THE UNDERSTANDING OF FACTS OF EXTENSION AND THE OCCURRENCE OF ADOPTION OF NEW INNOVATIONS IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF EXTENSION ORGANIZATION PROGRAMME

The different types of the understanding of facts are involved in extension. Before a group of farmers can come to a conclusion of trying out a new practice, they must first learn of its existence. They may then have to learn some new skills of that practice. There are five stages which can be identified in the process of accepting new ideas or innovation in extension organization. Below are the five stages which are involved.

Awareness:  The awareness stage is the stage where the farmer learns of the existence of the idea or innovation that is prevailent at that time but knows little about the idea or innovation.
Interest: In this stage, the farmer develops interest in the idea or innovation and seeks more information about it, from either a friend or the extension officer who is in charge of the innovation execution.
Evaluation: This is how the idea or innovation affects the farmer, this must now be considered. How will it be of benefit to the farmer? What are the difficulties or disadvantages of this new idea to the farmer? The farmer may seek further information or go to a demonstration or meeting, and then decide whether or not to try out the new idea or innovation.
Trial: Trial of the idea is very often, farmers decide to try the idea on a small scale farm. For instance, they may decide to put manure or fertilizer on a small part of one field and compare the result with the rest of the field. To do this they seek advice on how and when to apply fertilizer or manure from the extension officers.
Adoption: The adoption stage is the final stage of all the different type of stages, if the farmers are convinced by the trial stage, they can now accept the idea fully and it becomes part of their customary way of farming and practice.

Generally, the stages are involved with individual farmers, farmers' groups, or the communities as a whole. In that of groups and communities, the process is more complex and may take much longer. The extension officer uses a range of extension methods to bring the right kind of information as well as support to each stage of the process. The extension officer must arrange learning experiences that will lead people from one stage to the next. In a community forestry programme, he begins by encouraging the people to recognize that there is a problem of declining numbers of trees and that this could be overcome by the community planting and looking after a wood-lot. Interest can then be increased by a visit to another village that has already planted such wood-lot. During this stage of evaluation, a lot of discussion will go on in the minds of villagers. The extension worker can provide detailed information about the costs and returns, and answer questions as well as doubts. When a decision is taken to do something he can then arrange skill training sessions for the farmers.

The speed of learning and adoption of individual farmers is differ

The process and manner by which a new idea spreads among people in an area is simply called diffusion. Not all farmers will accept a new idea or innovation at the same time. In any rural community, the readiness to accept new ideas or innovations and put them into practice varies from farmer to farmer depending on each farmer's previous experience with new ideas, the personality of the farmer and the amount of land and other resources available. Thus we can identify different categories of farmers in terms of their abilities to adopt new ideas or innovations.

Innovator

The innovators are farmers who are eager to accept any new ideas. Usually there are only a few people in this class in a farming community that will accept it. They are often farmers who, having spent some years outside the village, feel that they can make their own decisions without worrying about the opinions of others farmers and extension officer. In villages, innovators are often looked on with suspicion and jealousy. Yet they are important to the success of an extension organization programme since they can be persuaded to try new methods and thereby create awareness of them in the community to others. However, the extension agent should exercise tact and caution, and avoid over praising innovators in public or spending too much time with them as well in the public. This could result in rejection of the idea by the rest of the community because of jealousy and suspicion of the innovator's motives in adopting new methods by other farmers.

Early adopters

Among the farmers, those who are more cautious and want to see the idea tried and proved under local conditions are called the early adopters. They express early interest but must first be convinced of the direct benefit of the idea by result demonstration. Generally, this group of farmers includes the local leaders and others who are respected in the community.

The majority  

When there is adoption of the new idea by the rest of the farmers, they will do so more slowly and perhaps less completely. Most farmers will lack the resources to adopt the new idea, while others farmers may only do so slowly and with caution. The majority who can and do adopt the idea are likely to be more influenced by the opinions of the local leaders and neighbors than by the extension officer or the demonstrations he arranges in the process.