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deviate from the ideal of a "progressive" or innovative farmer are thus less likely to receive the attention of the extension service. In addition, the literature points out that among small or poor farmers are a disproportionate share of women-headed households and women-managed farms.2 3.06 At the same time there is ample evidence that small farmers -- women and men alike -- produce most of the food in Africa and much of the cash crops as well. As noted in Chapter 1, in Cameroon small farmers produce virtually all of the food crops and most of the three major agricultural exports -- coffee, cocoa, and cotton. Thus to improve agricultural productivity, it is imperative to remove the bias against small farmers. This can be done by adopting an integrated extension service that deals with food, as well as cash crops. It can be done by utilizing an extension strategy that relies on extension groups rather than on individual contact farmers or that uses aural or visual communication rather than written. And it can be done by concentrating, at least initially, on those improved practices that do not require much additional inputs of either scarce labor or scarce cash and focuses on the crops grown by small farmers, be they male or female.

3.07 From the description in Chapter II, it should be quite evident how fully MIDENO pursued this theme. From the initial PAR design, with its specific goal of reaching small farmers, through Plan MIDENO, where the extension strategy was modified to rely on groups rather than individual contact farmers, to the present, the concern for reaching small farmers has been pervasive. Table 11 summarizes the principal means adopted by the extension, adaptive research, and credit programs to reach small farmers. Only the PAFSAT program cannot truly be said to have a small-farmer focus. This is because the requirement for two hectares of arable land puts animal traction at the upper limit of what is considered a small farm in the North West Province. Nevertheless, PAFSAT's credit program to assist with the purchase of the animals ar.d equipment and its ongoing research into establishing a permanent farming system based on human labor demonstrates its attention to overcoming the bias in its approach.

3.08 Most of MIDENO's programming to reach small farmers has been explicit and intentioned. However, in the case of extension perhaps one of the most significant elements was accidental. NWCA's financial collapse paved the way for a single, integrated extension service rather than one bifurcated between cash crops and food crops. Integrated extension is important for reaching small farmers because small farmers themselves generally farm in an integrated manner. mixing food and cash crop production. often on the same Dlot. An integrated service is thus able to adopt a farming systems perspective and deal with the important interactions between various types of crops.

# Theme 2: Redress the Male Orientation

3.09 There is frequently a male bias at two levels in agricultural development programs. At one level most extension or other service delivery programs still operate on the erroneous assumption that agricultural activity

> 2 This **is one** of **the** consistent points **made** Ln **all** 12 of **the case studies** of Sub-Saharan Africa reportod by Delancey, Berger, **end ollencap (1984). See** -articularly, Pala's (1977) study of **the** Joulou of **Kenya.**