Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Ghafar Ghanbari ¹
• Amirhossein Alibaygi ²
• Ismail Karami Dehkordi ³

¹ pH.D, student , Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources,Razi University ,Kermanshah. Iran

² Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

³ Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The plan for a new agricultural extension system and zoning of production areas in agricultural Jahad centers was implemented in 2016 at the level of production zones in order to increase the penetration of knowledge and the coverage of agricultural extension services. However, despite the benefits of this plan, it still faces various problems, including the lack of access to accurate statistics on zones, the non-locality and single-specialization of some experts, the lack of budget and facilities, the lack of infrastructure required by agricultural Jahad centers, office bureaucracy in implementing plans and programs, and concerns about the continuation of this plan in the coming years. Therefore, it is necessary to examine and analyze agricultural extension services in depth and comprehensively to determine to what extent the new extension system has been successful in increasing the penetration of knowledge and achieving the coverage of extension services. This research aimed to investigate the status of agricultural extension service coverage in Kermanshah province and the factors affecting the knowledge penetration rate in 2024 with a mixed exploratory (qualitative-quantitative) perspective. The research was applied in terms of nature (objective) and field in terms of data collection, and was conducted using a causal correlational method. Initially, the indicators related to the coverage of agricultural extension services and the factors affecting it were identified qualitatively using the Delphi technique. Analysis of open-ended questions was conducted with conventional content analysis, which is the review of the interview text by the researcher. The research population in the qualitative and statistical part, which was conducted to identify the indicators, was the members of the agricultural extension and education faculty of Razi University (four people), experts in the extension coordination management of Kermanshah province (six people), extension officials of the provinces (five people), and promoters responsible for the Kermanshah province area, seven people (a total of 22 people), who were selected purposefully and by snowball. The result of this stage was the identification of 25 indicators related to the coverage of agricultural extension services and 40 indicators related to the effective factors in the expansion of extension services and increasing the penetration rate of agricultural knowledge. The identified indicators were designed in the form of a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study in the quantitative part was 711 extension experts responsible for the Kermanshah province area, of which 252 were selected using the Krejci and Morgan table using a stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment based on the leveling of centers. After normalization and weighting of the indicators, the status of the coverage of agricultural extension services was determined based on the five Prescott -Allen classes. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to process the data. The factors affecting the coverage of agricultural extension services were also determined using multiple regressions. The findings showed that the level of coverage of agricultural extension services in Kermanshah province was at an inappropriate level. A comparison between the four levels of agricultural extension centers in terms of service coverage showed that in level one rural agricultural extension centers, the coverage of agricultural extension services is more appropriate than at other levels, and in level three rural agricultural extension centers, the coverage is less appropriate than at other levels. Based on the findings of multiple regression, seven factors including the number of farmers covered, the morphological status of the region, the existence of agricultural and rural cooperatives, agricultural technical and engineering consulting service companies, the diversity of the exploitation system, the dispersion of villages, and the existence of an mineral pitch road to the center had an effect on improving the coverage of agricultural extension services.

Keywords

• Coverage of extension
• Knowledge Penetration
• Sustainable agricultural development
• Extension Services
• Modern Extension System

Main Subjects

• Agricultural education