THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL CRISISES IN SUGAR BEET AREA

The study aimed basically at: describing the actual situation of agricultural crisises in the study area and mechanisms of agricultural extension to face them, describing the levels of agricultural crisises management and studying the differences between extension agents and farmers’ points of view with respect to the agricultural crisises management level in the study area, estimating the gap size between the actual and optimal levels of agricultural crisises management in the study area, identifying the level of respondent farmers utilization of extension activities in the field of facing the agricultural crisises and factors correlated to it, and finally identifying the obstacles of the role of agricultural extension in agricultural crisises management and suggestions to face them from the agricultural agents and farmers points of view. The study was conducted in Sugar Beet on two different categoties of respondents, the first category was the population of agricultural agents in Sugar Beet area (24 agricultural agents), the second category was a systematic random sample of farmers in: Baghdad, Taha El-ameen and Salama Hegazy villages (165 farmers representing 30% of the total number of farmers in the three villages). Data were collected through personal interviews with the selected respondents using a questionnaire. The statistical analyzing tools used in the study were: Pearson’s correlation coefficient, t- test, in addition to frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and alpha coefficient.   The most important findings were   First: The most important agricultural crisises in the study area from the agricultural agents point of view were: shortage of irrigation water, climate changes, shortage of agricultural fertilizers, difficulties of agricultural crops marketing, the spread of bird flu disease, shortage of agricultural pesticides, pollution of irrigation water, spread of agricultural pests, spread of diseases of agricultural animals, shortage of veterinary services, agricultural environment pollution and the poor condition of agricultural drainage.   Second: According to describing the agricultural crisises management levels, the findings showed that about 70.8% of respondent agricultural agents clarified that this level was moderate in the study area, while that 64.8% of respondent farmers clarified that this level was low. The findings showed also that there were significant differences between the two average degrees expressing the agricultural agents and farmers’ points of view in respect to agricultural crisises management level in the study area.   Third: According to the gap size between the actual and optimal levels of agricultural crisises management in the study area, the findings showed that the ratio gap was about 36.5%, 52.0% from the agricultural agents and farmers points of view respectively.   Fourth: About 47.9% of respondent farmers showed that their utilization level of extension activities in the field of facing the agricultural ctisises was low. The findings showed also that there was a positive significant correlation relationship between farmers’ utilization level of extension activities in the field of facing agricultural crisises and the following variables: age, educational level, family size, aspiration level, leadership status, public awareness level, organizations membership and cultural openness.   Fifth: The findings also represented some obstacles of the role of agricultural extension in agricultural crisises management and suggestions to face them from the agricultural agents and farmers points of view.