The Role of Agricultural Extension in Developing the Egyptian Exports of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

The study aims to: determine the participants’ level of knowledge for thevariables within the international and local markets of medicinal and aromaticplants, recognize the role of agricultural extension in developing the exports of thesecrops, recognize the nature of the relationship between the extension service and theorganizations working in the exports field, recognize the requirements for extendingthe production of medicinal and aromatic plants, and finally determine the level ofrecognizing the required quality standards for exporting the chamomile as long asthe international demand for it is increasing.The study has been investigated on a sample of 117 participants, 80 of themare medicinal and aromatic plants growers and 37 of the extension staff in FayoumGovernorate.The most important results regarding the extension staff were; low level ofknowledge regarding the international marketing variables (the global price ofchamomile, the proper time for exporting, and the quality standards for exports),73% of them referred that they don’t provide any services for the growers inmarketing the product, 67.6% of them stated that there is no relationship between theextension authorities and the governmental organizations that working in the exportfield, at the same time 18.1% of them stated that there is a relationship between theextension authorities and the associations working in the field of exporting crops. The most important requirements for expanding the cultivated area of these crops– as the extension staff point of view – were; organizing a trainings for the extensionstaff who are working in this field (100%), inform the growers about the qualitystandards for exports, expand the growing in the new lands (45.9%), and offermoney incentives for the extension agents and the marketing specialists (59.5%).Regarding the participants of growers, the most important results were;56.25% of the growers market their production by contracting with the exporters,88.7% of the growers don’t know about the quality standards, and 75% of themdon’t know the global price and the proper time for growing.The main problems facing the growers within the production process were;the infection of pests and diseases (78.5%) and the low quality of irrigation waterwhich affects the quality of the production (80%). Regarding the marketingproblems, the growers stated the following problems; the high cost of harvesting(94%), the monopoly within the market where there are few exporters andmiddlemen (78.5%), and price fluctuations (75%). The main requirements forexpanding the production were; the availability of the information about qualitystandards (76.3%) and the availability of high quality seeds (75%). The marketingrequirements were; pre-contracting (87.5%) and exporters commitment with growers(66.5%).It’s, also, stated the weakness of the agricultural extension in developing theknowledge and skills of the growers regarding the production and exporting of themedicinal and aromatic plants. Finally, the study has shown that both the extensionstaff and growers have a low level of recognition for the quality standards requiredfor exporting the chamomile where 10.8% and 15% of them respectively are in thehigh recognition category.