Role of Extension in Agricultural Technology Transfer: A Critical Review

Technology transfer (TT), or transfer of technology (TOT), is an integral part of the extension process involving the transfer and spread of technical innovation and know-how to the farming population. The TOT model of the research-extension-farmer linkage is based on the tenets of DOI theory, in particular on a description of the diffusion process as a normal bell-shaped curve with farmers being placed in one of five categories according to their appearance on the curve. However, this linear model has limitations and has been severely criticized on a number of grounds, especially its assumptions about the dissemination process which raise the “issue of equality” and contribute to the “agricultural treadmill.” Furthermore, despite being dominant in agricultural development, on a worldwide basis, TOT has lost utility in understanding the sources of and thus the solutions to highly complex contemporary problems. As a result, alternative proposals have emerged, prominent among which have been systemic approaches such as systems of innovations (SoI). Therefore, there has been a shift of conceptual frameworks in the study of agriculture-related policy, research, technology, and rural development toward agricultural innovation systems (AIS) focusing on processes relevant to innovation networks as formed by heterogeneous actors with particular attention being given to social coordination. In this respect, a new species emerges, that of “intermediaries” (innovation facilitators/brokers) who take an independent systemic role in process facilitation rather than in the production or dissemination of innovation. New systemic extension approaches thus emerge, aiming at the role of co-learning facilitators to stimulate innovations.