Views of Extension Personnel on Extension Methods a nd Transition to Private Extension: The Case of Ispart a Province

Abstract

Criticism of public extension services has resulted in various countries seeking alternative approaches for provision of these servi ces. In all these approaches, extension personnel are the key factors to the success of the implementation. Today, agricultural extension services in Turkey bear the responsibilit y of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. A number of non-public extension act ivities, on a very small scale, and in limited regions are being administered by various e ntities. The present study aims at determining the extension methods used by extension personnel in practice along with their views and evaluations of extension systems (p ublic-private). A number of 103 extension personnel were contacted and then include d in the survey. Absolute and proportional distribution, independence test (Chi-s quare) and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) were employed to analyze data obtain ed from the received questionnaires. It was observed that mostly individ ual and group extension methods were used, with young personnel preferring the individua l method, while the others preferring the group model. Although 54.37% of the extension p ersonnel in Isparta believed that extension services should be privatized, 32.14% wer e of the belief that extension should continue as a public service. Keywords: Extension, Extension methods, Extension personnel