60b 

 Dean Roger Revelle 2. April 16, 1963 



These considerations point to a serious omission in our list of project 

 functions, a defect that must be made good in SCARP 1 on a crash basis. This 

 function is a vigorous in-service training program for the field assistants and 

 their supervisors. Accordingly I recommend most strongly that the following 

 steps be taken with high priority: 



1. An in-service training center should be established in SCARP 1. It 

 could be based on one of the agricultural experiment stations in the area, or it 

 could be built ab ovo . 



2. The instructional staff should be American, at least until we know where 

 we stand. (The Associated Rocky Mountain Universities should endorse this rec- 

 ommendation; so should the Peace Corps.) 



3. The initial task of the center should be to offer an in-service course 

 about six months long to a class of 100-150 trainees in residence, i.e., about a 

 third of the field staff scheduled for SCARP 1. 



4. I am not qualified to suggest a curriculum, but it should be devoted 

 entirely to agricultural science (with a little attention to the administrative 

 procedures that the trainees will need in their duties of arranging credit, 

 procuring seed, forwarding inquiries and complaints, etc.), and should include 

 some honest-to-goodness farming in addition to classroom and laboratory work. 

 Each student should be assigned a plot of ground to cultivate in accordance with 

 the practices he is preparing to preach (using bullocks and all). In assigning 

 the grades at the end of the training program, the yields obtained on these prac- 

 tice farms should receive significant weight (this will teach the trainee, among 

 other things, what it feels like to pray for rain that doesn't come). 



5. On graduation the trainee should receive a shoulder-patch reading, say, 

 "Farm Management Specialist, Class 3." He should also receive, beginning at 

 that time, a project allowance whose amount depends upon his final grade. 



6. As soon as the center is ready to open, about a third of the field 

 staff of SCARP 1 should be sent to it. This will leave the remaining staff 

 spread pretty thin, but this investment in quality and morale is eminently worth- 

 while; indeed, essential. 



7. Graduates of the training center should be returned to it ever there- 

 after for at least three or four days a month, for review and additional training. 

 This should refresh their minds each month for the tasks to be performed in the 

 following month. These refresher courses, correspondence courses, and perhaps, 

 more advanced courses in residence should qualify field assistants for Farm 

 Management Specialist, Classes 2 and 1, with concomitant increases in project 

 allowance. 



8. As with everything else, this aspect of our program should be regarded 

 as experimental, to be modified as experience accumulates. 



In addition to providing a cadre of reasonably well-trained field assistants, 

 I foresee that this undertaking will serve three important functions: 



