The Network Relationships Among Multiple Service Providers in Agricultural Extension Program Planning in Iran
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- Year:
- 2016
- Type of Publication:
- Article
- Keywords:
- Agricultural Extension, Pluralistic System, Program Planning, Social Network
- Authors:
- Hosseini, Seyed Mahmood; Alimirzaei, Erfan; Hejazi, Yoysef; Mohammadi, Hamid Movahed
- Journal:
- IJRAS
- Volume:
- 3
- Number:
- 4
- Pages:
- 223-228
- Month:
- JULY
- ISSN:
- 2348-–3
- Note:
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
- Abstract:
- Agricultural extension can be seen as a multi-sectorial network which is linked with other relevant organizations providing various sociotechnical services to address a wide range of farmers’ demands. The effectiveness of such a system, depends primarily on the existence of powerful linkages and closed collaboration among its institutional components and subdivisions. The main purpose of this applied study was to determine the existing level of work relationships amongst different extension actors in the field of program planning processes in Iran. A mixed methods research design was developed and relevant key informants were purposively selected. Qualitative data were gathered using unstructured interviews and analyzed according to the fundamental assumptions of soft system methodology (SSM). In contrast, quantitative data were collected through a survey using a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed by social network analysis (SNA). Results showed there was not an appropriate linkage among multiple extension actors in program planning activities. However, public extension as a popular node, had a central position in the networks. There are several concerns with such a highly centralized network. So that, it does not seem to be suitable for handling the complex extension program planning responsibilities.
Full text:
IJRAS_430_FINAL.pdf
