Rural advisory services and community psychology: Relationship between small farmers and rural extensionists in Ecuador

VILLAFUERTE, I.; LANDINI, F.

Encuentro; 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology; 2018

Society for Applied Anthropology

The Ministry of Agriculture and Husbandry of Ecuador provides support and technical assistance to small farmers through practitioners known as rural extensionists. In this paper, the relationship between both actors (that is, small farmers and rural extensionists) is analyzed and discussed. With this aim, 12 interviews and 3 focus groups were conducted with rural extensionists. Results suggest that the relationship between both actors tends to be hierarchical, and framed in terms of diffusion or transfer of technologies. The framing of the relationship between both actors contrasts with alternative proposals, in which power is shared, and learning processes are structured in horizontal terms, as community psychology recommends.