Abstract

Sallah Dongo, kate Hassanand Duarte Ibid

Professionally competent Agriculture Officers (AOs) play an important role in increasing the agriculture
production through communicating new findings about the damage caused by weed. It has been tried to
find the professional competency of AOs to cope with the weed problem in North West Frontier Province
(NWFP), Pakistan. This study was initiated during in January, 2007 where 112 questionnaires were
distributed among the AOs across all 24 districts of NWFP. One hundred and eleven AOs returned the
questionnaires and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The analysis revealed that all the
officers had basic understanding of weed science. However; 7% of AOs had the required knowledge
related to weeds. Majority of the respondents were not in a position to point out the weeds of major and
minor crops. Same was the case regarding lack of farmers’ guidance in herbicide application. About
95% respondents rated weed science related knowledge from important to very important. The present
findings recommends that the AOs are supposed to be trained in weed related problems, so that they
can cope with the weed management problem of the farming community, for the increase of the quality
and quantity of agricultural commodities and to raise the socio-economic status of rural people.