EE 101 INRTRODUCTION TO PRACTICAL AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
"Can we deny ourselves to the crowd and still remain Scientists?” Bertolt Brecht, The life of Galileo
Introduction
This course is designed to give you a practical orientation to extension education. By the end of the
course, you should be able to:
1. Define the concept of “extension”
2. Describe the history, principles, philosophy and functions of extension
3. Demonstrate learned skills/ practices in different agricultural disciplines to a given audience
The course consists of introductory lectures; a written examination carrying 60% of the assessment
marks; and group demonstrations on topics of your choice for 40% of marks. Attendance and active
participation in all the above is important to avoid unwelcome retakes
The Concept of Extension
1. Extension is a service or system which assists farmers through educational means to improve their
farming methods and techniques; increase production and incomes; and improve their living
standards
2. Extension is an on-going process of getting useful information to the people (communication) and
then assisting them to acquire necessary skills and attitudes for effectively using the information
and technologies
3. Extension is the conscious communication of information to help people form sound opinions and
make good decisions
Extension therefore involves working with rural people through out-of-school education along lines of
their current interests and needs to increase farm production and incomes and to improve their living
standards. Education is a lifelong process of acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes to improve
performance. There are three types of education: formal education offered in schools, colleges and
universities; non-formal education offered through out-of-school means; and informal education which
occurs intuitively in our everyday life. Extension is non-formal education with teachers/ trainers;
known target groups/ learners; no fixed curriculum; no examinations/ certificates; and no fixed
classrooms. However, although the definition of extension as “education” is widely accepted,
extension workers often do more than teaching farmers.
History of Extension
Exchange of farming information is an old human practice which since historic times existed among
traders, elders and farmers. Some form of organized extension existed in Mesopotamia, Greece and
Egypt. However, the term extension education was first used in England in about 1873 to refer to
teaching activities of universities away from their regular campuses. It meant extension of the
university – an extension of its teaching function away from its home location. The same people who
taught at the university served as teachers to ordinary people where they work and live.
In the USA agricultural extension programs grew differently in different parts of the country in
response to different needs e.g. in Texas, Dr Seaman A. Knapp developed the demonstration method to
help farmers control the cotton boll weevil in 1903. Other developments included: farmers’
organizations, agricultural journals, agricultural colleges, the federal department of agriculture, and
state experimental stations. The specific efforts aimed at reaching individual farmers and their families
(e.g. farmer institutes, demonstration farms, boys and girls clubs, home demonstration clubs and
college/ university extension programs) showed what could be done and what needed to be done.
However, it was the hiring of two county agents, one in Smith County in Texas and another in Broom
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County in New York that gave credence to the idea that farmers needed persons working with them at
the local level if an educational program for farmers and their families were to become a reality. It was
in 1914 that the Smith-Lever Act created the Cooperative Extension System whose aim was “to aid in
diffusing among people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects relating to
agriculture and home economics and to encourage application of the same” President Woodrow
Wilson called it “one of the most significant and far reaching measures for education of adults ever
adopted by the government”. Extension work was to “consist of giving instruction and practical
demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending or resident in colleges in
several communities, and imparting in such persons information on said subjects through field
demonstrations, publications and otherwise”. Extension evolved into an institution that is responsive
to priority needs and focuses its resources on providing quality information, education, and problemsolving programs on real concerns. It became known as Cooperative Extension Systems because of the
act required cost-sharing through matching funds from federal, state and local sources. Extension has
been copied by many countries and modified to suit local needs.
In Uganda, the establishment of Botanical Gardens in Entebbe in 1898 may be regarded as the first
experimental station. The purpose was to find out which crops could be grown for export. This was
followed by introductions of exotic crops like tea (1900), cocoa (1901), cotton (1903). Several
experimental farms were established between 1904 – 1911 in Kampala, Kakumiro, Fort Portal,
Masaka, Namenage, Kadunguru and Siroko. In 1910 the department of agriculture was established.
The Botanical Gardens became part of the department of Agriculture in 1917. Makerere College
started offering certificate courses for agricultural assistants in 1922 and Diplomas in 1933. The
certificate courses were later transferred to Bukalasa and Arapai when the Faculty of Agriculture was
established at Makerere in 1958. Meanwhile the Phelps-Stokes Commission from New York which
visited Uganda in 1924 criticized the education system for ignoring agriculture in a situation where
90% of the people lived on land. In 1925, the colonial government introduced agricultural education
into the education policy. The colonial policy was to develop Uganda for African peasant proprietors
and discourage European planters. There was need to give agricultural education to those Africans in
schools to better their skills as peasant agriculturalists and to act as civilizing agents to many others in
the villages. The colonial government was involved in a campaign of raising revenue from cash crops
and felt that agricultural education given to pupils and agricultural propaganda through extension
service given to people out-of-school would turn Africans into effective producers of cash crops.
Agricultural Assistants were trained to carryout guided experiments at Bukalasa, Kawanda, Serere,
Arapai and Kojja; and also to run short courses for chiefs who would go back to their villages and
educate the people under them. From 1910 – 1956, the extension approach was regulatory/ enforced
through bylaws. At independence 1956 – 1963 it became advisory and regulatory. In 1970s it was
mainly educational with Train and Visit (T&V) System. The 1980s were characterized by
reconstruction and development/ revitalization of agricultural services. In 1990s the Agriculture Sector
Programme Support under DANIDA spearheaded District Farmer Associations and UNAFA/ UNFFE.
These gave birth to privatization of extension system into demand driven services under NAADS from
2000 to date
Philosophy of Extension
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The Philosophy of extension is “Start where people are with what they have to help them help
themselves”, by taking the university to them
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Start where people are – their way of living, interests, needs, skills, social status etc
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With what they have – their tools, materials, resources, knowledge and assets etc
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Help them to help themselves – teaching them, empowering them, enabling them to make their own
decisions etc
Principles of Extension
1. The central objective of extension is to help farm families acquire new knowledge and skills along
their current needs and interests in order to increase farm production and improve household
incomes and levels of living
2. Extension activities should be carried out where rural people live and work
3. Extension should treat all farmers and their family members as rational adults – respect their
opinions and ability to make sound decisions
4. Each new change must be technically sound, financially profitable and socially desirable
5. Each changed practice should be demonstrated/ discussed with farmers just before the time for its
use
6. The unit of instruction in extension teaching should, in most cases, be a single new method or
changed practice
7. Good extension teaching uses a wide variety of teaching methods
8. Extension contacts with farmers should be fitted into the times when farmers are not too busy
9. Extension activities can have a marked impact on farm production only within those localities in
which production could be increased by extending the use of technologies already available, and in
which outlets for farm inputs and markets for farm products are already present and efficient
10. The impact of extension on farm production will normally be greatest within those farming
localities in addition, have production credit facilities, local verification facilities and farm-tomarket roads
11. The intensity and the activities of an extension service should be varied in different parts of a
country depending on the currently pressing needs with respect to increasing production
Functions of Agricultural Extension
1. Education or helping farmers to master new information and develop new skills and attitudes
2. Filling the “rural vacuum” by performing any rural task relevant to agricultural production and
marketing but not being done by someone else
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3. Encouraging farmers to carry through difficult times. Farmers need new technology but they also
need an encouraging companion/ moral support of a friend who has confidence in them
4. Taking research results to farmers or link them to other sources of technologies
5. Assisting farmers in decision making by helping them to consider alternatives and to make their
own independent choices
6. Promoting production of a particular crop/ enterprise – when what is recommended has financial
advantage to the farmer and benefits the national economy
Introduction to Extension Methods
Extension workers use a variety of training methods and techniques to make their teaching effective.
The methods include: Demonstrations, Discussions, Lecture, problem solving, field trips or study
tours, role playing and simulation games, exhibitions, contests, clinics, workshop, brainstorming, buzz
session and projects. The methods can be classified as: mass methods; group methods; and individual
methods. For purposes of this class, we shall focus on demonstrations as a group teaching method.
Demonstrations
A demonstration combines a verbal explanation with a practical illustration. It represents one of
Extension’s most used and effective methods of teaching new skills and practices. Two types of demos
are recognized as being important:
RESULT DEMONSTRATION and METHOD
DEMONSTRATION. The use of demonstration as a teaching method grew out of a need for a better
way to convince skeptical and traditional farmers to try new practices. Where lectures, bulletins, and
other teaching methods have failed to persuade farmers, the demonstration method, by providing
visible proof, has been successful the world over. While the Result demonstration shows the visible out
come of new ways of doing things, the Method demonstration shows how to do a new method or a new
skill.
The method demonstration
A method demonstration is used to show how to carry out a practice. Examples would be: how to mix
spray materials, how to build a cattle dip, how to use a certain piece of equipment, or how to plant
maize in rows. A method demonstration therefore is showing how. You can perform a method
demonstration without talking, but your audience would probably not learn everything you want them
to learn. Therefore, you need to also explain clearly what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Method demonstrations can finally be described as showing and telling someone how to do something.
Sometimes confusion exists as to the difference between a method demonstration and an illustrated
talk. The clarification for these methods is provided by the following definitions:
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A method demonstration is telling and showing how and why something is done.
An illustrated talk is telling how and perhaps why but not showing how.
Illustrated talks tend to create an interest in a topic and perhaps cause the observer to want more
information. Illustrated talks rarely assist the observer in learning a new skill due to the fact that they
do not show how. Demonstrators should therefore be careful to include in their demonstrations the
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“show how” part of the practice if they are to hope to change a method or skill. Both the demonstration
method and illustrated talk have a place in educating farmers. Be sure you choose the right one for the
job you have to do.
Planning the method demonstration
1. Identify the problem to be solved
2. Identify the kill to be taught or what education objective to be achieved.
3. Gather information about the skill and study it thoroughly.
4. Involve the clientele in planning and presentation of the demonstration.
5. Assemble the materials required to conduct the demonstration.
6. Plan the demonstration step by step including an introduction and summary.
7. Rehearse the presentation until you are confident.
8. Announce the demonstration indicating the importance, time, place and day.
Format of the planning sheet for method demonstration
Subject of the demonstration……………………………………………………………..
What to show…………………………………………………………………………….
Importance of the demonstration…………………………………………………………
Equipment, supplies/ materials required………………………………………………….
Important steps/
points to be
demonstrated
What to show
“Action”
What to tell
“Words”
Equipment/
Materials to be used
1.
2.
NB.
You also need:
• an announcement showing what, why, when, where, who and:
• a Summary of key pints of the demonstration
Holding the demonstration
1. Schedule the demonstration at the most convenient time and place for the clientele.
2. Arrange the audience so that everyone can see and hear the demonstration.
3. Introduce the demonstration by explaining why the practice is important and how the
demonstration will be conducted.
4. Proceed with the demonstration step by step, answering questions and repeating the difficult
steps.
5. Encourage the members of the audience to attempt the new method. If time allows, each
member should have an opportunity to practice the skill.
6. Summarize the importance of the skill, the steps, and materials needed.
After the demonstration
1. Evaluate the demonstration carefully noting the strengths and weaknesses that appeared.
2. Visit those clients who indicated interest in the demonstration
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