Use of the Extension Workers Social Media in Extension Work at some Egyptian Governorates

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Agricultural Econmic Dept. Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University

2 Institute of Agric. Extension and Rural Development, Agric. Researches center

Abstract

This research aims to identify the use of social media by extension workers in the agricultural extension work in some Egyptian governorates. Three governorates were selected: Kafr El-Sheikh, Gharbia, and Beheira, where the extension workers included 463 respondents, the sample size was (210) respondents distributed proportionally over these governorates. The most important results were: That 28.8% of the respondents do not use social media in counseling work, and that 69.2% of them use social media in counseling work ranging from low to medium. 33.3% of them are not satisfied with their use of it in the extension work, and 64.2% of them range from low to medium satisfaction with their use of it in the extension work. The most important justifications for their use of it were: access to the largest number of beneficiaries in a short time, the possibility of repeating the dissemination of the message more than once to farmers, and the diversity of social media via mobile phones. The most important benefits of their use of social media in extension work were: the speed of receiving messages from researchers, extension workers and rural leaders and allowing researchers, extension workers and rural leaders to communicate with their colleagues anywhere. It was found that there are three independent variables that have a significant effect on the degree of respondents’ use of social media in agricultural extension work: knowledge of social media, tendency toward using social media in extension work, and trend toward using social media in extension work.

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