Toward a Learning Paradigm: New Professionalism and Institutions for Agriculture
Author(s)
Pretty, Jules N.; Chambers, Robert
Abstract
A new paradigm for agricultural research, development, and extension has emerged that promises to provide the help to poor farmers and reduce inequalities that old methods failed to do. New advances based on the affirmation of individuals and their differences, a pluralist stance, a view of knowledge and technology as contextual in time and space, and the recognition that the future is uncertain and determinate on contextual conditions challenge old assumptions. The new paradigm uses participatory and farmer-first approaches and implies a new professionalism and new institutional settings. How to evolve with continued change will remain the biggest challenge according to this author.
