"Exhausted Messages": Training And Groups : A Comparative Evaluation Of Zimbabwe's Training And Visit System

Abstract

This paper sets out to look at some of the contradictions inherent in the Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Service's (Agritex) approach to agricultural extension in Zimbabwe. Through a comparative evaluation of how Agritex operates in two communal areas in the Midlands province - Chiwundure in the Gweru region, and Chirumhanzu in the Mvuma region - discrepancies between Agritex's stated objectives and the agency's activities will be indicated. In this evaluation, by relating what extension agents do and then actually say about their activities, the paper will try and clarify what attitudes / and actions, on the one hand, perpetuate contradictions between aims and actual practices, and on the other are cognizant of the need to effect change.