private sector, INTERPAKS, A common strategy for agricultural and rural development in the third world is the operation of a government-run agricultural extension service devoted to augmenting small holder productivity. Numerous evaluations of such services, however, have concluded that they are ineffective. This paper examines an alternative strategy -- the provision of agricultural extension services by capitalist enterprise. It presents a case study of the privatization of extension services in Papua New Guinea and discusses the implications. This paper concludes that private agencies have the ability to boost agricultural production, but are unlikely to achieve broader objectives of contemporary rural development.
