Services with a comparative advantage for the development of private consulting businesses in the agricultural employment market

The current research aimed to identify the functional areas with relative advantage to help empower and develop private agricultural extension consultants and related economic enterprises at the level of two provinces of Tehran and Alborz. Based on this, considering the possibility of applying the findings in the field of practice, this research is among the decision-oriented applied research in terms of general orientation and goal. From the point of view of the researcher's degree of control over the variables under study and the background conditions of the research, it is considered a type of non-experimental research that describes the phenomena under investigation in a single period of time. The statistical population of the research included 25 key experts from the public and sectors, whom were purposefully selected and examined. The research method was based on documentary studies, semi-structured interviews, and quantitative survey using a researcher-made questionnaire. In order to identify functional gaps in the field of performance of private promotion companies, or in other words, to identify the degree of relative advantage of the various service delivery areas of the mentioned companies in the region, the weighted average score of the differences using the needs assessment relationship was calculated. Based on the findings from the analysis of the opinions of knowledgeable sample people and the calculated relative advantages, "advertising, stimulating, organizing and strengthening the demand dimension for research and development processes and agricultural innovations" is the most prioritized; and "Implementation of monitoring and evaluation plans to ensure the quality of promotion and evaluation services from active businesses in the region" were identified as the least priority service areas for focusing on the role of private agricultural consultants in the region.