Perceptions of wheat farmers toward agricultural extension services for realizing sustainable biological yields

Agriculture plays an important role in the economy of Pakistan and it is not possible to realize sustainable biological yields without following sustainable agricultural extension. However, these extension activities are not making significant impacts on crop yields and have not been able to help farmers realize sustainable biological yields and elevated rural livelihoods. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the perceptions of the farmers about the extension service.

A survey study was conducted in the Peshawar district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province - Northern Pakistan. Twenty villages out of 236 villages were selected randomly and 10% of farmers from the population were drawn by systematic random sampling that comprised a total of 120 wheat growers. Data collected through an interview schedule were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as Frequency Counts, Percentages, Means Standard Deviation and Spearman Correlation Coefficient test.

The study revealed that 40.8% of the respondents are economically active and fall in the age group of 31-40 years. Literacy level depicts that (58.3%) of the respondents were illiterate while the remaining were literate, having primary, middle, matric or above matric education. About 81.7% of the respondents had landholdings less than 10 acres and about 60.8% were tenants. Most of the respondents (76.7%) had farming experience from 11-20 years. A large portion (80.8%) of the sample earns their livelihoods primarily from agriculture in the study area. Results of the 5 point Likert scale analysis revealed that the farmers have negative perceptions about agricultural extension services. Moreover, a Spearman correlation coefficient test was run to identify the relationship between socio-economic features of the respondents and their perceptions about agricultural extension services.

Education (r_s = 0.179, p < 0.05), and income source (r_s = 0.193, p < 0.05) are positively correlated with the perception of the farmers. However, education negatively influenced the statement "Agricultural extension department promotes modern wheat production technologies to realize higher biological yields before the start of the season through extension educational programs".