An exception to Latin American extension program's stereotyped image of women is the Venezuelan home demonstrator program. A woman spends three years in trainning to enable her to effectively train village housewives in culturally acceptable ways to participate in the commercial sector of a modern farming economy. (AG)

An extension program sponsored by the Venezuelan government attempted to change a rural area's shifting cultivation system into one that produced cash crops. The program's failure was due in part to the lack of understanding on the part of the extension agents regarding the communities' traditional resource use systems. (LH)