principle of co-operation: Extension is a co-operative venture. It is a joint democratic

enterprise in which rural people co-operate with their village, block and state officials to
pursue a common cause.

Principle of satisfaction: The end-product of the effort of extension teaching is the

satisfaction that comes to the farmer, his wife or youngsters as the result of solving a
problem, meeting a need, acquiring a new skill or some other changes in behavior.
Satisfaction is the key to success in extension work. "A satisfied customer is the best
advertisement."

The evaluation principle: Extension is based upon the methods of science, and it needs
constant evaluation. The effectiveness of the work is measured in terms of the changes
brought about in the knowledge, skill, and attitude and adoption behavior of the people
but not merely in terms of achievement of physical targets.
Sources of behavior change

25
As already indicated in extension knowledge is applied to bring about desirable changes
in the peoples’ behavior. However, behavior is a result of genetic and environmental, also
called learned influence. Genetic influence is inherited and it is not easy to change.
Environmental influence is learnt and could be easy to be modified. The ratio of learned
and inherited influence behavior is a function of age.

Factors influencing learning

1. Perceptions of knowledge

Perceptions influence learning because they make us selective, and they make us look for
relevance to our previous experiences. In other words, because of perception we are:
• Selective towards the environment around us
• Not aware of all the stimuli around us
• Filter out certain things to hear, see, smell and touch
• Only a small part of the perceptual stimuli penetrates our aw
• Cannot cope up with all the stimuli
• Only take not of those stimuli that are relevant to our needs, expectation and
previous experience. Thus, we tend to perceive stimuli which we have learnt as
relevant to ourselves and our expectations

For knowledge to be effectively learnt it must be relevant to the learner. It therefore

means that good teaching practice should present knowledge in a manner that highlights
and emphasizes its relevance to learner’s needs, expectations and previous experience. It
is assumed that the more the leaner senses we activate, the more effective the learning
process.

2. Memory

Memory influences learning because we have selective memory. We look for relevance
and logic. Thus, apart from selective perceptions, the brain remembers things selectively.
We tend to remember those things which we feel are relevant and important to us. We
also tend to remember things that hang together logically in time, space or just by some
common elements (principle of association). It is indeed argued that systematically
ordered knowledge make for better leaning, rather which is haphazardly presented.

3. Reinforcement

Reinforcement of skills includes rewards and punishments. These can be positive and
negative. Organisms tend to repeat behavior that they find pleasant or rewarding. At the
same time, organisms refrain from unpleasant and unrewarding behavior. It is therefore
argued that pleasant sensation positively reinforce behavior while unpleasant experiences
subdue behavior. Reinforcement of skills is important in teaching skill because skills are
acquired through repeated behavior.

26
Principles of Adult Learning/Education

Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching children. It is based on the observation made
on children and animals reaction to didactic teaching. The concept of pedagogy, however,
seemed insufficient and could not work with to adult learners. In fact adults seem to be
resistant to the strategies prescribed by pedagogy, such as fact-laden lecturers,
assignment readings, quizzes, rote memory and examination. Another problem also is
that cultural revolutions are occurring at an accelerating rate, such that knowledge gained
at any one point in time becomes obsolete very quickly.

Andragogy. European adult educators coined this. Following the problems citied,
education is defined as a lifelong process of continuing enquiry. The process must
therefore be on learning how to learn. The skills should be those of self-directed inquiry.
The contributing disciplines include clinical psychology, developmental psychology,
genontology (the study of aging characteristics), sociology and anthropology.

Andragogy is an art and science of helping adults learn. What is important to know is that
the concepts of andragogy produce superior results in children learning in certain
situations. Andragogy is therefore simply another model of assumptions about learners to
be used alongside pedagogy model and testing them for their fit in specific situation. In
other words, andragogy and pedagogy should be seen as a continuum and not a
discontinuous.

Types of adult learners

According to Cyril O. Houle learners can be goal, activity and learning oriented.

Goal oriented learners. These use education as a means of accomplishing clearly defined
objectives

Activity oriented. These take part because they are found in the circumstances of learning
or a meeting, which has no connection with the content or announced objectives of the
program.

Learning oriented. These seek knowledge for its on sake

Assumptions of pedagogy and andragogy

A. The learner

In pedagogy the leaner is a dependent one. The teacher takes full responsibility in
determining what to be learnt (expected by society), when, how and if it has been learned.
On the other hand, in andragogy, the normal process of maturation for a person to move
from dependency to self-directedness is followed, although this happens at different
levels and in different dimensions of life. The teacher nurtures the process. Adults have

27
deep need to be self-directing. Of course the learners may be dependent in temporary
situations.

• Adults can learn

However, the ability to learn declined only slightly after the age of 20 (Thorndilse
1927). What actually declines is the speed of learning not the intellectual power.
This decline can be reduced by continual use of the intellects. Adults who have
been away from systematic education underestimate their ability to learn and this
lack of confidence may prevent them from applying themselves wholly.

Physiological changes take place in adults such that there is a decline in visual
acuity, decline in reaction time, lowering in energy levels and there are hearing
problems. Physiological changes operate as barriers unless compensated for by
such things as more lighting, slower pace and louder devices. Adults respond less
readily to external sanctions like grades than internal motivations

• Learning is an internal process

Individuals have to be motivated to learn. They get motivated to learn to the

extent that they feel a need to learn and perceive a personal goal that learning will
help them to achieve. Adults will invest their energy in making use of all the
available resources (teachers reading materials) to the extent that they perceive
them as relevant to their needs and goals.

The central dynamic learning process is learner’s experience. Experience is

defined as interaction between individual learners and their environment. Quality
of learning refers to quality and amount of interaction between learners and
environment. The responsibility of teachers of adults lies not in giving ready-
made answers to predetermined questions but helping adults discover important
questions and answers for themselves.

• Superior conditions of teaching and learning

Adult learners feel a need to learn. Therefore a teacher exposes learners to new
possibilities and helps learners clarify their needs to learn. The teacher also helps
learners clarify their aspirations. He/she provides appropriate physical
environment. Furthermore, the teacher accepts learners as persons of worth and
respects their views and ideas. The teacher further seeks to build relationship of
mutual trust and helpfulness among learners. Utmost the teacher involves learners
in mutual process of defining objectives

The implications for practice are as follows:

• The learning climate

28
 The self-concept of learning being adult has several consequences regarding the
learning environment.

a. The physical environment should be one that adults feel at ease. Furnishing
and equipment should be adult sized and comfortable. Meeting rooms should
be arranged informally and decorated according to adult tastes. Acoustics
(sound equipment) and lighting should take into account declining audiovisual
ability. Remove symbols of childishness to the adults. To some adults it may
include the classroom setting, seating arrangement, chalkboard, etc.

b. The psychological climate should be one that makes adults feel accepted,
respected and supported. Create a spirit of mutuality between teacher and
students as joint inquirers. There should be freedom of expression without fear
or ridicule. The atmosphere should be friendly and informal.

The behavior of the teacher is an important influence to the learning climate

of adults. Teachers convey in many ways and their attitude is one of interest in
and respect for the learners. Take time to know the learners if possible – call
them by names. Also listen to the learners. The notion of adult environment
can go beyond the classroom to the whole institution, including architectural
design, institutional policies and procedures, leadership styles and human
relations. One can sense quickly whether the institutions cares more for people
or materials, whether it is concerned about peoples’ feeling.

• Diagnosis of needs

The adult’s need for self-directivity is in directing conflict with the traditional
practice of telling the students what they need to learn. It is in direct conflict with
the social philosophy that society has a right to impose its ideas about what they
need to learn. Of course they can learn if the power to punish them for not
learning is strong enough. But they are deeply motivated to learn those things they
see the need to learn.

In andragogy, great emphasis is placed on the involvement of adult learners in the

process of self-diagnosis of needs for learning. Need assessment process is in
three parts

a. Constructing a model of competences or characteristics required to achieve an

ideal model. This model building provides an opportunity to the teacher,
institution, society to incorporate its values to those of the learners

b. Provide diagnostic experiences in which the learners can assess their present
level of competences in the light of those portrayed in the model. What is key
is the objectivity in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their

29
 performance. The gap or the needs is the difference between what is in the
model and actual performance.

c. Helping learners to measure the gaps between their present competences and
those required by the model so that they experience dissatisfaction with the
gap from where they are and where they should be. This will help them
identify specific directions for desirable growth. This is called motivation to
learn.

• The planning process

Human beings tend to feel committed to a decision or an activity to the extent that
they have participated in making it or planning it (this seems to be the law of
human nature). A teacher who plans for his learners and imposes his/her pre-
planned activities on them experiences apathy, lack of interest, resentment and
sometimes withdraw. This implies that the imposition of the teacher’s will is
incongruent with the adults’ self-concept of self-directing.

Adult learners should therefore be involved in the planning of their own learning
and the teacher should serve as a procedural guide and content resource. When the
team is small the teacher can involve all the learners but when it is large, the
teacher can use their representatives, for example, committees, councils, etc,
through which the learners feel they have participated in planning by proxy

• Conducting learning experience

Teaching and learning experience in andragogy should be a mutual responsibility

between the teacher and the learner as opposed to pedagogy where the teacher
takes full responsibility and the learner’s role is a passive recipient of knowledge.
In andragogy the teacher is the helper for the others to learn.

• Conducting evaluation

Grades are not important to adults. They feel childlike when judged by another
adult, disrespected and dependency. So do not give grades. Help adults to get
evidence of the progress they are making in meeting their educational goals by
themselves. Thus, promote self-evaluation. Assess the strength and weaknesses of
the educational process itself in terms of how it has facilitated or inhibited the
learning process. Rediagnose the learners’ needs. The teacher of adults must be
open to feebback.
B. The role of the learner’s experience

In pedagogy the role of the learner’s experience is of little worth. It can be used as
starting point only. Learners will gain most from experience of the teachers, textbooks,
writers and other experts. On the other hand, in andragogy it is believed that the learners
have cognitive structures that aid in the processing of information. Thus, learners have

30
mental generalizations made as a result of knowledge and experience gained in life. The
experience accumulates as people grow. Experience becomes a rich resource for learning
for themselves and for others. People attach more value to the learning they gain from
experience than those they acquire passively. Accordingly, primary techniques should be
experimental, e.g. laboratory experiments, discussion, problem solving, cases, simulation
exercises, field experiences.

Experience to children is external, not internal while to adults it is internal. Adults are
what they have done in life. They have a deep investment in its value. Minimizing the
value of their experience is like rejecting them. Adults are a rich resource to their learning
and to others. They relate new experience to previous experiences. Adults have acquired
a larger number of fixed habits and patterns of thought and hence tend to be less open
minded.

The implication for practice is that:

o Emphasis on the experiential techniques. Thus tap from their experiences using
e.g. group discussions, role-playing, simulation exercises, and field project.
o There should also be emphasis on practical application. Thus new concepts and
broad generalizations should be illustrated by life experiences.
o One should also unfreeze experience.

C. Readiness to learn

In terms of readiness to learn in pedagogy the learners are ready to learn what society
(especially schools) have prescribed, in most cases when pressure is provided, for
example, exams. Most learners of the same age are ready to learn same things. Learning
should be organized into a fairly standardized curriculum with uniform step-by-step
progression for all learners. On the other hand, in andragogy learners are ready to learn
something when they experience a need to learn it in order to cope with real life tasks or
problems. The educator should therefore create conditions and provide tools and
procedures for helping learners to discover their needs. Learning programs should also be
organized around life application categories and sequenced according to learners’
readiness to learn.

Children learn best those things that are necessary for them to know in order to advance
from one phase of development to the next. Thus, development tasks. These are the tasks,
which arise at or about the period in the life of the individual. Successful achievements
lead to ones happiness and to success, while failure leads to unhappiness in the
individual, disapproval by the society and difficulty with later tasks, e.g. learning to walk.
Cannot teach a child how to walk when he/she has not learned how to crawl. Each
developmental task produces a readiness to learn which at its peak produces a teachable
moment.

The same phenomenon is at work in the adult world too. They have their phases of
growth and resulting development tasks. Children development tasks tend to be products
of physiological and mental maturation while in adults they tend to be products of

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evaluation of social roles. There are three phases of adulthood, early (18-30), middle (30-
55), later maturity (above 55). The adult social roles, according to Robert J. Havighust
(1961), include worker, mate, parent, homemaker, son or daughter of an aging parent,
citizen, friend, organizational member, religious affiliation, user of leisure time etc.
The requirements for performing these roles change as people move through the three
phases of adult life. Therefore by setting up changing development tasks one can also
change readiness to learn. For example, learning how to get a job, learning how to master
the job, learning how to go up the ladder, learning how to cope with retirement.
Havighust’s developmental tasks by adult phases

Early adulthood (ages 18 – 30)

Selecting a mate
Learning to live with a partner
Starting a family
Rearing children
Managing home
Getting started in a an occupation
Taking on civic responsibility
Finding a congenial (friendly) social group

Middle age (30 – 55)

Achieving civic and social responsibility
Establishing and maintaining an economic standard of living
Assisting teenage children become responsible and happy adults
Developing adult leisure time activities
Relating to ones spouse as a person
Accepting and adopting to the psychological changes of middle age
Adjusting to aging parents

Late maturity (above 55)

Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health
Adjusting to retirement and reduced income
Adjusting to the death of a spouse
Establishing an explicit affiliation with one’s age group
Meeting social and civic obligations
Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangements

Adulthood goes with developmental periods just like childhood and adolescence. These
developmental tasks may differ from society to society but adults go through
development periods

The implications for practices are that:

• Timing of learning: to capture the teachable moments for adults to acquire given
learning, the curriculum must be timed so as to be in tune with their development
tasks. This should be the guiding principle for designing adult education program

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 rather than the logic of the subject matter. For example, in a new job there is need
for orientation, rather than talking about history and philosophy of the
organization. Thus, talk to the new worker about real life issues such as where to
work, what to do, how to dress, when to report for duties, who to report to, where
to go for help

• Grouping of learners: the concept of development tasks gives some guidance to

the grouping of learners. Thus, for certain learning homogenous groups are better,
while for others heterogeneous groups may be better.

D. Orientation to learning
In pedagogy the learners are oriented such that they see education as a process of
acquiring subject matter content. Knowledge will be useful later in life. Hence curriculum
is organized into subject matter units – ‘course’ following logic subject. In other words,
people are subject centered in their orientation to learning. On the other hand, in
androgogy, learners see education as a process of developing increased competences to
achieve their full potential in life. They want to be able to apply knowledge and skills
gained to living more effectively and immediately. Accordingly learning should be
organized around competence development categories. People are performance centered
in their orientation to learning.

Children tend to have a perspective of postponed application on most of their learning.

Thus, nursery prepares for primary school; primary prepares for secondary school;
secondary for college, and college for employment. The children enter an educational
activity in a subject-centered frame of mind.

Adults have a perspective of immediacy of application towards most of their learning.

They engage in learning largely in response to pressures they feel from their current life
situations. Education is a process of improving their ability to cope with the problems
that face in life. Therefore adults enter an educational activity in a problem centered or
performance centered frame of mind.

The implications for life are that:

o Orientation of adult educators: the educators must primarily be attuned to the
existing concerns of the individuals and institutions they serve. They must also be
able to develop learning experience that will be articulated with these concerns
o Organization of the curriculum: instead of organizing the curriculum on the basis
of subjects and logic, that of adults should be organized around problem areas.
Hence, instead of curriculum one should talk about the program
o Design of learning experience: the problem-orientation of adult learners implies
that the most appropriate starting point is their problems and concerns. Instead of
“what this course is all about” replace with “what are you hoping to get out of this
course”.

E. Dependency

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Children are completely dependent for their needs except for purely biological functions.
Thus, adults manage their lives for them. Their self-concept is reinforced by adults’
world. Society defines the role of children as learners. Learning is their full time
occupation and source of rewards and self-fulfillment. This role is defined as passive, i.e.
receiving and storing knowledge and information given by adults. As the children grow
their self-concept moves towards a direction of self-direction. Thus, they make simple
decisions. They rich adolescent stage when they develop a need to significantly manage
their own lives.

Adults on the other hand see their normal role not as full-time learners. Rather, they see
themselves as doers and producers. Their main source of fulfillment is no longer in their
learning but in their performance as workers, spouses, parents and citizens. Their self-
concept becomes that of self-directing personality. They see themselves as being able to
make their own decisions and face the consequences. Psychological definition of
adulthood is the point at which individuals perceive themselves as self-directing. At that
point they develop a psychological need to be seen by others as self-directing. The
implication for practice is that there is a need to build in the program design some
preparatory experience that will help adults get a new way of thinking about the role of
the learner – some new skills in self-directed learning

F. Anxiety
Adults carry over from their previous experience with schooling the perception that they
are not smart or academic work. Remembrance of classroom as a place where people are
treated with disrespect and may fail is strong in some people that it serves as a serious
barrier to their becoming involved in the adult learning process. This barrier can be
reduced by interpreting adult learning activities as being different from enjoyable –
having meetings in non academic locations, providing them with early success experience
will help them build positive self concepts (positive self esteem). When adults discover
that they can take responsibility for their learning they experience a sense of release and
excitement. They enter the learning with high ego of involvement and results are settling
both to themselves and the teacher. The implication for practice is that the teacher and
institution’s problems should be negotiated with the learners’ own listed problems.

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Extension and Human Needs

The goal of agricultural extension process is to enable people to use skills, knowledge
and information to improve their quality of life, their families and their communities. An
effective extension process therefore should meet the needs of the people.

A need is a deficient state that initiates a motive in an individual. It is a thing that

motivates a person to act in a certain way. In other words, a need is a tension state that
causes gratification seeking behavior. A motive is anything a person wants to have, to
feel or to become.

Needs can be felt and expressed. These are the need which the recipients of the service
believe they want. They express a want which is motivate by the need. People believe
they want something which is just a want. The want is usually “the what” and the need is
the “why”.

Needs can also be normative. These are the needs that are identified by an expert. An
expert thinks what is the desired level or state.

The need can also be comparative. These are the needs identified by comparing two
groups of people. E.g. the difference between the area provided with service and the one
not provided.

Maslow hierarch of human needs

Maslow suggested that peoples’ wants could be traced to their needs. There are five
levels of human needs in hierarchical order. Each becomes a felt need or want only when
those at the lower level have been satisfied.

Survival needs. These are also known as physiological needs. They include the things
that a human body needs to survive. For example, food, drink, shelter, sleep, air, etc.
They are the most basic needs for human survival. If these needs are not satisfied a
person will tend not to worry about other needs.

Security needs. When the physiological needs are satisfied the concern becomes that of
self-protection. These include avoiding places or situations where one may likely be

35
hurt. Others take steps to secure their future from possible lack of basic needs by, for
example, building houses, store food and buy insurance policy

Affiliation needs. According to Maslow, once survival and security needs have been
satisfied people become aware of their needs of affiliation or belonging. These needs are
social, rather than biological. The needs are also referred to as security needs in the sense
of the emotional or psychological needs. This set of needs does the following:
• People want to be accepted by those around them
• Give emotional stability
• To be rejected, isolated or ignored by society is commonly felt as a form of
deprivation
• People act in ways that will make other like or accept them
• The needs never become felt until the first two have been satisfied
Recognition needs. Our self-esteem and self-respect depends very much on how others
evaluate us. A person will not be satisfied when he/she is merely accepted in a society.
He/she wants to be respected by others also. Thus:
• You want to be respected for what you are worth
• We feel confident when we are appreciated and admired by others
• If others look down upon us we feel hurt and insulted. And we also begin to think of
ourselves as weak and incompetent
• If not accepted by others you are unlikely to feel the need for recognition

Self-actualization needs. A health and normal person needs to use his/her potential,
which he/she feels in him/her or else she/he will feel discontented. What a man/woman
can be, he/she must be. These needs are universal but they are commonly expressed in
artists and other creative people e.g. musicians. A child who has mastered a new skill will
indeed feel this need of self-actualization. E.g. whistling. It is indeed common that all of
us need to do what we think we can do very well.

Unfortunately for most people survival needs and security needs are barely satisfied.
Thus, hunger and physical danger are so common. In such circumstances people do not
worry about self-actualization or about self-esteem and affiliation. While the needs are
put in order in practice people show a mix of needs, for example, others show survival
needs and self-actualization needs.

Procedures for needs assessment

There are several ways of identifying needs and they include the following:

1. Individual assessment

Involve learners in building their own competency models for self development and
comparing their present situation against those models. Consider the optimum level of the
situation and the current performance. The gap between the two reveals the need of the
people. Involve the learners themselves, as the learners have to be assisted to identify the

36
gaps. The advantage is that the learners find their own deficiencies and this makes them
go into learning with vigor. This is because the learners like doing things for themselves.

2. Group discussion

Adults like this procedure. Bringing the adults into a small group where they define their
own needs. This makes the adults become self-reliant.

3. Questionnaire and survey

Questionnaire and survey are the most common ways for gathering data and identifying
the needs of the learners. They include checklists, structured and unstructured
questionnaire. The procedure is sophisticated and requires skill for collecting appropriate
data. Some of the complex issues are:
• How to ask the right questions, relevant to the information one is looking for. This
can be overcome by pre-testing the questionnaire. Pre-testing also helps to overcome
the second problem below
• How to judge if one is getting the right answers to the questions
• Validity of the questionnaire. This looks at whether one is using the right instruments
or whether he/she is getting the right information
• Reliability. This looks into how reliable are the answers one is getting. For example,
if one sends the same questionnaire twice but at different, the results might be
different

4. Systems analysis

In systems analysis organizations and not individuals identify the needs. It compares the
input getting into the system and the output from the system. In other words, one looks at
what he/she gets in and what he/she produces. It is used by organizations as a form of
operating system. A special criteria is used when comparing with other institutions.

5. Organizational and community reports

Look at the reports already existing for the organization or the community, for example
baseline and evaluation reports.

6. Publication literature

Literature is a result from research. They give the need existing in a particular community.
In most cases literature increases the awareness about the needs.

7. Resource persons

These are the persons who are experts in specific areas

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8. Testing and exams

These are good sources of needs, especially when identifying educational needs. The test
must have validity and reliability. Testing and exams look at content validity, thus, how
much content is to be delivered in the subject matter area, and also construct validity,
thus, how one defines a particular construct, i.e. how to make people understand what one
says.

9. Analysis and performance review

This is used to assess needs in a job setting. One looks at the job and the individual, the
duties one has to do, and the individual performance on the job. It needs people who are
specialists in the area

Prioritizing the needs

Prioritization aims at addressing the specific needs. There are two criteria for prioritizing
the needs, thus importance and feasibility.

1. Importance

There are several ways:

• Number of people affected by the need. Thus, one might choose the needs because it
affects many people than another
• How by addressing the need it contributes to national goals. E.g. food security,
poverty reduction. The need contributing much will take a higher priority
• Immediacy. How urgently does the need address the national or most important issue,
e.g. food shortage. The need that address the issue immediately is considered
important
• Instrumental value. In some situations, dealing with one particular need addresses
several other needs. These are positive instrumental. Those, which are difficult to
address other needs, are negative instrumentals.
• Magnitude of discrepancy. This looks at the difference (gaps) between situations. The
one with a high discrepancy (gap) is usually prioritized. The gap is between the actual
situation and the desired situation

2. Feasibility

This criteria looks at how feasible is it for one to meet the addressed need. The criteria
include:
• Educational efficiency. This looks into how feasible it is for one to address the need
through educational needs.
• Availability of resources. This looks at whether the resources are available to meet
the need.

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• Commitment to change. Thus, how committed are the relevant publics in eliminating
the needs? Are the people interested in removing/addressing or eliminating the need?
Some people may want to improve the situation for the community while others
might want it for their own benefit.

Why needs assessment

Needs assessment is done because doing so makes it easy to target the basic needs of the
community. If it is done with the people it makes them more committed. It is also an easy
way for conducting an appraisal when staring the project on rural development. Needs
assessment guides on what to project to develop.

Asset-based community development

An asset-based community development (ABCD) (Mathie and Cunningham, 2002) is

presented as an alternative to needs-based approaches to development. The ABCD
approach lies in its premise that communities can drive the development process
themselves by identifying and mobilizing existing (but often unrecognized) assets, and
thereby responding to and creating local economic opportunity. In particular, ABCD
draws attention to social assets: the gifts and talent of individuals, and the social
relationships that fuel local association and information networks.

To begin with in the needs-based approach efforts generate needs surveys, analyze
problems and identify solutions to meet those needs. In the process, however, the efforts
inadvertently present a one-sided negative view, which is often compromised, rather than
contributed to, community capacity. However, it has been noted that if the needs-based
approach is the only guide to poor communities, the consequences can be “devastating”.
One of the main effects is leadership that denigrates the community. Leaders find that the
best way to attract institutional resources is to play the severity of the problems because
local leadership is judged on how many resources are attracted to community, not on
how self-reliant the community has become.

Another consequence of the need-based approach is that local groups deal more with
external institutions than with groups in their own community. This reinforces the notion
that “only outside experts can provide real help” and so it further weakens neighbour-to-
neighour links. Funding is made available on the basis of categories of needs rather than
for integrated approaches which lead to “much lamented fragmentation of efforts to
provide solutions). This denies the basic community wisdom, which regards problems as
tightly, intertwined, as symptoms in fact of the breakdown of the community’s own
problem-solving capacities. To make matters worse, the bulk of any funding tends to go
to the institutions filling the needs. Perversely, these institutions begin to develop a
vested interest in maintaining this approach.

Hence, the issue is that capacities of local people are undermined in a needs-based
approach. It is now recognized that it is the capacities of local people and their
associations that build powerful communities. The process of recognizing these

39
capacities begins with the construction of a new lens through which communities can
“begin to assemble their strength into new combinations, new structures of
opportunity, new sources of income and control, and new possibilities for production”.
The process is what is called the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). In this
approach communities are helped to build an inventory of their assets and are encouraged
to see value in resources that would otherwise have been ignored, unrealized, or
dismissed.
Such unrealized resources include not only personal attributes and skills, but also the
relationship among people through social, kinship, or associational networks. By
mobilizing these informal networks, formal institutional resources can be activated – such
as local government, formal community based organizations, and private enterprises. In
fact, the key to ABCD is the power of local associations to drive the community
development process and to leverage additional support and entitlements. These
associations are the vehicle through which all the community’s assets can be identified
and then connected to one another in ways that multiply their power and effectiveness.
The Asset-Based Community Development should therefore be understood as an
approach, and as a set of methods for community mobilizations and as a strategy for
community-based development.

As an approach to community-based development, it rests on the principle that the

recognition of strength, gifts, talent and assets of individuals and communities is more
likely to inspire positive action for change than an exclusive focus on the needs and
problems. Seeing the glass half-full as well as half empty is not to deny the real problem
that community faces, but to focus energy on how each and every member has
contributed, and can continue, in meaningful ways to community development. Focusing
on uncovering the merits of all members encourages a spirit of egalitarianism, even in
societies that are hierarchical in the structure and differentiated by culture, education
background and gender. At its core are associations of community members, both formal
and informal. As engines of community actions, and as a source of power and leadership,
these are considered assets of the community.

Accompanying this approach is a set of methods that have been used to inspire a
community to mobilize around a common vision or plan. While rejecting any kind of
blue-print for ABCD, a number of steps to facilitate the process include the following:
• Collecting stories about community success and identify the capacities of
communities that contribute to success
• Organizing a core group to carry the process forward
• Mapping completely the capacities and assets of individuals, associations, and local
institutions
• Building relationships among the local assets for mutually beneficial problem-solving
within the community
• Mobilizing the community’s assets fully for economic development and information
sharing purposes
• Convening as broadly representative groups as possible for the purpose of building a
community vision and plan

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• Leveraging activities, investments and resources from outside the community to
support asset-based, locally defined development

Finally, ABCD is a strategy for sustainable community-driven development. Beyond the

mobilization of a particular community, ABCD is concerned with how to link micro-
assets to the macro-environment. In other words, there is attention paid to the boundaries
of community and how to position the community in relation to local institutions and the
external economic environment on which its continued prosperity depends.

The ABCD should not be confused with the other asset based approaches such as the
sustainable livelihood approach developed by the Department for International
Development (DFID), UK., and the asset-building framework employed by the Food
Foundation. Both these grew out of a concern that simply promoting income-generating
activities was not synonymous with enhancing livelihoods of the poor. Proponents of the
sustainable livelihood approach saw the need to take into account many other factors: the
vulnerability context in which the poor find themselves; the strategies that households
employ to deal with economic shocks; all the human, financial, social, physical and
natural assets of households and community, and the larger structures and processes
(institutions, organizations, policies, and legislation that shape peoples’ livelihoods.
The asset-building approach places a similar emphasis on building an asset-base in
households and communities that is transferable across generations. Recognizing that
many such assets already exist to some degree in the community, the emphasis is on
promoting opportunities for building assets and eliminating structures that limit such
opportunities.

However, the ABCD differs from other asset-based approaches and it has its own
elements. The following are the main elements:
• ABCD is an asset-based approach that uses methods to draw out strength and
successes in a community’s shared history as its starting point for change (as in
appreciative inquiry)
• Among all the assets that exist in the community, ABCD pays particular attention to
the assets inherent in social relationships, as evident in formal and informal
associations and networks (recognized in the research on social capital)
• ABCD’s community-driven approach is in keeping with the principles and practices
of participatory approaches development where active participation and
empowerment (and the prevention of disempowerment) are the basis of practices
• ABCD is a strategy directed towards sustainable economic development that is
community-driven.
• ABCD, as a strategy for sustainable economic development, relies on linkages
between community level actors and macro-level actors in public and private sectors.
In fostering these linkages, ABCD also fosters active citizenship engagement to
ensure access to public goods and services, and to ensure the accountability of local
government. It therefore contributes to, and benefits from, strengthened civil society.

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