Abstract:
Tea small holders are getting extension needs mainly through government services. However it has been noted that those services were not provided satisfactorily. As a result of this, farmers have lost their interest and satisfaction of these services. Therefore this study was conducted to identify factors affecting for farmers' satisfaction with extension services. This research was investigated in a sample of 178 small scale tea growers in Yatinuwara DS division. Logistic regression model and descriptive statistics were used to archive the objectives. Results proved that majority of tea small holders do not satisfied with their existing extension service. Number of times extension officer visit to the field, Ability of extension officer in conducting the extension program, Techniques used by extension officer for disseminating the information, content of the extension program, Education level of the respondent and experience in tea cultivation were found to have a great impact on the farmers' satisfaction with the existing extension service. To increase the farmers' satisfaction with the extension service, extension programs have to be launched according to their requirements. As most of the farmers have high level of education and experience, they expect something more than traditional extension service. In implementing
extension programs, adoption behavior of the farmers for particular innovative aspects
4e:
should be taken into consideration.
Key Words — Agricultural extension service, Farmers' satisfaction, Tea small holders
