INTERPAKS, Offers an analysis of the conventional literature on adoption practices and adoptive categories. Examines the theoretical basis, and the empirical validity of adoption categories, as well as the extension worker's reliance on adoption categories for the dissemination of information in development activities and in research. Observation has led to the conclusion that adopter categories which can be empirically identified have been erroneously used in practice while the theory on which they are based is questionable. Draws attention to some of the dysfunctional effects of this largest grouping and the trickle down strategy used in extension for rural development. The analysis calls for a different approach to the categorization of the farming community. The main aim is to start with the people and then categorize the social system according to some important variables which will result in a homogeneous target group being isolated for specific extension activities.
