ABSTRACT

Chanida Chanyapate, drawing on experience of both governmental and voluntary sector work in rural Thailand, brings out the very different, contrasting perspectives of the urban minority which dominates, and the rural majority which is dominated, in countries of the Third World. Looking in turn at ‘four actors’ in the rural scene - the peasant, the official, the volunteer, and the businessman - she demonstrates how misplaced in the common faith in ‘trickle down’: that general economic development will benefit the remote and the most poor. This chapter explores the Agricultural strategies for agricultural development and peasant education. Educational efforts are directed towards the teaching of marketable skills, or skills that may lead to self-employment. Or agricultural extension officers will concentrate on propagandising methods of raising agricultural production. An emphasis on subsistent agriculture and away from marketable surpluses will have a direct impact on the unproductive urban minority.