An Analytical Study of Vegetable Farmers Attitudes Towards the Performance of Extension Centers in the Field of Organic Agriculture in Menoufia Governorate

The aim of this research is to identify the attitudes of vegetable farmers towards the performance of agricultural extension centers in the field of organic agriculture in Menoufia Governorate, and to identify the obstacles to the performance of these centers that limit the spread of organic agriculture and the extent of its impact on farmers from their point of view, and to identify the respondents' proposals to overcome these obstacles and study the relationship between the personal variables studied for the respondents and the level of their attitudes towards the performance of agricultural extension centers.
This research was conducted on a random sample of vegetable farmers in four villages in Menoufia Governorate, who were selected using a regular random method from the available possession records in the agricultural associations affiliated with those villages. The sample consisted of 349 respondents, representing 10% of the total research, which amounted to 3884 farmers in the selected villages, using the "Morgan" equation. The data was collected using a questionnaire form prepared specifically for this purpose during the months of July and August 2022 AD.
The data were presented and analyzed using tabular presentation, frequencies, percentages, and simple correlation coefficient test using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
The most important results of the research were as follows:

7% of the vegetable farmers surveyed had a weak level of attitudes towards the performance of extension centers in the field of organic agriculture.
The most important obstacles that limit the spread of the performance of extension centers in the field of organic agriculture in Menoufia Governorate from the point of view of the respondents were: The most present and influential obstacles are the lack of extension seminars to educate farmers about organic agriculture practices, the lack of financial incentives for farmers to attend extension meetings, and the lack of an extension specialist in the field of environmental protection and organic agriculture in the extension centers.
The most important suggestions of the respondents to solve the problems that limit the spread of the performance of extension centers in the field of organic agriculture in Menoufia Governorate from their point of view were: holding extension seminars, whether inside or outside the center, to educate farmers about organic agriculture practices, providing financial incentives to encourage farmers to attend, and making personal visits to farmers in their fields to educate them on how to deal with organic agriculture problems and apply its techniques.
There is a positive correlation between the level of vegetable farmers' attitudes towards the performance of extension centers in the field of organic agriculture and the following personal variables: education level, agricultural holding area, experience in vegetable cultivation, experience in organic agriculture, exposure to information sources.
There is an inverse correlation between the level of vegetable farmers’ attitudes towards the performance of extension centres in the field of organic agriculture and the age variable.
There is no correlation between the level of vegetable farmers' attitudes towards the performance of extension centers in the field of organic agriculture and the type of agricultural holding.
There are four of the studied independent variables that have a significant relationship with the level of vegetable farmers’ attitudes towards the performance of extension centers in the field of organic agriculture, which together contribute 38.1% to explaining the total variance explained by them.