ASSESSMENT OF THE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF AGRICULTURE OFFICERS IN NWFP, PAKISTAN

Professionally competent Agriculture Officers (AOs) can play an important role in the development of agriculture in the country. This study was conducted in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) (Pakistan) to assess professional competencies of Agriculture Officers (AOs) in January 2007. Data were collected from all (112) AOs through a mailed questionnaire. The study examines existing level of professional competencies of AOs ands the required level of possessed competencies needed by them for their job performance in the areas of participatory extension methodologies. Both the possessed and required levels of competencies were scaled from 1-5 on Likert scale,1 being very low and 5 being very high. . The study revealed a numerical difference between possessed and required levels regarding the professional competencies of the participatory extension methodology. It was also observed that higher levels of job experience increases the professional competencies in participatory extension methodology. It is recommended that periodic trainings and refresher courses are arranged for AOs so that their learning may become more practicable to diffuse agricultural innovations among members of participatory learning groups and convey modern technologies to the end users