MANGOSUTHU UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

STUDENT GUIDE
Faculty of Natural Sciences
Department of Agriculture
Qualification:

National Diploma Agriculture

Agricultural Extension II (: AGRE201, AGRX201, AXTE 201, AXTS and

AGEXT02/28)

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Name of Lecturer : Mr S Manciya

Telephone : 031 907 7698

E-Mail : manciyas@mut.ac.za

Head of Department : Dr Murungu

Telephone : 031 907 7679

Departmental Secretary : Ms Q Gumede

Contact details : 031 8199515

E-Mail : gumede.qiniso@mut.ac.za

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Table of content
1 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 4
1.1 Course content ......................................................................................................... 4
2 COURSE OUTLINE ................................................................................................. 4
2.1 Purpose of the subject ............................................................................................. 4
2.3 Prerequisite/s ........................................................................................................... 5
2.4 Corequisite/s ............................................................................................................ 5
2.5 Learning outcomes .................................................................................................. 5
2.6 Critical cross fields outcomes ................................................................................. 5
2.7 Learning and teaching strategies ........................................................................... 5
2.8 Composition of learning units ................................................................................ 6
2.9 Assessment strategies .............................................................................................. 8
2.9.1 Year Mark Calculation........................................................................................ 8
3 CLASS RULES .......................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Attendance of classes .............................................................................................. 8
3.2 Submitting assignments .......................................................................................... 8
3.3 Late submittal penalties ......................................................................................... 8
3.4 Absenteeism when assessments are done .............................................................. 9
3.5 Usage of cell phones/tablets during lectures ......................................................... 9
3.6 Plagiarism ................................................................................................................ 9
4 RECOMMENDED READINGS/BOOKS ............................................................... 9
5 ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES AND RESOURCES ................................... 9
THE MAIN CONTENT ............................................................................................. 10
6 PARTICIPATION – BACKGROUND .................................................................. 10
6.1 What exactly do you mean by ‘a participatory approach’? ............................. 10
6.2 Participative Policy Process ................................................................................. 11
6.3 When is a participatory approach appropriate? ............................................... 11
6.4 Typology of participation ..................................................................................... 12
6.5 Principles of participation .................................................................................... 13
6.6 Facilitating participatory learning and change processes ................................. 14
6.7 Tips to be a successful facilitator ......................................................................... 14
6.8 Facilitating learning in participatory processes ................................................. 15
7 PARTICIPATORY TOOLS OR METHODS....................................................... 16
7.1 In deciding which method(s) to employ, one must take into account the
following five elements: .............................................................................................. 16
7.2 Semi-structured dialogue tool .............................................................................. 16
7.3 Dialogue with key informants .............................................................................. 17
7.4 Focus group discussion ......................................................................................... 18
7.5 Bean game tool ...................................................................................................... 19
7.6 Rich picture tool .................................................................................................... 19
7.7 Venn diagram tool................................................................................................. 20
7.8 Stakeholder identification and flow chart .......................................................... 21
7.9 Matrix for social stratification of community members ................................... 22
7.10 Time line .............................................................................................................. 22
7.11 Historic graph of the community....................................................................... 23
7.12 Map showing historic trends in use of crops and varieties ............................. 24
8 WHAT ARE PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACHES?.................... 25

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8.1 Characteristics of PEA: ........................................................................................ 25
8.2 The evolution of participatory approach ............................................................ 26
8.3 On-farm trials........................................................................................................ 26
8.4 Farming system perspective ................................................................................. 27
8.5 The participatory approach emerges .................................................................. 27
8.6 Some lessons learnt ............................................................................................... 27
8.7 Summary of some main differences between the two approaches ................... 28
8.8 Participatory extension approach Process in Practice ...................................... 29
8.9 Experiences in PEA Implementation .................................................................. 30
8.9.1 Problems and How to Overcome Them ........................................................... 30
8.9.2 Building capacity to implement PEA ............................................................... 34
9 What are co-operative ............................................................................................. 35
9.1 Certain essential features are seen in all forms of co-operatives. ..................... 35
9.2 The basic objectives of the co-operatives ............................................................ 36
9.3 Historical background of co-operative................................................................ 36
9.4 Difference between co-operative and other business ......................................... 37
9.5 Principles of co-operative education ................................................................... 38
9.6 Study clubs or discussion groups are simple to organize as follows. ................ 38
9.7 In co-operative education, this method of learning has obvious advantages. . 39
9.8 What is extension work ? ..................................................................................... 39
9.9 Extension work for co-operatives ........................................................................ 39
9.10 Principles of extension worker in co-operative ................................................ 40
9.11 Difficulties of co-operative extension work....................................................... 40
10 FARMERS FIELD SCHOOLS (FFS) ................................................................. 41
10.1 Introduction or background of (ffs) .................................................................. 41
10.2 Technically strong facilitator: ............................................................................ 41
10.3 Based on crop phenology and time limited: ..................................................... 42
10.4 Group study:........................................................................................................ 42
10.5 Field School Site: ................................................................................................. 42
10.6 Building groups: .................................................................................................. 43
10.7 Basic science: ....................................................................................................... 43
10.8 Study fields [non-risk]: ....................................................................................... 43
10.9 Activity flow in IPM programme of FFS .......................................................... 43
10.10 Test and validate: .............................................................................................. 44
10.11 Hands-on learning activities: ........................................................................... 44
10.12 Evaluation and Certification: .......................................................................... 45
10.13 A process, not a goal: ........................................................................................ 45
10.14 Work self out of a job”: .................................................................................... 45
10.15 Follow-up: .......................................................................................................... 45
10.16 Local funding goal: ........................................................................................... 46
10.17 Training and Visitation comparison with Field Schools ............................... 47
11 Programme planning ............................................................................................. 49
11.1 What is the extension programme: ................................................................... 49
11.2 Why extension programme is needed .............................................................. 50
11.3 How should an extension programme be planned: .......................................... 50
11.4 The plan of work ................................................................................................. 51

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1 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Welcome to agricultural extension II or (:AGRE201, AGRX201,AXTE201 and

AXTS201) class of 2023. Extension plays an important role in dissemination of
agricultural knowledge and information. As results, the extension worker plays a
critical role in ensuring the flow of information from researcher to farmer (vice versa)
is effective. To achieve this, the extension worker requires a knowledge and practical
ability not only in plant and animals production, but also in social development,
management and teaching

1.1 Course content

Participatory methods: definitions and principles of participation; facilitating
participatory learning and change processes; participatory methods and/or tools; field trip
to apply participatory methods. Participatory extension approach (PEA): the evolution
of PEA; PEA process in practice; experiences in PEA implementation; building capacity
to implement PEA; Planning extension programmes: planning extension work; steps in
the planning process; the content and levels of programme planning; farmers’
participation in extension programmes planning; Training and Extension in co-operative
movement: nature of cooperatives; principles of cooperative education; extension work
for cooperatives; Writing a research paper ( research based on assigned topics)

2 COURSE OUTLINE
2.1 Purpose of the subject

✓ To introduce students to participatory methods of agricultural extension.

✓ To provide the learners with knowledge and understanding of participatory
extension approach.
✓ Students must understand various issues facing the agricultural sector and how to
respond to those issues.

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 ✓ To provide learners with cognitive skills to help them address key issues in
planning extension programmes.

2.3 Prerequisite/s

The prerequisite for this course is AGEXT 01/18

2.4 Corequisite/s

Students can do this course while they are doing other courses.

2.5 Learning outcomes

✓ Students must able to describe the participatory extension approach.

✓ Students must able to explain the evolution of participatory extension approach.
✓ Students must able to describe steps in social mobilization phase of participatory
extension approach process in practice.

2.6 Critical cross fields outcomes

✓ Students must be able to explain programme planning

✓ Students must be able to describe participatory extension approach

2.7 Learning and teaching strategies

This agricultural extension II require a reasoning learning will therefore focus on:
Knowledge: Being able to know and recall data presented.
Understanding: Being able to explain concepts in own words.
Application: Being able to use the knowledge in new situation.
Analysis: Separates concepts into different components so that organizational structures
may be understood.

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 Evaluation: Being able to make value judgement about the ideas and materials.
The module does not direct teach attitudes, however some lessons put emphasis on
certain attitudes. Hence students are expected to learn some basic attitude at the end of
this course. These include; being able to listen to others with respect; active participation
on the part of the student; being able to put a value on a particular object; and being able
to put values in order of priorities and resole any conflict between them.

2.8 Composition of learning units

Learning Units/Topic Learning Unit Objectives Learning Unit Outcomes

Learning Unit 1:
Participatory methods in
agricultural extension
framework.
Learning Unit 2:
Participatory extension
approach
Learning Unit 3:
Planning extension
programmes:
The objectives of this learning unit are to:
✓ Teach students about definitions and
principles of participation.
✓ Teach students about facilitating
participatory learning and change
processes.
The objectives of this learning unit are to:
✓ Understand characteristics of
participatory extension approach.
The objectives of this learning unit are to:
Teach students about planning
extension work
After studying this learning unit you as
learner should be able to:
✓ Describe the types of participation.
✓ Explain the principles that support
participatory methods and processes.
After studying this learning unit you as
learner should be able to:
✓ Tabulate the differences between
transfer of technology and participatory
extension.
✓ Outline the procedure of building
capacity to implement PEA in rural
communities.
After studying this learning unit you as
learner should be able to:
✓ Outline how should an extension
programme be planned.
✓ Explain the principles of extension
worker.

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Learning Unit 4: The objectives of this learning unit are to: After studying this learning unit you as
Training and Extension in ✓ Teach students to understand nature of learner should be able to:
co-operative movement: cooperatives. ✓ Explain what the objectives of co-
operative are.
✓ Discuss the difficulties of extension
work in the context of co-operative.

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2.9 Assessment strategies

✓ Presentation of interactive lectures.

✓ Question and answer sessions, group work ect.
✓ The lecturer will give frequent and specific feedback to the students.
The weighting for the assessment/ evaluation is as follows:
Test 1 = 35%
Test 2 =35%
Group assignment = 30%

Note: the above percentage weighting is used as a guide and the lecturer may change the
weighting should the need arise. The course mark will be calculated from the above sets
of assessments and accounts for 40% of the final mark. The examination mark will
contribute 60% of final mark.

2.9.1 Year Mark Calculation

Year mark is calculated as follows:

Assessment 1 marks (%) X 35% + Assessment 2 marks (%) X 55% + Assessment 3
marks (%) X 30% = final year mark.

3 CLASS RULES
3.1 Attendance of classes
All the students must attend to all sessions, however if the students will be absent that
must happen not more 20% of time allocated to the course.
3.2 Submitting assignments
The assignment should be typed (font: Times New Roman 12 or Arial 11, line spacing:
1.5) and must be handed in on time (due date).
3.3 Late submittal penalties
Late submission (5 marks off per day)

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3.4 Absenteeism when assessments are done
In case of the test assessments students who are absent during the test must provide a
reasonable exhibit which indicate where the students were (for instance medical
certificate).
3.5 Usage of cell phones/tablets during lectures
Students are not allowed to use the above mentioned gadget, because the use of gadget
during the lecture will make the students to loose focus.
3.6 Plagiarism
From the student side, plagiarism is such a simple thing to avoid! You have already read
the text, already found the passage that you like and that is appropriate to the context of
the question. Go ahead and quote from it! Make sure you punctuate it correctly. Next, just
add your own two sentences, explaining how and why this passage answers the question.
Make sure you reference the source.
The standard punishments for plagiarism are:
First offense: Fail on the assignment.
Second offense: Fail for the course.
Third offense: Dismissal from the school.

4 RECOMMENDED READINGS/BOOKS

De Boef, W.S. and M.H. Thijssen, 2007. Participatory tools working with crops, varieties
and seeds. A guide for professionals applying participatory approaches in
agrobiodiversity management, crop improvement and seed sector development.
Wageningen, Wageningen International, 83pp.

Jürgen Hagmann, Edward Chuma, Kuda Murwira, Mike Connolly (1998) “Learning
Together Through Participatory Extension - A Guide to an Approach Developed in
Zimbabwe”, in Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services

5 ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES AND RESOURCES

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To ensure that you have all the support you need to complete this course/module
successfully, you can access the details of the resources and academic support services
through the following hyperlinks/QR Codes:
THE MAIN CONTENT
✓ Extension plays an important role in dissemination of agricultural knowledge and
information. As a results the extension worker plays a critical role in ensuring the
flow of information from researcher to farmer (vice versa) is effective.
✓ To achieve this, the extension worker requires a knowledge and practical ability
not only in plant and animals production, but also in social development,
management and teaching
6 PARTICIPATION – BACKGROUND
Participation is about empowerment. In the late 1970s and 1980s development
organisations began realising the problems of non-adoption or limited impact caused by
top-down and linear development approaches. Since the early 1990s, donor development
agencies have put their weight behind the promotion of participatory development.
“Participation includes people's involvement in decision-making processes, in
implementing programmes, their sharing in the benefits of development programmes and
their involvement in efforts to evaluate such programmes”.

6.1 What exactly do you mean by ‘a participatory approach’?

A participatory approach advocates actively involving ‘the public’ in decision-making

processes, whereby the relevant ‘public’ depends upon the topic being addressed. The
public can be average citizens, the stakeholders of a particular project or policy, experts
and even members of government and private industry. In general, policy processes can
be seen as a three-step cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation, whereby a
participatory approach may be used in some or all of these steps.

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6.2 Participative Policy Process

Participation
In Evaluation Participation in Planning

Participation in
Implementation

Distinctions have been made between levels of participation, depending upon whether
one’s objective is:
✓ Transmitting information (unidirectional)
✓ Consultation (bi-directional, but the consulted party frames the issue)
✓ Active participation: based on a partnership in which citizens, stakeholders,
experts and/or politicians actively engage in (policy) debate. All parties involved
can frame the issue to a greater or lesser extent.
The contents of this toolkit refer to active participation. However, it should be noted that
the level of participation is a continuum and methods vary in the degree to which they
engage participants in framing the questions and issues and in designing the procedures.
6.3 When is a participatory approach appropriate?
A participatory approach is particularly appropriate for addressing:

✓ Themes that require ethical, social or cultural study and may call for a choice
between fundamental values and principles.
✓ Policy issues that call for a combination of public awareness, learning, a search
for solutions and emotional or moral acceptance of the eventual decision.
✓ Public policy choices that will rely on the precautionary principle or the weight of
evidence.
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 ✓ Underlying values and principles that must be clarified before detailed proposals
or risk management options are brought forward.
✓ A clearly defined set of options or proposals that support the search for consensus
or innovative solutions.

6.4 Typology of participation

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6.5 Principles of participation
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Distinguish certain principles that support participatory methods and processes.
✓ The first one is critical self-awareness and responsibility. Facilitators being
conscious about attitudes, behaviour and relationships, embracing and learning
from error and doubt, continuously trying to do better, building the own
capabilities in learning and improvement in methods applied into every
experience, and taking personal responsibility.
✓ The second principle is set around equity and empowerment. i.e. a commitment to
equity, empowering those who are marginalised, excluded and deprived, often
women and children, or those who are poorer.
✓ The third principle recognizes and celebrates diversity. i.e. offsetting biases and
facilitating a culture of sharing of information, methods, field experiences and
learning among NGOs, government and local people.
✓ The fourth and final principle relates to facilitation and enhancement of the
capacities in joint or social learning. Methods need to be flexible, exploratory,
interactive and inventive, thus to facilitate rapid progressive learning. They need
to include reversals, i.e. learning from, with and by local people, eliciting and
using their criteria and categories.

6.6 Facilitating participatory learning and change processes

✓ Facilitation is critical in the participatory approach.

✓ The role of the professional is to guide the process; in all matters decisions should
be left to the group involved.
✓ This is often difficult as the professionals like researchers and extension workers
are trained in the transfer of technology, telling the farmer how to do things,
making the farmer listening instead of talking.
✓ In participatory diagnosis and research, the information flow is reversed.
✓ It should be realised that this not only requires a change of attitude of the
professional.
✓ Farmers and rural people may also be used to being told what to do and therefore
may be reluctant to move into another mode of communication.
6.7 Tips to be a successful facilitator

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 ✓ Look, listen and learn. Facilitate. Don't dominate. Don't interrupt. When people
are mapping, modelling or diagramming, let them get on with it.
✓ Spend nights in villages and slums. Be around in the evening, at night and in the
early morning.
✓ Embrace error. We all make mistakes, and do things badly sometimes. Never
mind. Don't hide it. Share it. When things go wrong, it is a chance to learn.
✓ Ask yourself - who is being met and heard, and what is being seen, and where and
why; and who is not being met and heard, and what is not being seen, and where
and why?
✓ Show interest and enthusiasm in learning from people.
✓ Relax. Don't rush. Allow unplanned time to walk and wander around.
✓ Meet people when it suits them, and when they can be at ease, not when it suits
us. This applies even more strongly to women than to men.
✓ Probe. Interview the map or the diagram.
✓ Ask about what you see. Notice, seize on and investigate diversity, whatever is
different, the unexpected
✓ Use the six helpers - who, what, where, when, why and how?

6.8 Facilitating learning in participatory processes

✓ Within PLA, learning is considered ‘reflecting on experience to identify how a

situation or future actions could be improved and then using the knowledge to
actually make improvements’.
✓ This can be individual or group based, within a project or programme, at
organisational level or within a wider societal context.
✓ In the early 1970s, David A. Kolb with his colleague Ronald Fry at the Weather
head School of Management developed “The Experiential Learning Model”
✓ There are four elements of Experiential Learning which include:
✓ Concrete experience
✓ Observation and reflection of that experience
✓ Formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection
✓ Final testing new concepts

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 ✓ Learning runs through a cycle of concrete experiences, reflective observation,
abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation.

7 PARTICIPATORY TOOLS OR METHODS

✓ The diversity of tools is not prescriptive but rather serve as options one can draw
from.
✓ The starting point is not “What tool can we use?” but “What do we want to do?”
or “What do we need to know?” and “Which tools can assist me in this?”
✓ The tools used range from field-based visualisation, to interviewing and group
work. The common theme is the promotion of interactive learning, sharing
knowledge, and flexible, yet structured analysis.
✓ What tools to apply, what type (map, matrix or any other), with whom, in what
sequence, depends very much on the setting and the objectives of the exercise.
✓ Which method should we use?

7.1 In deciding which method(s) to employ, one must take into account the following
five elements:
✓ Objectives: Reasons for involvement and expected outcomes
✓ Topic: The nature and scope of the issue
✓ Participants: Who is affected, interested or can contribute to solutions
✓ Time: Amount of time available
✓ Budget: Availability of resources

7.2 Semi-structured dialogue tool

When to use the tool
✓ To obtain general information through dialogues with individuals (key persons),
households or focal groups.
✓ The difference between an interview and a dialogue is that the latter is an
exchange, a two way flow of information.
✓ The technique of semi-structured dialogue tries to avoid the disadvantages of
structured questionnaires such as closed topics (there is no way to discuss other
topics), lack of dialogue, limited options for elaboration and further explication by
the interviewees.
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 ✓ Its application is very broad relating to whatever topic to be addressed.

The steps would follow when using the semi- structured dialogue tool

✓ Step 1: Develop a guide with a maximum of 10 to 15 topics for dialogues with

key informants and 5 to 7 topics for group dialogues.
✓ Step 2: Identify how you will select the persons or groups to be interviewed.
✓ Step 3: Implement the dialogues/interviews.
✓ Step 4: Analysis of the data.
✓ Step 5: Triangulation.

7.3 Dialogue with key informants

When to use the tool

✓ This tool is not necessarily a participatory one, however, it is required to prepare

any participatory dialogue in a community or with stakeholders.
✓ Critical is that the dialogue about the community and the specific topic is
informal; in this way you may get very quickly some key information.
✓ It provides a basis for a good start of a participatory diagnosis.
✓ It can be organised with individuals, but also with groups.

The steps would follow when using Dialogue with key informants the tool

✓ Step 1: Develop a guide with a maximum of 10 to 15 topics with key informants.

✓ Step 2: Identify the key informants. They should be representatives of different
groups (stakeholder, social, gender, generation) within the community where you
want to work.
✓ Step 3: Introduction: the purpose of the interview should be clearly explained,
after which the informant should be asked if he or she wants to participate.
✓ Step 4: For implementation of the interview, follow the guidelines for the semi-
structured dialogue.

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 ✓ Step 5: The obtained information should be compared and verified with other
dialogues, interviews and discussions on the topics.

7.4 Focus group discussion

When to use the tool

✓ Focus group meetings are made up of people or stakeholders with similar
concerns, who can speak comfortably together, and who share a common problem
and purpose.
✓ Focus group discussions as participatory tool can be used to obtain knowledge
shared by a certain group which is not expressed in the context of a larger
gathering.

Basic principles of focus group discussion

✓ A list with focus or stakeholder groups needs to be compiled and analysed before
deciding how these groups can be put together.
✓ Transparent flow of information. A way to start this process is to create an
environment for an open dialogue between local stakeholders.
✓ Focus on the local situation and flexibility. The aim to organise focus group
discussions is to obtain data and information generated within a specific context.
✓ Quality and trustworthiness of information. Providing room for a diversity of
perspectives will create more trustworthy information.
✓ Stimulating diversity in perspectives. Focus groups are an effective instrument for
gathering information from a diversity of participants.
✓ Cooperation. When being transparent in the flow of information and embedding
this information in the overall process, focus group discussion will create
ownership by the participants over the entire process.
✓ Discussion, debate or dialogue. Within focus group discussions, a free flow of
information is clearly required (no strict agenda).

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 ✓ The learning process to engage in dialogue is a critical output of multi-stakeholder
processes’. It means that participants move from hearing to listening, thus moving
beyond fighting, beyond adversarial and conflicts in interaction.

7.5 Bean game tool

When to use the tool

✓ To allow participants to experience the concept of sustainability, participation and

communication in a simple and fast setting.
Methodology

✓ The facilitator divides the participants in small groups of 4 to 5 people. Each

group sits in a circle.
✓ The facilitator imposes absolute silence among the participants.
✓ Each group receives a plate containing 25 beans. The facilitator shows the goal
and rules of the game and asks one of the participants to read them out loudly
✓ Questions are not allowed. When the facilitator gives the signal, the game starts.
At the end of the game the total harvest per person and per group is recorded; the
maximum and minimum number of beans per person and the group total is
provided to the facilitator who records them.

7.6 Rich picture tool

When to use the too

✓ A rich picture illustrates the richness and complexity of a situation.

✓ It is a drawing of a situation that illustrates the main elements and relationships
that need to be considered in trying to intervene to create some improvement.
✓ Pictures, text, symbols and icons should all be used to graphically illustrate the
situation and stimulate discussion.

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 ✓ It is a powerful tool to open and initiate a discussion on complex issues in which
diverse groups within a community or different stakeholders may have dissimilar
views.

Methodology

✓ A rich picture is best developed in a group of about 4 to 7 people.

✓ Have a large piece of flip chart paper.
✓ Put the paper on a table around which everyone is sitting or standing in away that
each person can easily draw on the picture.
✓ Encourage everyone to contribute and make it clear that skill in drawing is not at
all important.
✓ Use situation analysis questions (stakeholders, problems, issues, opportunities,
visions, context and how these are related to each other) as a guide for developing
the rich picture.
✓ For future reference ask the group to write a story about the picture using numbers
to link the pictures to explanations.

7.7 Venn diagram tool

When to use the tool

✓ You want to identify with the participants (farmers or stakeholders) what are
considered important internal and external stakeholders within and/or associated
to the community.
✓ You want to facilitate participants getting a better understanding of the
interactions of organizations and support the division of responsibilities during
planning based on the outcomes of the appraisal.
✓ The Venn diagram will inform you on what are key stakeholders to be involved in
community based activities.

Methodology

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 ✓ Step 1: Begin a discussion on organisations, both formal and informal, playing a
role in farmers’ livelihoods and the community’s social organisation.
✓ Step 2: Ask the participants to write all organizations playing a role in the
community on cards. Informal community groups are added.
✓ Step 3: Draw a big circle on the large paper; this circle represents the community.
✓ Step 4: Ask the participants if relationships exist among the organizations and
groups.
✓ Step 5: The result is a diagram of inter-institutional relations in the community. In
case of working in. different subgroups, compare the results of the different
groups.

7.8 Stakeholder identification and flow chart

When to use the tool

✓ You want to know the stakeholders that are considered key stakeholders involved
in conservation, breeding and/or the seed sector.
✓ You want to facilitate participants getting a better understanding of the
institutional framework of genetic conservation, plant breeding and seed
production programmes.
✓ You want to understand and characterize flows of germplasm, information and
financial resources among stakeholders.
✓ You want to identify the stakeholders that should be involved in future activities.

Methodology

✓ Step 1: Identify stakeholders and draw the system.

✓ Cards used by the participants to indicate their institutional affiliation during the
‘getting to know each other’ are put on a large paper sheet.
✓ Similar organisations are put together in clusters.
✓ The distance between the clusters is related to their affiliation
✓ Step 2: Analyse flows of germplasm, information and financial resources.

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 ✓ Using a green marker flows of germplasm are drawn among the stakeholders;
arrows, indicating the direction of the flow, may be in one or two directions.
✓ Using a blue marker flows of information are drawn among the stakeholders.

7.9 Matrix for social stratification of community members

When to use the tool

✓ The tool helps you to determine the criteria used by the farmers for characterizing
levels of sustainability among the households within a community.
✓ It further facilitates understanding on how access to resources, characterizes
socio-economic groups within the community.

Methodology

✓ Step 1: Gather a group of local people, preferably from different groups in the
community and explain them the objective of the exercise.
✓ Step 2: Determine with the participants three or four levels/ types of households.
✓ Prepare a matrix, with the household types in the first row (use symbols).
✓ Step 4: Ask the participants to identify the exact differences among the household
groups.
✓ Step 5: Try to collect quantitative data and to establish the classification in a
simple matrix.
✓ Step 6: Once the matrix is completed, review with the participants the relevance
of the information.
✓ Step 7: Prioritization of criteria. The different resources identified should be
prioritized to see with the participants which resources they consider most
important.
✓ Step 8: This exercise should be repeated with several groups, to complete the
information.

7.10 Time line

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 ✓ When to use the tool
✓ The time line helps the facilitators and participants (community) to understand
changes in the community's past.
✓ It is a useful tool to start a participatory appraisal and put a diversity of issues in a
historical context.

Methodology

✓ Step 1: Organize one or several working groups; it is important to work in groups,

so that the participants agree and stimulate each other.
✓ Step 2: The facilitator begins the discussion with questions.
✓ Step 3: Put the events (as written on individual cards) in a vertical line that
represents the time line, with the oldest events above.
✓ Step 4: Organize comments on the events and their implications on a topic that is
discussed during the participatory appraisal.
✓ Step 5: When the timeline is concluded, discuss trends of some kind of events.
✓ Step 6: Subgroups can be formed to discuss dissimilar topics, which afterwards
can be presented in a plenary.
✓ Step 7: Check the result with other sources of information.

7.11 Historic graph of the community

When to use the tool

✓ This tools gives you insight in specific aspects in a historical context.
✓ It links different issues in time and helps the participants to identify logical
relationships between issues related to social organization, health, production,
natural resources, etc.
✓ The historic graph can complement exercises like the timeline.

Methodology

~ 23 ~
 ✓ Step 1: Organize with the participants the elements that will be discussed; use
cards or other materials for visualisation during brainstorming.
✓ Step 2: Prepare a matrix with the identified elements, with as many columns as
necessary for the years involved.
✓ Step 3: For each topic, ask participants if they remember an exceptional year (for
example when crops yielded exceptionally low). This year will serve as a
reference.
✓ Step 4: When the matrix is completed, it can support the discussions, revealing a
lot of valuable information (both qualitative and quantitative).
✓ Step 5: When the graph is concluded, the facilitator stimulates the discussion (for
example by asking the participants to explain the differences and the most evident
changes that are visualized).

7.12 Map showing historic trends in use of crops and varieties

When to use this tool

✓ With these maps, a community can evaluate the changes in the natural resources.
✓ Drawing these maps facilitates exchange of information among different
generations of community members.
✓ These maps help to understand the current problems in a historical context.
✓ When drawing future maps, the tool is a way to jointly develop a future vision on
a topic

Methodology

✓ Step 1: Organise groups of community members of dissimilar generations (senior,

adults and youngsters). The senior participants should know well the past of the
community.
✓ Step 2: With the maps and transect in mind, ask the senior participants
(grandparents) to draw the past, the adult participants (parents) to draw the

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 present, and the youngsters (children) to draw their perspective on the future.
Each group draws its own map.
✓ Step 3: Compare the maps/ successive descriptions and discuss the main changes
that have taken place, as well as the views on the future.

8 WHAT ARE PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION APPROACHES?

✓ Participatory extension approaches are a ways of improving the effectiveness of

rural extension efforts by government agencies, NGOs and other organisations
engaged in rural development.

8.1 Characteristics of PEA:

✓ They integrate community mobilisation for planning and action with rural
development, agricultural extension and research
✓ They are based on an equal partnership between farmers, researchers and
extension agents who can all learn from each other and contribute their
knowledge and skills.
✓ They aim to strengthen rural people's problem-solving, planning and management
abilities.
✓ They promote farmers' capacity to adapt and develop new and appropriate
technologies / innovations (usually these are agricultural technologies and
practices, but they can also be in social institutions, in health, water and
sanitation, and other rural development domains).
✓ They encourage smallholder farmers to learn through experimentation, building
on their own knowledge and practices and blending them with new ideas. This
takes place in a cycle of action and reflection which is called 'action learning.
✓ They recognise that communities are not homogenous but consist of various
social groups with conflicts and differences in interests, power and capabilities.
The goal is to achieve equitable and sustainable development through the
negotiation of interests among these groups and by providing space for the poor
and marginalised in collective decision-making.

~ 25 ~
 ✓ The role of the extension agent is to facilitate this process. Researchers also have
a role. They assist farmers and extension agents in the joint experimentation and
learning process and contribute their knowledge of technical options to find
solutions to the problems identified by farmers.
✓ In many other countries, the 'transfer of technology' (ToT) model has been the
prevalent practice for developing and spreading innovations.
✓ It is based on the assumption that a transfer of technology and knowledge from
scientists to farmers will trigger development.
✓ Applied to agriculture, this model assumes that farmers‘ problems can be solved
by people and institutions who have this 'modern' knowledge.
✓ Farmers have often been considered as the main constraint to development, as
‘mismanages’ of their resources, rather than the potential initiators of a solution.

8.2 The evolution of participatory approach

✓ In many other countries, the 'transfer of technology' (ToT) model has been the
prevalent practice for developing and spreading innovations.
✓ It is based on the assumption that a transfer of technology and knowledge from
scientists to farmers will trigger development.
✓ Applied to agriculture, this model assumes that farmers‘ problems can be solved
by people and institutions who have this 'modern' knowledge.
✓ Farmers have often been considered as the main constraint to development, as
‘mismanages’ of their resources, rather than the potential initiators of a solution.
✓ Since the 1970s, efforts have been made to improve the impact of research and
extension.
✓ All have strived for the greater involvement of farmers in the process.
✓ The understanding of farmer participation in rural development, however, still had
some way to evolve

8.3 On-farm trials

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 ✓ The first effort to improve the ToT approach was through the use of on-farm
trials. These were established to verify ready-made techniques on farmers' fields
and to demonstrate technologies to farmers.
✓ Farmers provided their land to the researchers to carry out the trials, and this was
seen as farmer involvement. The technologies were still developed by the
researchers and adoption rates still did not increase

8.4 Farming system perspective

✓ In an attempt to explain farmers' continued non-adoption of technologies, the

'farming systems' perspective was developed. As a result, input supply was
improved and often fertiliser was given out free to give farmers a taste of the
benefits. Still there was little adoption of the technology packages as the approach
failed to address the diversity of farmers‘ socio-economic and institutional
environments.
8.5 The participatory approach emerges

✓ In the late 1980s, it was realised that most technologies developed by researchers
alone were inappropriate for smallholder farmers. Farmer participatory research
became the approach to adapt technologies to farmers' conditions and, by the
1990s, to develop technologies together with farmers.
✓ Farmers were now seen as partners in research and extension, and the key players
in the innovation process. This led to an understanding that the main key to
agricultural development is to enhance farmers‘ capacities to develop and diffuse
new technologies and techniques themselves from farmer to farmer.
8.6 Some lessons learnt

✓ The successful experiences with participatory approaches in many countries have

highlighted a number of lessons about effective innovation development and
extension in community development:
✓ Outsiders are rarely able to determine the 'best practices' for rural people.

~ 27 ~
 ✓ Farmers are the only people who can make effective decisions about how to
manage their farms within the many environmental and social constraints they
face.
✓ Even within a single field, conditions can be highly diverse in terms of soil types,
slope, moisture content and so on.
✓ The key elements described here contrast with the basic principles underlying the
technology-transfer model.
✓ Shifting the focus from teaching to learning, from hierarchical, top-down to
participatory bottom-up approaches, from centralised to decentralised decision-
making will put institutions under pressure for change as well.
✓ Thus governmental and non-governmental organisations are important actors in
the learning process.

8.7 Summary of some main differences between the two approaches

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8.8 Participatory extension approach Process in Practice

✓ So how can the key factors for enhancing rural peoples' problem solving
capacities described above be translated into the day-to-day work of the extension
agent? How can the existing extension work be improved through incorporation
of these new elements? There are four major phases in the PEA process. These
are:
✓ Phase A: Social mobilisation: facilitating the communities' own analysis of their
situation
✓ Phase B: Community-level action planning
✓ Phase C: Implementation and trying out / farmer experimentation
✓ Phase D: Monitoring the process through sharing experiences ideas and self-
evaluation

~ 29 ~
Phase A: Social mobilization: facilitating the communities’ own analysis of their
situation
✓ Step 1: Entering the community and building trust
✓ Step 2: Identifying and supporting effective local organisations
✓ Step 3: Feedback to the community
✓ Step 4: Raising awareness in the whole community
✓ Step 5: Identifying community need

Phase B: Community-level action planning

✓ Step 6: Prioritizing problems and needs

✓ Step 7:Searching for solutions
✓ Step 8: Mandating local institutions
✓ Step 9: Action planning
Phase C: Implementation and trying out/ farmer experimentation

✓ Step 10: learning through experimenting and trying out new ideas

Phase D: Monitoring the process through sharing experiences, ideas and self
evaluation

✓ Step 11: Mid-season Evaluation of new techniques

✓ Step 12: Process Review, Self-evaluation and planning

8.9 Experiences in PEA Implementation

8.9.1 Problems and How to Overcome Them

✓ When a pilot group of extension workers were trained and started PEA
implementation without any donor support, they initially faced a number of
problems in practice.
✓ Many of the problems they encountered were the actual challenges which PEA is
geared to address.

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~ 31 ~
~ 32 ~
~ 33 ~
8.9.2 Building capacity to implement PEA

✓ The PEA framework and learning cycle described above requires a lot of
flexibility when implemented in practice.
✓ Participatory community development processes cannot be implemented as a
blueprint, nor can they be predicted in terms of output.
✓ Every community is different.
✓ Some steps in the process might take several months with one community but just
one day in another, depending on the consensus which has to be negotiated.
✓ One of the major challenges facing extension agencies is: how to make the
transition from the old approaches to the new.
✓ How to re-orient and renew extension with a vigorous emphasis on partnership,
participation and sharing in the development effort?
✓ How to balance continuity of service provision with progressive yet managed
transformation towards a very different approach?
✓ Re-orientation of extension staff on such a scale needs deliberate, intensive and
focused opportunities for learning and relearning.
✓ There were five phases of iterative learning process for re-orientation and
capacity development that were designed in Masvingo.

Iterative PEA training process for operational extension staff

Phase 1.
✓ The start: 2-week training workshop on PEA in training centre.
✓ Exposure to concepts (PEA, TFT)
✓ Introduction, exposure and tools training for initial steps of the PEA cycle
✓ Create an operational framework (conceptual understanding of PEA)
✓ Planning (individual action plan for one community to try out PEA)
✓ Phase 2.
✓ Field implementation of action plan (approx. 6 months)
✓ If possible follow up and backstopping by trainers in the field

~ 34 ~
 ✓ Mutual learning support among AEWs, further exposure of local staff
✓ Phase 3.
✓ Week workshop: evaluation and re-planning (new action plan)
✓ Sharing of field experiences during first action plan and learning from each other
✓ Joint working on how to overcome the major problems faced in the field
✓ Training on more tools and methods
✓ Second action plan formulation
✓ Phase 4.
✓ Field implementation of action plans (approx. 6 - 9 months)
✓ Peer to peer sharing and support
✓ Mutual learning support and follow-up by trainers
✓ Phase 5. 1-week workshop
✓ Sharing of field experiences during second action plan and further learning
✓ Joint working on how to overcome the major problems faced in the field
✓ Review of the whole process experience and planning for future learning support

9 What are co-operative

✓ Co-operative are an almost universal form of organization today found in

practically all countries and used by people in many ways: for marketing of food
products, to purchase production supplies for farming and fishing and to provide
housing.
✓ There is no end to the ways in which the co-operative idea can be made to benefit
people in the everyday needs of life.

9.1 Certain essential features are seen in all forms of co-operatives.

✓ They consist of group of people who join together to do something they cannot
very well do as individual.
✓ They aim to provide some service that is necessary or very desirable in the lives
of the people concerned.
✓ They operate on the basis of self-help, that is, the people involved look towards
themselves as a group for the solution of their problems.
~ 35 ~
 ✓ They do business from the motive of service and not for the purpose of making a
profit.

9.2 The basic objectives of the co-operatives

✓ They aim to provide good and services at low cost.

✓ They aim to eliminate the unnecessary profits of middlemen in trade and
commerce.
✓ They seek to prevent the exploitation of the weaker members of society.
✓ They aim to protect the rights of people both as producers and consumers.
✓ They promote mutual understanding and education among their members and, in
the long run, among people in general.

9.3 Historical background of co-operative

✓ Informal types of co-operative are as old as human history: whenever people

came together voluntarily to help one another by providing a group service, they
actually had a simple form of co-operative.
✓ But the co-operative movement as we know it today had it beginning in Europe in
modern time as a result of the industrial revolution.
✓ In several European countries the first co-operatives were organized by
workingmen who were seeking to change the wretched conditions brought about
by the new age of machine and factory production that began in England almost
two hundred years ago and soon after in other countries.

~ 36 ~
9.4 Difference between co-operative and other business study later

~ 37 ~
9.5 Principles of co-operative education

✓ The principles of co-operative education are the same as those of other education,
and especial of adult education, but there are a few simple ones in co-operative
work so basic that to disregard them is to risk failure or disappointment from the
beginning, which include:
✓ Acceptance of existing level of understanding
✓ Learning by doing
✓ Teaching in the vernacular
✓ Continuity of education
✓ Importance of the group approach
✓ A further principle that springs from the very nature of co-operation education
makes frequent use of the group approach or the technique of group action.
✓ The group idea permeates co-operative organization: a group or groups of people
meet together, they make decisions as a group, they decide on group action, they
have the welfare of the uppermost in mind.
✓ The educational program is also mainly based on the group and the method of
learning that best typifies this is the study club or some other form of group
discussion.
9.6 Study clubs or discussion groups are simple to organize as follows.

✓ A large number of people want to learn about something, study a situation, or

make plans for action. For the present purpose they meet together because they
want to learn about co-operatives or do something in a co-operative way.
✓ The large number is divide into small groups each of five, six or seven people not
too many or good discussion will be difficult. Each group selects a leader, who
gather information, keeps discussion moving when the group meets and is
responsible for keeping the group active
✓ The study group members undertake to learn something together, to teach one
another through open discussion, to exchange idea, to decide how they can work
together to solve common problems. They get information n the matter under
study, they read pamphlets and other literature, and they become well informed so
that they can make intelligent decisions.
~ 38 ~
 ✓ The group come together again in one large meeting and, on the basis of what
they have learned, they decide on the proper action to take.
9.7 In co-operative education, this method of learning has obvious advantages.

✓ It is essentially democratic. It gives practice in free discussion which is the basis

of democratic control- important principle of co-operation.
✓ It encourage participation by everybody- another feature of democratic action.
✓ It is effective with most people, even those with limited formal education.
✓ It provides a sold basis of understanding and agreement before taking action.
✓ It is an inexpensive method of education compared with more formal types of
instruction.
9.8 What is extension work ?

✓ In modern times, particularly in the last 25 years or so, extension work has come
to have great significance in popular education, in adult or fundamental education,
and in public information.
✓ It is now regarded as an essential feature of the development of progressive and
democratic nation.
✓ Extension work, sometime called extension education or simple extension, means
the bringing of education to people who are not ordinarily in close contact with an
education institution and who are likely to remain without the education, training
or information needed for improvement in their living conditions unless it is
brought to them.
✓ Extension is a process of diffusion: knowledge is spread from focal point to large
numbers of people who can benefit from it.

9.9 Extension work for co-operatives

✓ Extension work as applied to the co-operative movement simple means the

extending or enlarging of all forms of co-operative endeavor by education among
people.
✓ The main aim is to have the benefits of co-operation shared by more man and
women.

~ 39 ~
 ✓ The true co-operator want to see others enjoy the advantages which the movement
has brought to him, and so he/she seeks to extend it to them.
✓ Extension worker for co-operatives will, therefore be directed to the forming of
new societies where they are needed, to increasing membership in co-operatives
already in existence, and to helping members to participate more effectively in
making policy and in solving the problems of their organisation.

9.10 Principles of extension worker in co-operative

✓ Start from conditions that exist (local, regional and national).

✓ Involve people in actions that promote their welfare.
✓ Develop programs gradually.
✓ Aim basically at peoples interests and needs.
✓ Use democratic methods.
✓ Keep programs flexible.
✓ Work through understanding of the culture.
✓ Use local leaders.
✓ Use existing agencies.
✓ Utilize trained specialists.
✓ Work with all members of the family.
✓ Keep in line with national policies.
✓ Use the community approach.
✓ Help people to recognize their needs.
✓ Make programs as broad as the needs of the people.
✓ Evaluate continuously.
✓ Work with all classes of people

9.11 Difficulties of co-operative extension work

✓ In teaching better agricultural methods, one is dealing with visible things that can
be easily demonstrated and are soon appreciated; but in co-operative work one is
dealing in the beginning mainly with intangible things, with attitude and mental
outlook, and the benefits of co-operation cannot be as quickly demonstrated.

~ 40 ~
 ✓ To prove the benefits, for example, of spraying crops only one farmer has to be
persuaded in order to achieve some success; but to make a co-operative society
succeed many people must be influenced into doing certain things together in an
organized way.
✓ Occasionally in a community there are those who will oppose better agriculture
practices but co-operation has to face the aggressive and often direct opposition of
the vested interests of other business.
✓ The demonstration of successful co-operation involves legal and administrative
details which often do not appear in agricultural extension.
✓ When a farmer is approached to improve his agricultural methods, he is not
generally asked to involve himself financially; but in extension work for co-
operatives the question will require some form of savings or capital from the
beginning.
10 FARMERS FIELD SCHOOLS (FFS)
10.1 Introduction or background of (ffs)
✓ The first Field Schools were established in 1989 in Central Java during a pilot
season by 50 plant protection officers to test and develop field training methods as
part of their IPM training of trainers course.
✓ Two hundred Field Schools were established that season with 5000 farmers
participating.
✓ The name FFS was created to reflect the educational goals; the course took place
in the field, and the field conditions defined most of the curriculum, but real field
problems were observed, and analysed from planting of the crop (rice) to harvest.

10.2 Technically strong facilitator:

✓ The Field School is usually initiated by an extension staff member of the

government, farmers’ organization, or NGO.
✓ But in all cases the person must have certain skills. Most important is that the
person is skilled at growing the crop concerned.
✓ In most countries, the extension staff have never grown crops ‘from seed to seed’
and most often lack confidence.

~ 41 ~
 ✓ For the above mentioned reason, most IPM programmes have begun with training
field staff in season-long courses which provide basic technical skills for growing
and managing an IPM crop.

10.3 Based on crop phenology and time limited:

✓ The Field Schools and season long training for trainers are based on the crop
phenology; seedling issues are studied during the seedling stage, fertiliser issues
are discussed during high nutrient demand stages, and so on.
✓ This method allows to use the crop as a teacher, and to ensure that farmers can
immediately use and practice what is being learned.
✓ Meeting on a weekly basis means that farmers are participating in a course for a
whole season.

10.4 Group study:

✓ Most Field Schools are organised for groups of about 25 persons with common
interests can support each other, both with their individual experience and
strengths, and to create a “critical mass”.
✓ As individuals, trying something new is often socially inappropriate (e.g.
reducing sprays, cover crops), but with group support, trying something new
becomes acceptable.

10.5 Field School Site:

✓ The Field Schools are always held in the community where farmers live so that
they can easily attend weekly and maintain the Field School studies.
✓ The extension officer travels to the site on the day of the Field School.

~ 42 ~
10.6 Building groups:

✓ One of the jobs of the facilitator is to assist the Field School to develop as a
support group so that participants can support one another after the Field School is
over.
✓ This is done by having elected officers (head, treasurer, and secretary), and group
identity.
✓ The Field School needs its own name - never the name of the founding
organization.
✓ A budget may be prepared for this, but the group should make the design and
have their own name on these. During the season, the Field School includes group
building exercises to build group trust and coherence.
✓ Funding may come from a number of sources including from within the group
itself, local shop owners, local governments, NGOs, or national programmes.

10.7 Basic science:

✓ Field Schools try to focus on basic processes through field observations, season-
long research studies, hands-on activities.
✓ It has been found that when farmers have learned about basics, combined with
their own experiences and needs, they make decisions that are effective.

10.8 Study fields [non-risk]:

✓ The Field School has a small (usually about 1000 m2) field for group study. This
is the core of the Field Schools.
✓ This field is essential for a Field School because farmers can carry out studies
without personal risk allowing them to take management decisions that they might
not otherwise attempt in trials on their own farm.
✓ This provides farmers a way of testing a new method themselves before applying
it to their own fields

10.9 Activity flow in IPM programme of FFS

~ 43 ~
10.10 Test and validate:

✓ The Field School method proposes that no technology will necessarily work in a
new location, and therefore must be tested, validated, and adapted locally.
✓ Thus, IPM methods are always tested in comparison with conventional practices.
✓ The end result is that beneficial aspects of IPM are incorporated into existing
practices.
✓ There are no “IPM Farmers”, and “IPM adoption rate” is around zero in good
Field Schools.
✓ There are, however, better farming practices and high adaptation rates.
10.11 Hands-on learning activities:

✓ Beside season-long field studies, the Field School also uses other hands on
learning activities to focus on specific concepts.
✓ “Zoos” in which insect and disease life cycles can be observed more easily on
potted plants, and controlled testing of pesticide toxicity with chicks are such
activities.
✓ These methods also provide ways for farmers to continue studying after the Field
School.
✓ Farmers are able to use the same methods to help other farmers to learn about
IPM as well.

~ 44 ~
10.12 Evaluation and Certification:

✓ All Field Schools include field based pre- and post-tests for the participants.
✓ Farmers with high attendance rates and who master the field skill tests are
awarded graduation certificates.
✓ For many farmers, the Field School is the first time that they have graduated from
any school or received a certificate in recognition of their farming skills, a point
of great pride to many families.

10.13 A process, not a goal:

✓ It must be remembered that Field Schools are a method to provide farmers with a
learning environment so that they can achieve the goal of reducing inputs, and
increasing yields and profits.
✓ In some programmes the number of Field Schools, or expansion of programmes
becomes the overwhelming target and success criteria that quality suffers and the
initial goals are not met

10.14 Work self out of a job”:

✓ The facilitator in a Field School attempts to work him/herself out of a job but
building the capacity of the group.
✓ Indeed, many Fields Schools take over the job of the extension facilitator by
doing Farmer to Farmer training and other local activities to strengthen other
members of the community.

10.15 Follow-up:

✓ All Field Schools normally have at least one follow-up season, the intensity of
which will be determined by the motivation of the Field School participants, time
constraints of participants and facilitator, and to some extent - funding.

~ 45 ~
 ✓ Follow-up has been known to be a little as monthly support sessions for farmers
to discuss their own problems in implementing IPM, to as much as farmers
running a complete Field School for other farmers.
✓ Often farmers agree to repeat the Field School process for one more season to
verify findings, or to repeat the process of the Field School on a new crop to learn
IPM for the next crop.
✓ Some groups begin to form associations, people’s organisations, and clubs that are
officially or un-officially organised and carry on studying as a group.
✓ The facilitator usually becomes less central in the process if he/she has done a
good job, more often providing some technical backstopping and stimulation for
the group.

10.16 Local funding goal:

✓ Some of the Field School activities focus on future planning and funding raising.
✓ There is an explicit goal for groups to become independent and seek local support
separate from national funding.
✓ In some cases this has meant that farmers each bring a bowl of uncooked rice to a
meeting money for snack, or as much as writing a proposal and receiving a
funding grant from government or NGO sources.
✓ In national programmes, it is desirable to have funds available directly to farmer
groups that request support for their local activities.

~ 46 ~
10.17 Training and Visitation comparison with Field Schools

~ 47 ~
~ 48 ~
11 Programme planning

✓ There are three kinds of plan are used in modern extension work.
✓ 1 the extension programme or general statement describing what should be done
and why it is needed.
✓ 2The plan of work or detailed statement of how it will be done.
✓ 3 The calendar of work or timetable showing when it will be done.

11.1 What is the extension programme:

✓ It is a plan prepared jointly by the people and the extension workers, with the
advice of any specialist officers whose help may be needed.
✓ It contains a list of the various project which the people wish to undertake.
✓ It describe briefly the situation regarding each project.

~ 49 ~
 ✓ It mention the problems affecting each project.
✓ It suggest the best solution that lie with the capacity of the people.
✓ It clearly states, as its objectives, what the people should learn to do within a
stated period of time.

11.2 Why extension programme is needed

✓ It furnishes a clear, concise statement for the information of all who are connected
with or interested in the work.
✓ It affords a means of gauging the value of all new proposal and allocating them to
their correct degree of priority in relation to projects in the present programme.
✓ It helps to ensure continuity after changes of staff have taken place.
✓ It assists in the training of local leaders.
✓ It helps to avoid waste of time and money.
✓ It justifies the expenditure of public money.

11.3 How should an extension programme be planned:

✓ 1 By the joint effort of the extension workers and the local leaders representing
the people.
✓ 2 By finding out the condition under which the people live and what they feel is
needed to improve these conditions. This can be done by the following
techniques:
✓ By observing the living conditions in their homes.
✓ By talking with leading personalities in the village.
✓ By conducting a simple survey.
✓ 3 By holding a public meeting at which the committee can report the findings of
their survey, explain the factors affecting the existing state affairs and mention the
various things (needs) which the people feel should be dealt with.
✓ At the meeting extension team should do the following things:
✓ Make a list of the important needs on a blackboard, using diagrammatic symbols
if necessary. These will become their programme projects
✓ Ask the people to vote on the order in which they wish to deal with these projects.
~ 50 ~
 ✓ Then ask them to consider the problems involved and to agree upon the most
Elect at least one but preferably two leaders who will be responsible for each
project agreed upon.
✓ Draw up a rough time-table for the next 12 months, showing months when the
various project should be undertaken.

11.4 The plan of work

✓ This provides a detailed breakdown showing how the extension programme is to

be carried out.
✓ It includes only those projects which by agreement with the people are to be
undertaken during the next few months.
✓ It deals therefore with the projects of more immediate importance to the people
and is designed to show how, when what helps and by whom the various steps in
the project will be taught to the people.
✓ The people through their leaders must play their part in preparing the plan of
work for careful planning is necessary to prevent waste of time, money and effort.
✓ Promising solutions which they can undertake with the help of extension team.
✓ Programme planning in a nutshell. Some brief note for extension workers.
✓ First find the facts by survey, interview and observations. Then prepare a
programme jointly with the people.
✓ Extension programmes for ……(any community).
✓ Stage….(indicate progress and help continuity)
What is it?

~ 51 ~
Why is it needed?

~ 52 ~
How is it done?

~ 53 ~