ROLE PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOR OF AGRICULTURAL, EXTENSION AGENTS WITHIN A PROVINCE OF SOUTHERN CHILE

Abstract

Personal evaluation of the role of the agricultural extension worker within a southern province has been analysed through a non random sample. Such a sampling might be accepted on the basis of the preliminary nature of this survey.
Some descriptive data of the informing professionals were: place of origin, employing institution and level of their experience and training. It was inquired the way they thought their professional function would be and what they actually did in their extension work. The collected data was quantitatively analysed.
More than half of the informers came from rural areas and worked with the Agrarian Development Institute, INDAP, (86%); the rest, with the Agriculture and Livestock Husbandry Service, SAG, and with the Agrarian Reform Corporation, CORA.
More than 93 percent of the informers were agricultural technicians with an average of more than 10 ± 4 years in extension work. Nearly 80 percent of them declared to have had more than 3 days of special training in extension work.
It appears that there ist not a clear concept of the nature of their extensión work and a conflict in the perception of their role seems to exist in relation with the activities they perform.