Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

From Extension to Communication for Innovation 227

key processes that change agents may usefully support during the interaction. Finally,
the grounds on which such services/strategies are, or can be, deemed socially accept-
able, desirable and/or legitimate can diverge. It is important that organizations for
communicative intervention have a clear idea of the types of services they wish to
provide, as it has important implications for the training of staff, recruitment policy,
organizational management etc. Below we will outline the basic rationale behind the
different communication strategies indicated in Table 11.1.

Advisory communication
Advisory communication happens when farmers ask communication workers to
share their ideas on how to deal with a particular management problem. These
problems can be immediate and operational (e.g. ‘how to fight the disease I discov-
ered yesterday’), or have a longer timescale (e.g. ‘what crops can I grow best next
year’; ‘should I continue farming in the long run’). In helping farmers to deal with
such problems, communication workers may not only provide relevant substantive
knowledge, but can also offer guidance on the process of problem solving, or can
enhance the clients’ own problem-solving ability. It can be important to help farm-
ers become more aware of what their goals and aspirations are in the first place
(Zuurbier, 1984), so that they can define more clearly what is problematic and
what is not.

Table 11.2 General communication functions which can be relevant within different

communication services and strategies

Function Intervention

sub-goal

Role of

communication

worker

Role of ‘client(s)’

Raising

awareness and

consciousness

of predefined

issues

• Encouraging
  people to define a
  situation as
  problematic
  
  
  • Providing
    (confrontational)
    feedback
    
    
    • Unexpecting
      receiver or
      relatively
      passive
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Raising Mobilizing interest • participant
  questions
  Exploring views
  and issues


• Identifying relevant
  views and issues


• Stimulating
  people to talk


• Source of
  information


• Active Active listening •
  participant/
  learner


• Active learning

Information

provision

• Making information
  accessible to those
  who search for it
  
  
  • Translating and
    structuring
    information
    
    
    • Active learner
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Training • Transferring and/or

fostering particular

knowledge, skills

and abilities

• StudentEducator/trainer •