Efficacy of Public Extension and Advisory Services for Sustainable Rice Production

Khodran Alzahrani, Mubashar Ali, Muhammad Imran Azeem and Bader Alhafi Alotaibi ()
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Khodran Alzahrani: Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Society, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mubashar Ali: Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Society, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad Imran Azeem: Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Society, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Bader Alhafi Alotaibi: Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Society, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: Agriculture is an integral constituent of Pakistan’s economy and the primary source of livelihood for nearly 65% of the population living in rural areas. Rice is the second major staple food after wheat and a significant source of foreign exchange earnings through Basmati exports. Pakistan has established an extensive network of agricultural extension to educate the farming community about modern agricultural practices for enhancing the agricultural productivity of major food crops grown in the country. The present study was undertaken to evaluate rice farmers’ views about public extension services and to identify their perspective regarding various ways of enhancing rice production in Pakistan. A multi-stage simple random sampling technique was employed, and data were collected from 193 rice farmers with the help of structured interviews using a pre-tested questionnaire. The findings revealed that a vast majority of the rice farmers were poorly satisfied with the public extension services. The results of the Spearman Rank-Order Correlation showed that landholding size had a significant effect on deciding extension contact; public extension agents are more likely to visit and serve those rice farmers who possess large landholders and therefore have the tendency to intentionally neglect small-scale rice farmers. For enhancing rice production in Pakistan, farmers believed that the provision of subsidized agricultural inputs and a minimum support price for rice is indispensable. Based on our findings, we suggest that to make public extension services more effective, public extension agents should particularly focus on the capacity building of small-scale farmers rather than large-scale farmers. Moreover, there is a need to broaden the scope of public extension services from simple crop protection measures to a set of comprehensive sustainable agricultural practices for increasing agricultural productivity, resource-use efficiency, as well as resilience toward adverse impacts of climate change.

Keywords: public extension; capacity building; smallholder farmers; Basmati rice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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