AgREN hosted an email discussion in March on the topic of privatised extension. Our thanks to all of those who participated (or just listened in). A record of the discussion is available at www.rimisp.cl/agren03/. AgREN Paper 130 in this issue presents a summary of the issues raised in the discussion and presents some case study material. The discussion made clear that a number of experiments in various types of privatised extension are underway, but much more experience is needed before we can make judgements about performance. For those AgREN members involved in this type of experiment, we hope you will consider AgREN as a place to publish your findings.

AgREN is placing special emphasis on three themes. Globalisation was the focus of the previous email discussion (in 2002) and the subject of several AgREN papers. We welcome further experiences related to this theme. The focus for the next email discussion (in 2004) will be diverse farm livelihoods and their relevance to the planning and execution of pro-poor agricultural research and extension strategies. There is growing awareness of the importance of multiple sources of income for farm households and of the importance of off-farm labour. We want to explore the implications of these phenomena for practical agricultural development. Any thoughts or experiences are welcome regarding this theme, including possible papers or newsletter contributions, or suggestions on how we might organise our email discussion.

Access to AgREN papers continues to improve. We hope that all members have now received the CDRom containing past papers. A number of members have written to tell us how useful this is. In addition, we are gradually uploading past papers onto the website so that they will be accessible to a wider readership.