An extension programme using African demonstrators was launched in the reserves of colonial Zimbabwe in 1927. These demonstrators were given the task of teaching peasant farmers to farm intensively on small acreages using a four-course crop rotation system. This was to replace the traditional extensive system of "shifting" cultivation on large acreages. The scheme was started in order to increase the carrying capacity of the reserves, and so enable them to cope with the increased numbers moving into them as a result of repressive government land policy and segregationist moves. An Agriculturalist for "Natives", E. D. Alvord, was appointed and one of his principal tasks was to oversee the implementation of the demonstrator programme.
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