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As extension work is mostly an expensive failure, you can make a fortune by proposing different systems which pretend that they will make it work.

It is not really a fraud, it works, for a time.

Then it does not work anymore, then you come with a new scheme guarantied to make it work.

And kindly speak with respect to me. As you read me, you read the profound lines of a man who could have become the Pope of Extension Methods by Lecturing about the merits of the "Reward and Sanction" system.

The Reward and Sanction system is well known to all of you. In some places it is called "marriage".

My first boss at FAO worded the most basic rule:

<< if you say that plants need manure to grow >> you are an out of date farmer.

If you say << the ecological system, to be both sustainable and profitable, needs a balanced nutrient circle >>, then you are a very highly regarded specialist.

When it comes to extension work,

if you say that the extension agents need to be supervised, you are a belonging of the old time, totally out of fashion (and money)

If you state that << according to the Training and Visit System, the Agent will have to adhere to a fixed schedule allowing the monitoring and appraisal of their progress in the accomplishment of their duties>> you are very highly regarded and paid.

If you state the obvious, that the extension officers should be paid by the farmers and that if they do not pay him it means that they do not need him, you are an idiot.

In the eighties, the big thing, the "In" attitude was the method backed by the World Bank, the Training and Visit System.

It was very simple. It meant that each extension officer must have a fixed schedule.

On Monday he prepares his week in his Office (who laughed?)

On Tuesday he goes to the group headed by Main Farmer Smith

On Wednesday he goes to the group headed by Main Farmer Adam

On Thursday he works in his Office

On Friday he goes to Main Farmer John

and so on for 2 weeks, then he has completed one cycle and starts the cycle again.

The advantage?

You have a copy of his schedule and you, as supervisor can travel directly on Friday to group John and see if he is doing his duty. In the old days you owuld travel to Extension Officer Mwamba and when you arrived at his house/office you would be told that he was "not far", and if you insisted, you would be told that he was not far, in this direction, it would be very easy to find him, and off you went, and two hours later the whole village had to try and get your car out of the swamp. But of course no Officer Mwamba.

The results are very good in the beginning.

The extension officers were happy to have a schedule.

The farmers would be happy that somebody was caring about them.

The Supervisor would be happy that he could supervise.

Then the rot would set in.

The extension officer would not turn up at the farmer's meeting. The fist time the farmer would wait the whole day and then go home, the second time they would wait half a day and then go home, the third time they would not turn up when Officer Mwamba, he, turned up.

The Supervisor would dutifully fill in all the crosses in the supervison schedule, showing that the farmer's meeting had taken place and that he had supervised them.

And little by little the system would rot.

The motorcycles allocated to the Extension Officers would brake down, vanish, be stolen, lack tyres. The extension officer would remain in his home/office and care for his own field. As he had no transport, he would use the seeds and fertilizers for his own fields.

Therefore the system became famous under the name

"Talk and Vanish"

Some have suggested, but why really?

"Torture and Violence"

Until you got a new donor willing to pay for the extension system, the price to pay being that the nex donor wanted to have "his better methods" used.

The whole point to be remembered about Torture and Vanish system is that we all of us are functioning with that system.

We love a woman because our feeling of love is rewarded, how disgusting the true fact of love my be, we are made blind to the ugliness.

Don't believe me?

I quote

Science proves that love is blind

Do our critical facilities vanish?

Scientists have shown that there is a degree of truth in the old adage that love is blind.

They have found that feelings of love lead to a suppression of activity in the areas of the brain controlling critical thought.

It seems that once we get close to a person, the brain decides the need to assess their character and personality is reduced.

The study, by University College London, is published in NeuroImage.

The researchers found that both romantic love and maternal love produce the same effect on the brain.

They suppress neural activity associated with critical social assessment of other people and negative emotions.

The UCL team scanned the brains of 20 young mothers while they viewed pictures of their own children, children they were acquainted with, and adult friends.

The team found that the patterns of brain activity were very similar to those identified in an earlier study looking at the effects of romantic love.

Euphoria

Both studies recorded increased activity in parts of the brain's "reward system".

When these areas are stimulated - as they can be by food and drink, or even monetary gain - they produce feelings of euphoria.

But perhaps more surprisingly, both studies also showed reduced levels of activity in the systems necessary for making negative judgements.

Similar findings have been found in animal studies.

Lead researcher Dr Andreas Bartels said it was crucial that both romantic and maternal love were viewed by the brain in a highly positive way - because both were crucial to the perpetuation of the species.

He said: "Our research enables us to conclude that human attachment employs a push-pull mechanism that overcomes social distance by deactivating networks used for critical social assessment and negative emotions, while it bonds individuals through the involvement of the reward circuitry explaining the power of love to motivate and exhilarate."

The research did highlight one difference in the brain's response to romantic and maternal love.

Only romantic love triggered heightened activity in the hypothalamus - which controls feelings of arousal.