Computers as aids to agricultural extension1

Abstract

Agricultural extension is helping the decision‐making process faced by farmers in managing and protecting their crops within changing environmental and economic conditions. Computer‐supported extension relies on the ability of computers to assist both processes of problem solving and those of the diffusion of information and knowledge. Crop protection programs could be either components of crop production models or independent modules. Microcomputer applications like database management of pesticides, expert systems for pest identification and control recommendations, spreadsheets for record keeping of field data, word processing for pest control publications, are the popular programs with extension specialists in crop protection. Problem‐solving models are either comprehensive or partial, process‐oriented or empirical. Israeli experience shows that empirical and partial models, developed with the participation of research, extension and farmers have the best prospects for early and large‐scale application as extension tools. With all the recognized limitations of computer support, there is no other technology in sight that offers greater potential to facilitate the transition of agriculture to more business‐management orientation. The potential embedded in computer‐supported extension could be fully exploited, if extension organizations will adopt it on a system‐wide basis. To this end a problem‐oriented, empirical and pragmatic approach is advocated‐one able to make the best decisions even when one does not have all the answers. Programs should be simple rather than conceptually elegant, and act with precision within a narrow range of operating conditions, rather than be of high generality.