Abbasi Rostami, A. A. Ahmadpour, A. Sharifzadeh and A. Norouzi M. B.
With regard to the expansion and development of the agricultural sciences and the introduction of so many innovations and new techniques by the researchers and experts in agricultural sciences for agricultural extension agents to be fully equipped with technical and professional abilities, their undergoing some in-service education is urgent. Basically, the first step and perhaps the most important phase in the planning process of the educational courses for the in- service education of agricultural extension agents is the assessment of their educationalprofessional needs. mine objective of present research educational-professional needs assessment of agricultural extension agents. This is an applied study based on descriptive-correlation method. Statistical population of this research consisted of 62 extension agents tobacco company of Mazandaran and Golestan provinces. the research instrument was questionnaire and Content validity of the questionnaire was determined by experts and professors’ ideas. After doing necessary reforms and preliminary tests, achieved Cronbach's alpha coefficient 81%. for educational-professional needs assessment of agricultural extension agents was used from Burich model a list of 29 educational-professional needs based on the literature review, the nature of the job and the organization's objectives provided And according to the mean weight discrepancy score (MWDS) were rated. According to the Descriptive results, educational-professional needs agricultural extension agents include the English language, how to work with Agricultural Machinery and agrology. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient, revealed a significant negative correlation between the variable experience as extension agent with the extent of educationalprofessional needs.
