الفهرس 
الباب الثانىيوجد فقط 14 صفحة متاحة للعرض العام
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المستخلص
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The Role of Mass Media In Diffusion of
Agricultural Innovations
Summary
The agriculture extension is considered one of the most
important integrated multi-purpose rural development activity. It
helps to increase the value of agricultural production and rural
income through spreading ideas, research results and agricultural
recommendations, which is provided by many of agricultural
research systems in all agricultural production fields both in plant
and animal production.
The agriculture extension functions through a variety of methods
which -owing to their variation in characteristics- work in an
integrating way to transfer the results of the research and
agricultural recommendations to the farmers.
The mass media is considered one of the most important
communication methods used by agriculture extension. Many basic
changes in peoples perceptions occurred as media spread out, where
their horizons become broader in a unique way and they can never
be isolated neither mentally nor psychologically any more.
In the same time, mass media supports personal and group
communication methods and amongst them -as kelsy & Hem found
out- it shares 37.5 % of the total impact suppressing each of them.
In spite of the importance of mass media in diffusing
agricultural innovations among farmers, there were rather few
studies aiming to identify its role in diffusing innovations under
local conditions in Egypt. Moreover, most of these studies were
concerned with a specific media i.e., Radio or TV neglecting other
media that might have a different impact as well .
Hence, this study was conducted to :
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1- Identify farmers’ knowledge level concerning each of the
following innovations:
a. Using sexual pheromones to control some cotton pests
b. Using seed drill in wheat plantation
c. Soil sterilization with fungicides and using polyethylene in
strawberry culture.
2- Define the sources of farmer’s knowledge concerning the
recommendations of the studied .
3- Determine the relative importance of mass media related to
farmers knowledge concerning the recommendations of the
studied innovations .
4- Define the relationship between farmers knowledge concerning
the recommendation of the innovations studied and each of the
following independent variables
1. Age.
2. Educational degree.
3. Area cultivated with the crop related to the innovation studied
5. Production per fedden .
6. Degree of media receivers ownership.
7. Degree of exposure to some mass communication methods
8. Degree of exposure to some agricultural information sources.
9. Degree of social formal participation.
10. Degree of contacting change agent.
11. Degree of cosmopolitness .
12. Attitude towards innovations.
13. Attitude Towards Agriculture Extension.
14. Degree of respondent’s leadership.
5- Determine the degree to which some independent variables
significantly correlated to farmers knowledge contribute in
explaining the total variance in this knowledge concerning the
recommendations of the studied innovations .
6- Determine the relationship between some independent variables
and the degree of impact of mass media on farmers knowledge
concerning the studied innovations .
7- Determine the degree to which some independent variables
significantly correlated to farmers knowledge gained through
mass media contribute in explaining the total variance in
farmers knowledge concerning the recommendations of the
studied innovations .
Innovation were chosen according to the recommendations of
Agriculture Extension system and are focused by mass media.
Three random samples were drawn (60 respondent each) from
toukh, Banha and Shebin EL-Kanater districts according to the
studied groups’ specialization, i.e., Qaha and Meet kenana
villages for cotton, sheblenga and Marssafa villages for wheat,
and EL-Qalzam and EL-Kanater village for strawberry. Data
were collected during the first three months of 1997 using 3
different questionnaires. Simple correlation coefficient,
stepwise, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and percentages
were used to analyze the data statistically .
The results of the study revealed that :
1- Farmer’s knowledge degree for most recommendations related to
the three innovations studied was moderate, while the degree for
the few rest was rather low .
2- Knowledge sources of cotton growers for 7 items of the
recommendations concerning using sexual pheromones to
control some cotton pests was mass communication alone, 8
items were attained through mass communication and other
methods, while 4 items were attained through methods other
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than mass communication. TV suppressed other media followed
by extension bulletins to convey the recommendation of using
sexual pheromones to control some cotton pests.
Knowledge source of wheat growers for 3 items of the
recommendation concerning using seed drill was mass
communication, 2items were attained through other methods .
TV followed by agricultural magazines toped the sources of
knowledge concerning using seed drill to plant wheat.
Knowledge source of strawberry growers for 3 items of the
recommendations concerning soil sterilization with fungicides
and using polyethylene in strawberry culture was mass
combination, 6 items was attained through mass communication
and other media, Extension bulletins toped the sources followed
by agricultural magazines for the mentioned recommendations.
3- Cotton growers knowledge degree concerning using sexual
pheromones to control some cotton pests was correlated
significantly and positively on 0.01 level with each of: the
degree of media receivers ownership, degree of exposure to
some mass communication methods, degree of cosmopliteness
and degree of respondent’s leadership, while the relationship
was detected on 0.05 level with the respondent educational
degree . Also it was found on 0.05 level with the respondent age
but in a negative direction.
4. Media receivers ownership, leadership and cosmopolitness
degrees contributed by 36.48 %in explaining the total variance
in cotton growers knowledge concerning the recommendations
studied. The three variables contribution were: 16.97 %, 14.5%
and 5.01 %sequential .
5. Wheat growers knowledge degree concerning using seed drill to
plant wheat was correlated significantly and positively on 0.01
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with each of: degree of exposure to agricultural
information sources, respondent’s educational degree and degree
of exposure to some mass communication methods, while it was
found on 0.05 with respondent’s attitude toward innovation.
6. Degree of respondent’s exposure to agricultural information
sources and respondents educational degree contributed by
16.810/0 and 6.80/0 respectively, summing up to 23.61% in
explaining the total variance in wheat growers’ knowledge
concerning the recommendations studied .
7_ Strawberry growers knowledge degree concerning sterilizing soil
using fungicides and using polyethylene in strawberry culture
was significantly correlated in the positive direction on 0.01
level with each of: the degree of formal social participation,
degree of exposure to some agricultural information sources,
degree of exposure to some communication methods and
respondent attitude towards innovations. The relationship was
found on 0.05 level with the productivity per feddan, media
receivers ownership and respondents attitude toward
Agricultural Extension.
8. Formal social participation and the degree of respondents attitude
towards innovations contributed by 16.56 % and 8.740/0
sequentially, summing up to 25.30% in explaining the total
variance in strawberry growers knowledge concerning the
recommendations studied .
9. The degree of knowledge of cotton growers gained through mass
media was significantly and positively correlated on 0.01 level
with each of: the degree of media receivers ownership,
respondents educational degree, cosmopolitness, contacting
change agents degree and respondents attitude towards
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innovations, while it was detected negatively on 0.05 level with
respondents age .
10. Media receivers and contacting change agents degree
contributed by 20.52% and 18.180/0summing up to 38.7% in
explaining the total variance in cotton growers knowledge
gained through mass media concerning the studied
recommendations
11. The degree of knowledge of wheat growers attained through
mass media was significantly and positively correlated on 0.01
level with each of: respondents educational degree, the degree
of exposure to some agricultural information sources and
degree of leadership, while it was detected on 0.05 level with
each of: cosmopolitness, area cultivated with the crop related to
the innovation studied and productivity per feddan .
12. Respondents educational degree, contacting change agents, and
degree of leadership contributed by: 41.790/0,9.19% and 6.480/0
sequentially, amounting to 57.460/0 in explaining the total
variance in wheat growers knowledge gained through mass
media concerning the studied recommendations .
13. The degree of knowledge of strawberry growers gained through
mass media was correlated significantly and positively on 0.01
level with each of: the degree of exposure to some agricultural
information sources, respondents educational degree, degree of
exposure to some mass communication methods, media
receivers ownership, degree of formal social participation,
contacting change agents, degree and respondents attitude
towards innovations The relation was detected negatively on
0.01 level with respondents age, and positively on 0.05 level
with respondents farm size .
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14. Degree of respondents exposure to some agricultural information
sources and media receivers ownership contributed by 44.22% and
15.780/0 summing up to 60% in explaining the total variance of
strawberry growers knowledge gained through mass media
concerning the studied recommendations.
The applicable results of this study can be summarized as
follows:-
1- The recommendations of using sexual pheromones to control some
cotton pests, using seed drill in wheat culture, soil sterilization by
fungicides and using polyethylene in strawberry culture, needs more
concern of extension effort through Mass Media to be spread among
fanners as the study revealed that fanners’ knowledge was moderate
or low .
2- Although that the study revealed that Mass Media is ranked first in
knowing of fanners about the studied recommendations, it is well
known that it had moderate role in change fanners’ knowledge
about the three studied innovations. This brings attention to the
shortage in using other methods either in groups or personally to
integrate the extension efforts, as the methods’ impact maximize
when using multi-media
3- As the study revealed that the impact of the studied variables on
farmers knowledge about the recommendations was low or
moderate which means their still un-revealed variables which need
more studies. Hence, future research might focus on such variables
not handled that may contribute in explaining the variance in
farmers knowledge about the recommendations of the studied
innovations .