TECHNICAL SUBJECT MATTER COMPETENCY OF TEXAS AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCE EXTENSION AGENTS AND CLIENT DEMAND FOR HORTICULTURAL INFORMATION AND EDUCATION

Abstract

I assessed the demand in Texas for Extension education and problem solving in the subject of horticulture and the competency of County Agriculture and Natural Resource (ANR) Extension Agents employed by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (AgriLife Extension) to meet that demand with three research studies. Qualitative interviews with early-career agents revealed high motivation to answer external client questions and solve problems. Horticulture was the subject area that most early-career agents in our study felt vulnerable to manage and needed more competency training in. Horticulture Extension Specialists employed by AgriLife Extension expressed in one-to-one interviews that the demand for their expertise is either higher than when they were first employed or has always been high and has remained so. Based on client requests for meetings and site visits, commercial industry growth, and volume of emails and phone calls, the Extension specialists predicted continued high demand for horticulture expertise ten years into the future, and a great need for increasing the horticultural competency of both generalist County Extension agents and those county agents specializing in horticulture. Results from our electronic survey of 158 Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension agents showed that the external client demand for horticulture is significant in counties with populations of 80,000 and higher. ANR Extension agents in Texas on average agreed or strongly agreed (4.2 out of 5.0) with Horticulture Pro-Training, a Likert Scale we created measuring affinity for competency training, especially in the area of horticulture. Their mean scores on our Horticulture Self-Sufficiency scale (3.5 out of 5.0) with S.D. of 0.47 indicated mixed opinions (agreement, disagreement and indecision) for learning the subject of horticulture on their own. We also found agents to be uncertain about where to find resources for horticulture and agricultural subjects in general, indicating a need for Extension leaders in Texas to increase web resource availability and visibility.