Article reprints (US $5/each) may be obtained by contacting the Academic Editor.
2006, Volume 22(1), June
O. S. Verma, Editorial
- Factors Affecting the Use of ICTs by Iranian Agriculture Extension Specialists, Hedjazi, Y., Rezaee, R., & Zamani, N.
- Extension Reform Strategies for Agricultural and Rural Development, Rivera, W. M.
- Job Satisfaction amongst Agricultural Extension Personnel in Kurdistan Province of Iran, Rezvanfar, A., & Veisi, H.
- Learning Styles and Team Problem Solving: A Post-Harvest System Example, Rohs, F. R., Prussia, S. E., & Barrios, A. N.
- ICTs and Rural Development: Beyond the Hype, Koutsouris, A.
- Extension in Organic Agriculture: The Case of Kelkit, Turkey, Demiryurek, K., & Guzel, A.
- Influence of Demonstration Sites on Farmers’ Adoption of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Technologies, Adekoya, A. E., & Adeokun, O. A.
- Gender Analysis In Food Production and Its Intake, Saghir, A., Ali, T., & Hassan, M. Z. Y.
Factors Affecting the Use of ICTs by Iranian Agriculture Extension Specialists, Hedjazi, Y., Rezaee, R., & Zamani, N., 1-15.
Information technology is a most important development axis in the world. Agricultural extension has a strong dependency to exchange information between farmers and many other actors. This article intends to show the importance and necessity of Informational and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agricultural extension. Statistical population consisted of 104 extension specialists who work for the ministry of agriculture as staff members in 2004. The results show that there was significant difference between working experience, skill to produce and skills to use ICTs with their using ICTs. There result of means comparison showed that extension specialist use more information and communication technologies that other specialists.
Extension Reform Strategies for Agricultural and Rural Development, Rivera, W. M., 16-22.
William M. Rivera
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
University of Maryland, College Park
Maryland, USAAn overview of historical past, the present, the future, and the challenges of extension in a dynamic market driven global economy. Identifies three major models of extension practices around the world, namely, publicly managed (USA). Privately managed (UK, New Zealand), and a mixture of public and private management (The Netherlands). Provides a view of the reform option currently being adopted or considered by policy makers in the developing countries. Suggests that in the next two decades leaders worldwide will likely find themselves confronting once again the question of public sector extension’s role, with a view then to renewal of its scope and purpose.
Job Satisfaction amongst Agricultural Extension Personnel in Kurdistan Province of Iran, Rezvanfar, A., & Veisi, H. 32-35.
Ahmad Rezvanfar, Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural Extension and Education
College of Agriculture
University of Tehran-Karaj-Iran
E-mail: arezvan@ut.ac.irHadi Veisi, Ph.D. Student
Department of Agricultural Extension and Education
College of Agriculture
University of Tehran-Karaj-IranUnderstanding behavior of an individual in an organization requires knowing something about organization and some psychological factors as well as job satisfaction. Job satisfaction broadly is considered to be as attitude of a person reflecting the degree to which his/her important needs are satisfied by this job. To study the job satisfaction level and factors associated with job satisfaction of Extension personnel, a sample of 74 extension personnel from Kurdistan province of Iran were selected. To study the job satisfaction level among respondents, Bray Field and Rothe Job Satisfaction Index was used. A data form was used to collect information about selected personal variables. The reliability and validity of the Bray Field and Roth Job Satisfaction Index were determined. Cronbach’s alpha computed to measure reliability of the 20 items of scale was 0.82. The data were analyzed using statistical methods such as frequencies, percentage, mean score, standard deviation, and product moment correlation and regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the extension personnel (51.4%) belonged to high level of job satisfaction, followed by 35.0 and 13.5 percent belonging to medium and low job satisfaction, respectively. The index items most suggesting negative job satisfaction were unclear promotion policy in organization and low salary, respectively. According to regression analysis education level, level of job diversity and salary were found to have contributed to the increase of job satisfaction among extension personnel.
Learning Styles and Team Problem Solving: A Post Harvest System Example, Rohs, F. R., Prussia, S. E., & Barrios, A. N., 36-45.
Frederick R. Rohs, Professor and Extension Specialist
Department of Agricultural Leadership
Education and Communication
University Of Georgia
E-mail: frrohs@uga.eduStanley E. Prussia, Professor and Extension Specialist
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
University Of GeorgiaAbelardo Nunez Barrios, Professor of Horticulture
Department of Horticulture
Universidad Autonoma de ChihuahuaLearning styles and preferences have been of interest to extension educators of decades. The more we know about the learning styles of those we teach, the better able we are to design curriculum and deliver information and instruction. Extension educators should recognize that individuals differ in learning styles, and we should use that information to better facilitate learning. This study sought to understand the preferred learning styles of a group of workshop participants comprised of extension workers, faculty, producers, marketers and horticulture graduate students, and how individual learning styles may influence team problem solving and team decision making. The setting for this study was a Post Harvest Systems workshop using a simulation game for peach retail ordering systems commonly know as the “Peach Game”. Participants were divided into groups, their learning style inventories (LSI) were computed, and each group began the “Peach Game.” Data were collected regarding the number of rounds or games each group had to complete before each achieved the game’s objective. Difference between these groups and implications for team decision making are discussed.
ICTs and Rural Development: Beyond the Hype, Koutsouris, A., 46-62.
Alex Koutsouris
Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
Agricultural University of Athens
75 lera Odos, 11855 Athens, Greece
E-mail: koutsouris@aua.grIn the last decades, with in the rhetoric of “information society” there is a growing enthusiasm for the (expected) benefits of the dissemination of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It is argued that information and knowledge play a key roll in ensuring sustainable development with ICTs enabling low-cost creation, access, and distribution of information. At the same time, it is recognized that current trends are biased against, on the one hand, rural populations and, on the other poor people. Following a critical review of aspects of access (infrastructure, information literacy, content and economics), the techno-utopian thesis that social development will undoubtedly benefit from ICTs is questioned. Reversely, with ICTs being an essential part of the unregulated globalization, changes in political, social and economic processes, including the “conventional” top-down development thinking and practice, have to be sought that would allow people to participate fully and benefit from development.
Extension in Organic Agriculture: The Case of Kelkit, Turkey, Demiryurek, K., & Guzel, A., 63-73.
Kursat Demiryurek
Dept. of Agr. Economics
Ondokuz Mayis University
Samsun, Turkey
E-mail: kursatd@omu.edu.trAlper Guzel
Dept. of Agr. Economics
Ondokuz Mayis University
Samsun, Turkey
E-mail: aguzel@omu.edu.trOrganic agriculture can be seen as one of the approaches to sustainable agricultural systems, with its own specific principles and practices from the management of the farm in marketing the products. Over the past decades, there has been a remarkable expansion of organic agriculture practices and organic product market all over the world, due to consumer health concerns and increasing environmental awareness. Turkey is not an exception and investment in organic agriculture is developing in recent years. An organic livestock and dairy farm complex was established in 2000 by private sector in the Black Sea region of Turkey which will be the largest organic dairy complex in Europe. The dairy farm has recently applied contractual farming with the local farmers in order to supply organic feed crops. Although, organic agriculture has the potential to enhance the overall regional development, it still requires significant extension services. The main objectives of this paper were, i) to present the state of organic agriculture in the world and in Turkey, i) to analyze the problems concerning contractual farming (between the organic company and the farmers in the research area0,iii) to specify the obstacles that farmers may face during the conversion to organic agriculture process. Finally, all the stakeholders in the region are identified and a model for extension program is developed.
Influence of Demonstration Sites on Farmers’ Adoption of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Technologies, Adekoya, A. E., & Adeokun, O. A., 74-83.
A. E. Adekoya
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development
University of Ibadan
NIGERIAO. A. Adeokun
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye
NIGERIAThe study was designed to examine the impact of exposure to agricultural demonstrations on farmer’s adoption of technologies generated from the international Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The procedure was to determine the number of technologies adopted by farmers residing at measured distances from the demonstration plots location. Thus, the study considered the diffusion of information on the technologies across space. Data were collected through the questionnaire which sought the technologies farmers across spatial locations were aware of and those adopted. Differential analysis was used to compare data across the Awareness of the technologies was total in zone 1, while the diminished greatly in zone 2 was largely nil in zone 3. The same pattern was depicted for adoption of the technologies across the zones. Analysis of variance put the differences in awareness and adoption of the technologies as being significant with the post hoc test indication absolute differences among the zones. Thus, it was inferred that nearness to agricultural demonstrations sites influences both adoption and awareness of agricultural technologies.
Gender Analysis In Food Production and Its Intake, Saghir, A., Ali, T., & Hassan, M. Z. Y., 84-97.
Aqeela Saghir
Department of Agricultural Extension
R# 19 Fatima Hall
U.A. Faisalabad, Pakistan
E-mail: Aqueela_sagher@yahoo.comTanvir Ali
Department of Agricultural Extension
U.A. Faisalabad, Pakistan
E-mail: tanali@brain.net.pkMuhammad Zakaria Yousuf Hassan
Department of Agricultural Extension
U.A. Faisalabad, Pakistan
E-mail: zakaria_uaf@hotmail.comGender has become a major topic in food production in the developing world. Rural women are involved in food production activates such as crop production, livestock management, food storage and processing. However, women are more malnourished than males. The main objective of the present study was to analyze the gender role in food production activities and to assess their nutritional status along with their demographic characteristics of Pakistan. To probe into the matter, Punjab province of Pakistan (Attack district in arid zone below poverty line) was selected. A sample of 120 respondents was selected by using Fitzggibbon et al. (1987) table through simple random sampling technique. The data were analyzed with the help of Food composition tables (Hussain, 1980). The result shows remarkable participation of gender in food production activities whereas they are compelled to intake the food is low in calories. This research study highlighted the need to reframe their diet pattern by opening the new horizons of job opportunities and income generating activities.