Most developing countries are progressively reforming their extension services switching from state control to private, community or NGO management. The prime mover of this process is rarely endogenous but is the results of pressures from financial organisations to help indebted and sometimes bankrupted government reduce their spending by transferring public activities to the private sector. The dismantling of the public extension system is achieved in many countries and under way in most developing countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia. However the market of services that was supposed to replace the public service has not emerged yet. Governments and donors are now trying to stimulate such market. In this paper we try briefly review a few theoretical assumptions behind the technology of technical information and try to give some reasons why it is difficult for a private provider to make money in the market of knowledge regarding new cropping patterns. In the second part of the paper we discuss some of the criteria for project monitoring and evaluation.