Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

The present paper is subdivided in three sections. In the first section, an overview of the development of the Special Rural Development Programme, from its inception at the 1965 Kericho Conference, to the present time, is presented. In the second section, we focus our attention specifically upon the Tetu Division SEDP. We describe our rationale, methods of research design and major findings of the Tetu Extension Pilot Project baseline survey conducted in 1970. The final section is devoted to a proposal outlining an experimental strategy for increasing rural incomes via the acceleration of the flow of income-generating ideas and practices to small scale farmers.