In a presentation of the three different agriculture extension approaches used in Central Province Mr. J.M. Chintu, PAO Central provinces, analyzed the differences between the systems and supported the efforts being made by the Government to create an Unified Extension System that encompassed a wide range of development issues as perceived from the farmers point of view. Without such a system the extension service was rendered ineffective, uncoordinated, confused and demoralised, while the farmer perceived it as inefficient and irrelevant to his or her needs. A Unified Extension System required a complete reorientation and retraining of most of the field staff. At the present set up of the T&V system the extension workers, who were in direct contact with the farmers, were not adequately trained to cover all aspects of farming. Including fish farming as an additional subject might be too much for some of these to cope with. However, under the proposed new set up better trained staff was foreseen at district level, and fish farming could then be more easily incorporated in their tasks.
