Abstract
Problem statement: Public extension performance in many developing countries including Iran is not up to the expectation of farming community. Further, in recent years, many governments are very reluctant to shoulder huge financial investment for public extension. Hence, extension specialists and policy makers propose privatization of extension services in developing countries. Approach: Considering existing agricultural extension scenario, a study designed to determine the level of farmer Willingness To Pay (WTP) for Wheat Consulting Engineers Project (WCEsP) (as a private extension services) in Esfahan province, Iran, during 2007. Questionnaires used to assess the amount which farmers were willing to pay and WCEs that were received incomes of farmers. Primary data on the demographic, socio-economic variables of farmers and their WTP collected from 100 farmers and 95 wheat consultant engineers selected randomly in a sampling procedure in the Esfahan, Iran. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The data summarized using frequency distribution. Results: Results of the analysis showed that (75%) of farmers no present for paying also (55 %) said that in the future no ability to pay. Also (63%) of WCEs did not receive any money from farmers. The result of farmers showed that were membership of WCEsP only extension volunteers had a more tendency for paying. In addition to WCEs that have played more roles in contracts, in way of getting money related to cost have acted successfully. Conclusions/Recommendations: The study concluded that there is a challenge to extension experts to make programs participatory and farmers relevant if farmers to be charged with the responsibility of participating in financing agricultural extension services.
Highlights
It is generally accepted that agricultural extension services have long been recognized as an important factor in promoting agricultural development[1,2,3].Over the years, the top-down model of public extension services has dominated in many developing countries
The statistical population of the study consisted of 7000 farmers who deal with wheat consultant's activities and 163 wheat consultant engineers out of which 100 farmers and 95 wheat consultant engineers selected as samples
According to the results of the investigation it can be concluded that a major proportion of the smallholder farmers participated in WCEs project have not expressed high level of relevancy, quality, usefulness and customer service, they had not Willingness To Pay (WTP) for WCE project advisory services, large scale farmer had willingness to pay for WCEs project services
Summary
It is generally accepted that agricultural extension services have long been recognized as an important factor in promoting agricultural development[1,2,3].Over the years, the top-down model of public extension services has dominated in many developing countries. In recent past, performance of public extension has been generally disappointing[9].The clientele were not satisfied with the existing public extension service provision. Concern for huge financial investment on public extension service, insufficient impact of services and limited accountability of the extension personnel makes the extension specialists and policy makers to propose privatization and or commercialization of extension services in most developing countries[18]. Recent year's institutional pluralism in extension services has been increasingly recognized in Iran for agricultural development. Decreasing financial support to the public extension needs to evolve the cost recovery or user contribution mechanism[14]
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