All planners are faced with the problem of obtaining accurate and relevant information about those for whom they plan. They usually have two alternatives; they can get in their jeeps and go to see for themselves.Or they can refer to the reports of academic or government surveys written after prolonged investigation in rural areas by investigators and their enumerators who, at best, have only general, not specific. policy purposes in mind.

Either method can he inappropriate. The brief foray by the urban professional who does not leave tarmac roads and talks chiefly to local leaders can be seriously misleading, and may only serve to legitimate decisions already half-madejust happening to turn up facts which give a good prognosis for the investigator's pet project.

The larger general survey, on the other hand can be full of enormous quantities of data, none of them relevant to the planner's particular purposeor to the likely purposes of most other planners. It may well be out of date because of the scale of the survey and the time taken to process the data.