Provision of agricultural information for development: a case study on crossing communication boundaries

Information provision appears to play a significant role in development projects in rural communities, despite the fact that it is not the sole concern of development agencies. Investigation of a successful training programme on maize production proved that integrating knowledge of the target group's information behaviour and their use of communication mechanisms into development strategies can help to effectively cross the boundaries between the modern information resource system and that of the indigenous knowledge system. It is argued that field workers operative at the interface between the developed world and the target groups in rural communities are ideally suited to the direct provision of information in a situation-specific context. However, field workers should be made aware of the value of information, as well as of the information behaviour of rural people used to handling information within an oral culture. The Merger Model depicts the way in which information from both the modern information resource system and the indigenous knowledge system can be harnessed for the transfer of information through development projects.