Who is the Customer of Public Agricultural Extension/Education Services?

Abstract

Agricultural extension education services (AEES) have three major characteristics that complicate their marketing: first, these are 'rural services' that are heavily influenced by the 'rurality' of their field of action; second, their aim is to promote intangible behavioural changes which inevitably are considered by the potential customers as risky; third, their orientation is usually non-profit. However, there is a surprising lack of studies regarding the marketing of AEES. The aim of this research is to segment rural population based on the usage rate of public AEES and to depict the relative influence of the importance assigned on both services relationship attributes and motivational drivers to this classification. After a random sampling procedure, 202 peasants from the region of Thessaly, Greece participated in the study. Our findings revealed three segments: the 'Conveniencers', who are the heavy users of public AEES; the 'Analysts', who, although are regular users of AEES, are light users of public services and assign higher importance to the service delivery attributes; and the grey segment of 'Objective Hunters', who are occasional seekers of AEES and are primarily motivated by their expectation to gain benefits related to their farm enterprise. Our findings also demonstrate that public rural services have failed to build sustainable relationships with the rural population.

Extension and Advisory Organizations on the Road to the Digitalization of Animal Farming: An Organizational Learning Perspective

“…These goals-which are not always well-defined-affect organizational missions, which, in turn, are reflected not only in the organizational structure and the services offered (or the provided solutions) but also in the work motifs and the culture that prevail in an organization. Although farmers interact mainly with front-office employees when experiencing the service encounter process [79,80], a set of other attributes, ranging from semi-tangible to purely intangible, defines these organizations ( Table 1). According to Laughlin [81], organizations can be conceived of as amalgams of three different dimensions.…”

Short food supply chains: the link between participation and farmers' competencies

“…Nonetheless, to date, the philosophy of extension services continues to be anchored to conventional production and marketing approaches, thus paying limited attention to the needs and demands of farmers who use alternative routes of food production and distribution (Chiffoleau et al ., 2016). Especially in Greece, where extension services lack organizational functionality, underemphasize farmers' real needs and underserve middle- and small-scale producers (Lioutas and Charatsari, 2011; Charatsari et al , 2012; Lioutas et al ., 2019) the identification of appropriate strategies to facilitate competency development of farmers is a real challenge. As two recent studies indicate, the success of alternative food distribution schemes in Greece depends on farmers' competencies in all the five categories used in this research, namely management and cooperation with farmers and other actors, as well as marketing, networking and entrepreneurial competencies (Darrot et al ., 2014; Lioutas et al ., 2019 a , 2019 b ).…”

Αξιολόγηγη Εκπαιδευτικών Αναγκών Και Δημιουργία Προτύπου Εκπαιδευτικού Υλικού Για Κτηνοτρόφους

“…Απηνί πνπ εκθάληζαλ κηθξφηεξε δηάζεζε πιεξσκήο γηα ζπκκεηνρή ζε εθπαηδεχζεηο ήηαλ νη άληξεο, νη ηνπηθνί αγξνηηθνί εγέηεο θαη φζνη δηέζεηαλ εθκεηαιιεχζεηο ζε πεδηλέο πεξηνρέο. χκθσλα κε ηνπο Lioutas and Charatsari (2011), ε πξφζεζε ησλ αγξνηψλ γηα ζπκκεηνρή ζην θφζηνο ελφο εθπαηδεπηηθνχ πξνγξάκκαηνο επεξεάδεηαη απφ ηα πξνζσπηθά ραξαθηεξηζηηθά ησλ παξαγσγψλ, ηα ηδηαίηεξα ραξαθηεξηζηηθά ηεο αγξνηηθήο εθκεηάιιεπζεο, ην πεξηερφκελν ηνπ εθπαηδεπηηθνχ πξνγξάκκαηνο, ηελ πνηφηεηα ησλ παξερφκελσλ εθπαηδεπηηθψλ ππεξεζηψλ θαη ηα νθέιε πνπ ν παξαγσγφο επειπηζηεί λα απνθνκίζεη απφ ηε ζπκκεηνρή ηνπ ζε απηφ.…”