ABSTRACT
Transformation has been promoted as a general strategy for agricultural development in two African countries in particular, Tanzania and Nigeria. It was a politically inspired switch from the improvement efforts of the colonial government, which rarely achieved conspicuous success. To be effective, a transformation approach, just as an improvement approach, must be based on knowledge of the needs of the farmers that are being met by the existing system. “Social nakedness” gives the clue to the circumstances in which transformation can contribute to development. The improvement strategy envisaged is individual only in a very limited sense, in the contact between adviser and farmer. Transformation is too selective to offer an equitable general strategy for agricultural development. But, unless improvement can be made more effective, circumstances creating pressures will become more and more general as population density runs further and further ahead of agricultural change.
