Abstract:
One of the major obstacles to agricultural development in Jordan is the weakness of
extension programmi
ng which is still traditional and based on personal judgement. The
aim of this study was to examine the attitudes, adoption barriers and in
-
service training
needs of Public Extension Agents (PEAs) towards the adoption of Needs
-
Based Extension
(NBE). An ins
trument to assess attitudes, barriers and training needs was designed and
used to collect data from 73 PEAs in Jordan. Face and content validity were confirmed by
a panel of experts, and internal consistency of the study scales were demonstrated by
alpha c
oefficients ranging from 0.75 to 0.90. Parametric and nonparametric methods
were used to analyze the data. The results showed that most PEAs had positive attitudes
towards adopting NBE services, but adoption was constrained by internal and external
barrier
s; supporting culture to NBE, finance and skills to undertake surveys and need
analysis. The involvement of public extension staff in the survey contributed to in
-
service
training and the application of NBE programs. Priority areas for training were
determ
ined using weighted discrepancy scores, with the most important being
information technologies, agribusiness management and conducting needs assessment
respectively. Study tours and professional training were perceived as the most important
training method
s. There were few significant differences among the PEAs with respect to
the attitude and competence scales. These results indicate the need to undertake needs
assessments of PEAs to improve extension programming in Jordan.
Keywords
: Extension, Competency
, Discrepancy, Needs assessment, Jordan.
