The training and visit (T&V) system is an extension management system that was developed for the World Bank by Daniel Benor (Benor and Harrison, 1977). It was aimed at upgrading the technical content of field extension activities, while making agents' activities more predictable - and thus more accessible - to farmers. The idea was to increase the effectiveness of agricultural extension services through comprehensively structured training, delivery and administrative systems. In the approach, "proven agricultural practices", usually from international and national research centres, are translated into packages of practice recommendations. These are then passed down the extension organization's hierarchy from subject matter specialists to agricultural extension officers, who adapt recommendations to their specific areas before passing them on to village-level extension workers. Extension workers then pass the recommendations to contact farmers, who diffuse them to other farmers. In Zimbabwe, the system was modified to use extension groups instead of contact farmers. The T&V extension schedule works on a fortnightly cycle: the first week is for training and the second for visiting (evaluating progress). Subject matter specialists act as a link between research and extension, while regular training and visits are designed to facilitate linkages between extension and farmers.
T&V proved to be an excellent extension management system in irrigation projects, which follow strict timetables, but had only limited success in dryland farming. In the Midlands and Mashonaland West provinces, it contributed to increased cash crop production by smallholder farmers. The T&V system was abandoned after ten years, when evaluations found it inappropriate for a nation where resources are limited, farmers are generalists in their activities and the biophysical environment makes it impossible to follow a strict timetable (Hanyani-Mlambo, 1995). Limited farmer participation caused it to follow a top-down orientation, resulting in inappropriate and irrelevant technologies; the flow of information frequently stopped at the contact farmer/group level; and only a small proportion of farming families benefited, leading to inequalities. The rural poor who really need help were not being reached. The system was also criticized for being too mechanical in its implementation and for lacking the flexibility to make it more relevant to the needs and environment of smallholder farmers (Pazvakavambwa, 1994).