Prof. dr. ir. Anne Willem van den Ban (born 28 February 1928, Leeuwarderadeel

Leeuwarderadeel

Leeuwarderadeel is a municipality in the northern Netherlands. Its capital is Stiens.- Population centres :Bartlehiem, Britsum, Cornjum, Finkum, Hijum, Jelsum, Oude Leije, Stiens.- Bartlehiem :...

) is a Dutch scholar, whose work on Agricultural Extension

Agricultural extension

Agricultural extension was once known as the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education...

 is well-known throughout the world.

Bio

Van den Ban (son of two extension agents) studied Agricultural Economics

Agricultural economics

Agricultural economics originally applied the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock — a discipline known as agronomics. Agronomics was a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil...

 at the Landbouwhogeschool (agricultural university) in Wageningen

Wageningen

' is a municipality and a historical town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specializes in life sciences. The city has 37,414 inhabitants , of which many thousands are students...

 between 1945 and 1953. The Landbouwhogeschool is currently known as Wageningen University (part of Wageningen University and Research Centre).

In an article that van den Ban wrote with Everett M. Rogers (from whom the diffusion of innovations

Diffusion of innovations

Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations...

 theory originates), he describes how Professor E.W. Hofstee made a study-tour in 1950 of land-grant universities in the U.S. This study-tour was sponsored by the Marshall Plan

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...

. Hofstee had been impressed with the research on the adoption of new farm practices and when he returned to the landbouwhogeschool he stressed this topic in his lectures. Van den Ban, who was a student of Hofstee, chose the adoption of innovations as topic for his Master’s thesis.

After completing military service, van den Ban started working for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, for which he did research on agricultural extension at the Department of Rural Sociology

Rural sociology

Rural sociology is a field of sociology associated with the study of social life in non-metropolitan areas. It is the scientific study of social arrangements and behaviour amongst people distanced from points of concentrated population or economic activity...

 of the Landbouwhogeschool. Based on this research, van den Ban obtained his PhD in 1963 with Prof. E.W. Hofstee being his tutor. His thesis was called Boer en landbouwvoorlichting: de communicatie van nieuwe landbouwmethoden(Farmer and agricultural extension, the communication of new farming practices). His work is believed to be the first empirical study on agricultural extension in Europe.

In 1964 van den Ban started the department of Extension Education. At the time of his retirement, in 1983, the department had grown to be one of the 5 largest departments at the Landbouwhogeschool. Nowadays, this is the department of Communication Science with two sub-departments; Communication and Innovation Studies, and Communication Strategies. Although van den Ban retired from the department in 1983, he continued to work as a consultant in different countries, mainly in India and Tanzania.

Van den Ban is advisor to the Executive Council of the International Society for Extension Education (INSEE) and received a Life Time Achievement Award in September 2008 for his "outstanding contribution in the field of Extension Education, Agricultural Development and Rural Development" from this organization

Van den Ban was appointed an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau

Order of Orange-Nassau

The Order of Orange-Nassau is a military and civil order of the Netherlands which was created on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of the Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The Order is a chivalry order open to "everyone who have earned special merits for...

for his outstanding scientific achievements on a national and international level on the 15^th of September 2011. The award was presented during a meeting to mark the award of the 200^th scholarship by the Anne van den Ban Scholarship Fund.

Publications

The work of van den Ban is well-known throughout the world. In 1974 he published a book called Inleiding tot de voorlichtingskunde, which was (together with Helen Stuart Hawkins from Australia) revised, translated and published as Agricultural Extension in 1988. By now it has been translated in 10 different languages. Cees Leeuwis revised this book with contributions from van den Ban and it was published as Communication for rural innovation: rethinking agricultural extension in 2004.

Van den Ban did not limit his work to agricultural extension. With Maria Koelen he wrote a book on Health education and health promotion (2004). Different version of this book were translated and published in 13 languages.
On the 28^th of February 2008 (van den Ban’s 80^th birthday) Wageningen University digitalized his life’s work and made this publicly available through their website. Over 230 publications are offered in open access.

List of published books

• Koelen, M. A. and A. W. v. d. Ban (2004). Health Education and Health Promotion. Wageningen, Wageningen Academic Publishers.
• van den Ban, A. W. and H. S. Hawkins (1996). Agricultural extension. Oxford [etc.], Blackwell.
• van den Ban, A. W. and H. S. Hawkins (1988). Agricultural extension. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Longman.
• Ban, A. W. v. d. and W. Wehland (1983). Einfuehrung in die Beratung : fuer Agraringenieure, Entwicklungshelfer und Oekotrophologen sowie fuer alle in der Erwachsenenbildung und Oeffentlichkeitsarbeit Taetigen, Paul Parey, Hamburg en Berlin 1983.
• Ban, A. W. v. d. (1982). Inleiding tot de Voorlichtingskunde, Boom, Meppel, 1st edition 1974, 6th revised edition 1982, 294 pp.

Selected articles

• Ban, A.W. van den (1957). Some characteristics of progressive farmers in the Netherlands. Rural sociology. 22. - p. 205 - 212.
• Ban, A.W. van den (1960). Locality group differences in the adoption of new farm practices. Rural sociology 25. - p. 308 - 320.
• Rogers, E.M.; Ban, A.W. van den (1963). Research on the diffusion of agricultural innovations in the United States and the Netherlands. Sociologia ruralis 3 . - p. 38 - 51.

Editorship

• Ban, A. W. v. d. and R. K. Samanta (Eds.). (2006). Changing roles of agricultural extension in Asian nations. Delhi, B.R. Publishing Corporation.

Anne van den Ban Scholarship Fund

In 1992, Anne van den Ban and G.J. Kerckhoven started a scholarship fund called Stichting Redelijk Studeren (which was translated as Sharing Responsibilities for Students). In 2005 the fund was renamed Anne van den Ban Scholarship Fund. The Anne van den Ban Scholarship Fund “...exists to enable promising students from developing countries to study at Wageningen University. The long term goal is the training of talented experts who will go on to play leading roles in improving the agricultural production, rural development and environment in their own countries.” As of September 2011, the fund supports the 200^th student at Wageningen University.