| Abstract | The Government of Pakistan has adopted a policy of providing agricultural extension services to promote agricultural production by disseminating appropriate knowledge and technologies to farmers. Consistent with this national policy, farmers in Balochistan have been provided with extension services by the provincial Department of Agriculture through their extension officials working with the District of Agricultural Extension Department. This study was carried out to determine the effectiveness of extension services as reflected in date palm farmers‘ access to the extension services, their use of the knowledge and technologies provided by extension officials, and the effect of extension services on date palm yield. This study also assessed the national agricultural extension policy and extension delivery mechanism in Balochistan. The required information was collected from a questionnaire survey covering 200 date palm farm households, group discussions, and surveys of key informants in the Panjgur District of Balochistan. Factors influencing the access to extensions services and use of knowledge/technology received from extension officials were analyzed using logistic regression. Determinants of date palm yield, including extension-related determinants, were analyzed using multivariate linear regression. The findings of the study found inconsistency between the agricultural extension policy and its actual practice. Contrary to the policy of providing extension following the participatory approach, the extension in the study area was provided through the age-old top-down approach, with particular field-level extension officials not having much knowledge with regard to addressing date palm specific production problems. Instead of extension officials routinely visiting farmers, as per the principle of participatory extension, farmers had to approach extension officials to secure their services. Because of this practice, nearly one fifth of the date palm farmers did not meet field-level extension workers even once a year, while the majority of farmers only met the workers once a year. Logistic regression analysis identified five variables that significantly influence date farmers‘ access to extension services. Those variables were household head‘s age, their literacy, number of date palm trees owned, inheritance of date palm trees and the percentage of dead date palm trees. In most cases, the same factors influencing the varying perceptions of the usefulness of these services were significantly positively correlated with perceptions of the usefulness of both land preparation methods and pest control-related extension services. The overwhelming majority of farmers were dissatisfied with all three main types of extension services. Of the farmers who had access to extension services, only half of them had made use of the knowledge/technology provided by extension officials. The result of logistic regression analysis revealed that head of household‘s age, source of learning, field assistant‘s visits to the farmer, farmer‘s visits to DAED, inheritance of date palm trees and percentage of date palm trees that were dead significantly influenced the use of knowledge/technology. Overall, the small-scale farmers who used the extension services produced a better yield compared to that of the medium-and large-scale farmers. The linear regression model highlighted five factors that significantly influenced production. Those variables included the total number of date palm trees, the land preparation method recommended by extension officials, frequency of irrigation, expenditure on pesticides as recommended by extension officials, and farm-household income. Conclusions are drawn based on the findings of the analysis, and resulting recommendations have been made for improving the extension services. |