This document discusses the changing environment agricultural extension agencies are finding themselves in and how their role needs to adapt to meet this. It argues that extension managers have a role to play in facilitating agricultural extension agencies to become learning organisations to enable the necessary change to take place.
This paper argues that the blanket recommendations currently extended under the T & V system are rarely adopted because they fail to be responsive to individual farmers situations. Hence, a decentralised system of decision-making in the extension service and a participatory system of supervision and in-service training is argued for. The difficulties involved in bringing about such a change are outlined and discussed, including the need for time, training and organisational change.