CONSTRAINTS TO USE COMPUTERS AMONG AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORKERS IN RIYADH AND QASEEM REGIONS OF SAUDI ARABIA - M. S. Al-Shayaa; M. S. Al Shenifi; H. S. AL Abdu Al Hadi (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2011)
The research determined constraints that may limit the use of computers among agricultural extension staff members in the Riyadh and Qassim regions. The population of the study consisted of 169 agricultural extension staff members in the agricultural directorates. Eighty-six agricultural employees were from Riyadh and eighty-three were from Qassim. Data were collected by utilizing a questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS. The significant differences were tested at the significance level (0.05). Results showed that 50% of respondents’ skills in English were poor, about 67% of them obtained the agricultural diploma, 38% worked in agriculture from 10 to 20 years, and 35% worked in agriculture for more than 20 years. These results indicate that the majority of respondents are young, at the stage of intellectual maturity, and have the ability to use computers. Results showed that the major obstacles to the uses of computers were: the lack of computers, non-availability of computers at the work place, lack of incentives from management, the lack of knowledge on using the computers, lack of interest in learning computers, the difficulty of the English language, the lack of training programs, the weakness of the contents of the training programs, and the low level of trainers. The findings of the study suggests the need for introducing the educational programs for agricultural extension staff, their supervisors and managers to make them realized the importance of the role of computers in extension work; which will in-turn activate the role of computers. Building a good computers infrastructure and a network would improve the working of agricultural extension and elevate the performance of the staff members.
Keywords: journal article; Computers; Extension work; In-service Training; Capacity Building