Extension Educators' Perceptions of Risk Management Training Needs

Authors

Steven W. Martin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Oscar Vergara, Mississippi State University
George F. Patrick, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Keith H. Coble, Mississippi State UniversityFollow
Thomas O. Knight, Texas Tech University, LubbockFollow
Alan Baquet, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

8-1-2003

Comments

Published in the Journal of Extension Volume 41, Number 4, August 2003. Copyright © by Extension Journal, Inc. Used by permission. This article is online at http://www.joe.org/joe/2003august/rb7.shtml.

Abstract

Risk management is a key issue for farmers and also receives significant national and local political attention. Because much of the outreach in this area is delivered through the Cooperative Extension Service, research on how Extension educators perceive their clients' needs and their own demand for additional training is important for educational programming.

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) and the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiated a risk management education competitive grants program during 1998. The information reported here is partial output from one of the surveys conducted by the "Understanding Farmer Risk Management Decision Making and Educational Needs" project (Coble, Knight, Patrick, & Baquet, 1999; Patrick, Coble, Knight, & Baquet, 2000; Vergara, Coble, Knight, Patrick, & Baquet, 2001). Institutions participating in the project are Mississippi State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska, and Texas A&M University.