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Implementation of an experimental extension program for virtual communities of farmers within the national wheat campaign in Sharkia governorate

Article

Last updated: 24 Dec 2024

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Tags

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Abstract

The study aimed to design an extension program for virtual communities of practice and test it in the villages of Meet Hamel and Meet Habib as part of the national wheat campaign. An action research approach was used to apply the initial model of the program, which was designed by reconciling the traditional model of developing extension programs with the model of community of practice development. The planning stage was based on a baseline survey conducted in December 2022, with a sample consisting of 54 farmers from the two villages, 7 input suppliers, and 11 company agents. A community was formed in each village, comprising service providers, farmers, extension workers, and researchers. The seasonal interaction follow-up relied on data from the WhatsApp application, guided by principles of content analysis. The final evaluation involved a telephone questionnaire conducted in July 2023 with 60 farmers from two villages to verify the validity of the proposed program items. The main considerations for building an extension program for the virtual community of practice included: ensuring the community formation is based on the profession rather than a specific crop, recognizing the need to slow down the intervention process once the communities are formed to allow for internal development, providing external information in line with the trends of discussion and in a timely manner, and linking extension activities in the village to the community of practice, whether they come from formal extension or other service providers.

DOI

10.21608/ejar.2023.244966.1458

Keywords

Multi-service providers, Extension campaigns, Adaptive Design, social media

Authors

First Name

Mohamed أ.

Last Name

Kassem

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Email

mkassemegy@gmail.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

0000-0002-4599-645X

First Name

Laila

Last Name

Habaa

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Email

lailahabaa103@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

-

First Name

Atwa A.

Last Name

Atwa

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Email

atwaradwan@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

-

Volume

101

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

43601

Issue Date

2023-12-01

Receive Date

2023-10-29

Publish Date

2023-12-01

Page Start

1,138

Page End

1,161

Print ISSN

1110-6336

Online ISSN

2812-4936

Link

https://ejar.journals.ekb.eg/article_328300.html

Detail API

https://ejar.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=328300

Order

11

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,041

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research

Publication Link

https://ejar.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Implementation of an experimental extension program for virtual communities of farmers within the national wheat campaign in Sharkia governorate

Details

Type

Article

Created At

24 Dec 2024