Examining the Expert's Viewpoint in Extension Centers and Agricultural Services on Effectiveness of Centers Case Study: Khorasan Razavi Province

The stable promoting of agriculture in the current age of knowledge and technology is due to capable and informed beneficiaries. Having proficient farmers requires a systematic informative corporation which is realized under the extension centers and agricultural services. It is clear that having an effective extension centers and agricultural services requires carrying out a wide research in order to discern the influential factors on effectiveness of this system and also find the appropriate solutions. As a consequence, the overall goal of this study is to analyze the experts’ viewpoint in extension centers and agricultural services on effectiveness in centers. A research tool was a questionnaire with 85 items to assess the effective factors on effectiveness of centers such as labor, equipment, rules, budget, planning, evaluation, organizational communication and participation of the beneficiaries, which its validity was approved by the authorities and, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for this scale was calculated by performing a preliminary study. The case study was all experts in centers in Khorasan Razavi Province (n =142). Results showed that the majority of experts (37.7) believed that the effectiveness of centers was stood at an intermediate level. By analyzing the relationships between the factors and the effectiveness of centers, we infer that there is a significant relationship between workforce, legislation, funding, planning, evaluation, budget, planning, evaluation, organizational communication and participation of the beneficiaries with effectiveness of centers. In multiple linear regression, planning variables, participation of the beneficiaries and organizational communication of centers demonstrate 53% of changes in the dependent variable.