The Knowledge Level of Agricultural Employees/ Nineveh Province towards the Tasks of Agricultural Extension

The aim of this research is to evaluate the knowledge level of agricultural employees of Nineveh province towards the tasks of agricultural extension in general, evaluate the knowledge level of agricultural employees in each item of tasks of agricultural extension and identify a correlation between the employees’ knowledge and independent variables: (age, the scientific certificate, number of years of agricultural employee service, specialization in the field of agricultural extension, career title) in this study.

In order to obtain the research data, it has used questionnaire form. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: Part one included information’s about the personal, social, economic variables which related to the respondents, namely (age, the scientific certificate, the number of years of agricultural employee service, specialization in the field of agricultural, career title). The second part included (30) items. In order to measure the knowledge of employees agricultural in the tasks of agricultural extension, it was put in front of each item (3) alternatives are (I agree - I agree something - I don’t agree) and it was gave it the numeric values (3- 2-1) which respectively. This study included all agricultural employees in the Directorate of Agriculture Nineveh and in all disciplines and they were distributed on the agricultural sections. The total sample of this study was 165 employees from deferent sections of Agriculture Nineveh.

The results showed that the knowledge level of agricultural employees in Nineveh province in tasks agricultural extension in general is medium tends to high degree. Also, the results showed that the items which came in the first three ranks according to the mean and respectively, are (Help farmers to identify the main problems they face in the rural community, help farmers to identify opportunities available to them to solve their problems and the development of educational goals in the Action Plan. The results also include that showed that there are a positive correlation between the employee’s knowledge towards the tasks of agricultural extension and the independent variables (age and career title), and there is no correlation between the employee’s knowledge towards the tasks of agricultural extension and the independent variables (the scientific certificate, the number of years of agricultural employee service, specialization in the field of agricultural). The Author concludes from this study: the knowledge of employees need to development and increase in these topics (giving the leading role of the groups participating in the extension programs, clarifying the role of extension in the advancement of rural life and assess progress in meeting the educational needs of growers).