Public sector agricultural extension: Is there life after structural adjustment?

The public sector extension services in which ldcs - often at the behest of donors - have invested large sums are achieving only limited impact but face unsustainably high recurrent costs. This is especially true of the 'Training and Visit' model promoted by the World Bank. Further, the fundamental promise of public sector extension - that low-income farmers are unlikely to obtain technical information unless it is provided by government - is increasingly being challenged. This paper reviews the pressures facing conventional agricultural extension and examines the prospects of recent approaches which are participatory, institutionally pluralistic and geared towards cost-sharing.