Towards an appropriate extension approach for agricultural and rural development in South Africa

Abstract

Recent paradigm shifts have seen an increase in the interest of new and more appropriate approaches in extension. This paper identifies some of the background reasons and discusses the myths or unfounded assumptions and constraints preventing the search, identification of evolvement of appropriate approaches. An overview is given by contrasting extreme approaches using dichotomies and then comparing in some detail the production technology approach and the more participatory and facilitative problem-solving approaches. Ultimately any approach has to be adapted to specific situations and in view of this a series of principles currently important for the South African context are identified and discussed.