Agricultural extension as adult education: institutional evolution and forces for change

Agricultural extension is generally considered by adult educators to be one of the many different providers of adult education. Agricultural extension's pragmatic, specialized content and its task‐oriented field‐directed methodologies for providing information and technology transfer, and often other services as well, places this education provider in a unique category, so unique in fact that it is often overlooked in discussions of formal as well as nonformal education. This paper briefly reviews the value and current reforms taking place to reform agricultural extension, through structural, financial and managerial decentralization strategies and through the shift of government power and responsibility to market‐oriented approaches. The paper highlights the major forces for change that underscore the challenges facing this specialized provider of non‐formal adult education, including sociopolitical, economic, institutional and programmatic forces, which are affecting and will continue to affect extension worldwide.