Assessing the Effectiveness of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Services to Increase Farmers’ Skill

Abstract

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is considered as the most prominent public organization in Bangladesh for disseminating agricultural information to the farmers. In this line, the objectives of this study were to determine the extent of effectiveness of DAE regarding their services for improving farming skill and to determine the factors affecting the effectiveness of DAE services. Data were collected from two villages of Nawabganj Upazila (sub-district) in Dinajpur district using structured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis were done to explain the data. The findings revealed that majority (70.2 %) of the farmers think that the DAE services are moderately effective for improving farmer’s skill. Among the rest of the respondents, 7.7% and 22.1 % were commented as less and high effective category respectively. The inferential analysis revealed that farmers' education, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness and time spent in farming had positive and significant contribution with effectiveness of DAE services. This means that the initiative for higher these factors would increase the effectiveness of DAE services. The extension personnel, development practitioners and other researchers may be benefited from the findings. The policy makers should also consider these important factors to increase the effectiveness of DAE regarding agricultural advisory services.