FARM MANAGEMENT RESEARCH DATA NEEDED FOR EXTENSION 1

SUMMARY Extension is a method of education for farm people who are already operating farm businesses. Farm management extension is the teaching of the facts and concepts of business management. Interest must be created in a subject so that an extension programme may be planned. Economic conditions now make it more important for farmers to consider the business concepts of farming and thus create interest in farm management. Farm account book studies, survey studies and enterprise studies help to provide a basis for continuing this interest. Farm extension workers must have both the basic facts of operation of the farms in their area and the basic input‐output data in order to indicate the way of profit maximization of farms and enterprises of the area. The facts can be obtained from farm account book studies, cost studies and special enterprise survey studies. Input‐output data can be provided by studies which include all relevant physical facts of production, by other studies designed to obtain factor‐product curves and by controlled experiments carried on in co‐operation with technical agricultural research workers. Price outlook information and other special information on particular phases of the management of the farm which may affect management decisions are also needed by the extension workers. Farm management extension workers teach decision‐making. Research work which provides simple methods of evaluating the present farm business position and of budgeting for profit maximization are useful in teaching this subject. Linear programming provides a method of evaluating budgets and is useful for establishing standards, but the presentation should be simple and recommendations should also be based on the experience of the extension worker.