Challenges of Agricultural Extension Systems in Adaptation to Climate Change: The perception of Fars agricultural specialists

Climate is changing and various scenarios indicate accelerated climate change in the future. If farmers and rural residents’ capacities do not enhance to adapt to the impacts of climate change, the impacts will overwhelm on agriculture and rural communities. Extension systems can play an important role in agricultural adaptation to climate change. Therefore, the aim of this research was to explore the challenges of agricultural extension systems in climate change adaptation. The paper also identified the required competencies of extension agents in adaptation to climate change. A combination of exploratory and focus groups interview was used to gather data from 40 extension experts of Fars Province. Changing precipitation and temperature, increasing GHG emissions, reducing agricultural water resources, decreasing concentration of organic nutrients in the upper layers of the soil, increasing inter-annual variability of crop yields and knowledge gaps were the main challenges of extension systems in adaptation to climate change. However, human and structural factors had limited the extension system’s capacity to adapt to climate change. This study verifies that professional supporting extension agents with appropriate knowledge and information, communication, social and psychological, and research related skills can promote adaptation to climate change.