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.
Reisner, INTERPAKS, Information flow among research and extension organizations has traditionally been portrayed as emanating from the research system. An alternative perspective of information flow in the research and extension system expands the number of participants in the model to include farmers, agribusiness people, legislators, government officials, and scientists. This perspective adds three dimensions previously neglected: the researcher is seen as producing research in response to demands of clients; it is recognized that some clients have more access to the research system than others; diffusion is seen largely as giving certain clients what they initially requested. This perspective is illustrated by the information flows that must take place in sorghum research.