11
From Extension to Communication for
Innovation
C. Leeuwis
Historical Roots and Evolving Conceptions of Extension
The meaning of the term ‘extension’ has evolved over time, and has different con-
notations in different countries. In this section we touch on such different concep-
tions.
Origins, early meanings and international terminology
Throughout history, and across the world, there have existed patterns of agricul-
tural knowledge exchange, with some people (e.g. religious leaders, traders, elders
etc.) often playing special ‘advisory’ roles in this respect. According to Jones and
Garforth (1997), more or less institutionalized forms of agricultural extension
existed already in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Phoenicia. The term
‘extension’ itself is more recent; it orginates from academia, and its common use
was first recorded in Britain in the 1840s, in the context of ‘university extension’
or ‘extension of the university’. By the 1880s the work was being referred to as the
‘extension movement’. In this movement the university extended its work beyond
the campus. In a similar vein, the term ‘extension education’ has been used in the
US since the early 1900s to indicate that the target group for university teaching
should not be restricted to students on campus but should be extended to people
living anywhere in the state. Here extension is seen as a form of adult education in
which the teachers are staff members of the university.
Most English-speaking countries now use the American term ‘extension’. In
other languages different words exist to describe similar phenomena. The Dutch
use the word voorlichting, which means ‘lighting the pathway ahead to help people
find their way’. Indonesia follows the Dutch example and speaks of lighting the
way ahead with a torch (penyuluhan), whereas in Malaysia, where a very similar
Reprinted from Leeuwis C. 2004. From extension to communication for innovation. In Communica-
tion for Rural Innovation. Blackwell, Oxford, Chapter 2, pp22–38.