Assessment of Agricultural Biotechnology Competence and Training Needs of Agriculture Extension Officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Agricultural biotechnology has exhibited that it can assume a role in raising and to overcome the requirement of food, feed and fiber need. However, for agricultural biotechnology to be compelling and beneficial to the end-user, agricultural extension services must be successful in achieving high rates of adoption. One of the main responsibilities of Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs) is to identify and meet the training needs of farmers for emerging techniques in agriculture such as biotechnology. Due to this utmost importance technical competencies of AEOs were evaluated to examine existing self-perceived and required levels in biotechnology in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Respondents were asked about their acquired technical expertise in the field as well as the level required for effective performance. The acquired and required levels of competencies were determined on five point likert scale (1 = ‘very low’ and 5 = ‘very high’). The study revealed significant differences in the technical competencies of AEOs based on their participation in training program and professional qualifications. Professional qualifications and regular trainings were found to be highly related to the technical efficiency in agricultural biotechnology. The differences were considered as training needs of the AEOs to improve their competencies for better service delivery in agricultural biotechnology.