EFFECTS OF DEVOLUTION ON EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

摘要

Devolution of power plan is a form of decentralization, which was introduced to strengthen the functions of local government and empower the elected representatives with more authority and responsibility at the grass root level. How far this devolution of power has been effective in achieving its objectives especially with regard to agricultural extension seems an important area to be looked into. Data were collected on various aspects of agricultural extension from 280 randomly selected farmers and 70 Extension Field Staff (EFS) respondents. The results show that supervision of subordinate offices was highly improved as a result of devolution and was ranked 1st with mean values 3.62 and 3.97 followed by checking of adulteration in pesticides and fertilizers which were ranked 2nd with mean values 3.76 and 3.98, in the pre and post devolution periods, respectively. Likewise, the linkage between extension & farmers was highly developed due to the effect of devolution and was ranked 1st with mean values 3.75 and 4.08, respectively in the pre and post devolution periods. However, modes of training of farming community, arrangements of logistics, budget allocation for agriculture and provision of printed material to farmers could not be improved as a result of devolution in the study area.