صعيبان سلطان فهاد السبيعى

 Suaiban Sultan AL-Subaiee

Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology

College of Food and Agricultural Sciences 

King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451

Phone: + 9661-467-8416 Fax: + 9661-467-8415

Email:salsubaiee@hotmail.com

  Extension methods play significant roles in achieving extension program goals. Therefore, extension agents are concerned about selecting the most appropriate extension methods based on type and objectives of extension programs, farmers' characteristics, and preference. The study aims at identifying the farmers' preferred extension methods in AL-Hareeq Governorate of Saudi Arabia, their demographic characteristics, and the relationships between farmers' characteristics and their preferred extension methods. The study population consists of all the farmers in AL-Hareeq Governorate.  A random sample of all 91 farmers representing 25% of the population was taken. The data were collected through personal interviews using questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, means, and standard deviations) and correlations were used to analyze the study data.

The findings indicate that the most preferred extension methods by farmers were farmers' visits to extension agents, agricultural exhibitions, and workshops respectively. However, the least preferred extension methods were radio programs, extension agents' visits to farms, and extension bulletin.      

  The mean age of the respondents was 49.75 years and the majority of them live in urban areas. The findings show that 15.4 % of the farmers were illiterate and the majority of them were married with large number of family members. The mean of the farmers income from farming was 97800 Saudi Riyals. In addition, the findings indicate that limited number of the farmers' characteristics had significant relationships with some extension methods.