Organizing for Agricultural Development

There is increasing recognition, even among hard-nosed agricultural scientists, that progress in technology and in the scientific fields directly related to the growth of plants is necessary but not sufficient to produce major social and economic benefits. Agricultural scientists are therefore turning to behavioral scientists for advice and collaboration; they must search together for the solutions to problems of food shortages and rural development. Through an analysis of the procedures of agricultural extension agents, organizational frameworks. divisions of labor and social structures, William Foote Whyte proposes a reformulation of social theory that does not abandon humanistic values but requires us to examine the conditions and agencies for realization of these values by concentration upon the structural elements influencing behavior in agrarian societies. Only then can technological and agricultural innovations be introduced to rural areas with success.