This is from Marisa de Luján Gonnella. I work as a teacher, researcher and extension specialist at the National University of Rosario, Argentina. I am Professor of Rural Sociology and Rural Extension. Generally speaking, family production can be divided into two broad categories. 1- The family production with access to capital that incorporates inputs for production. 2- The family subsistence production. In the first group, competing private companies and public services rural extension when speaking of rural development. This is because they have different interests. This leads to various institutional agreements in the territories. The subsistence agriculture has increased public presence services rural extension and NGOs. How to improve rural extension services? - It should deepen the analysis of the relationship between public and private extension services. - Working with participation to enable better communication. - Ask family farmers as they see extension services. - Systematize knowledge that emerges at work among farmers and extension workers. - Improve extension teaming with interdisciplinary approaches. Generate proposals to improve the conditions of economic, social and environmental sustainability for the family production. States should encourage the emergence of this form of production. They are the historical protagonists of food production, highlighting the members of the household production units as youth and women. There are problems to increase yields of production, but there are problems of infrastructure and access to land and capital. Marisa Gonnella Sociología Rural Universidad Nacional de Rosario Argentina 54-0341-155809480 http://www.fcagr.unr.edu.ar/ e-mail: mgonnel (at) unr.edu.ar [To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/264776/ ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the RAS-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=RAS-L&A=1