Concerns over the potential harmful impacts of changing climate are strongly echoing around the globe. With its wide range of hazards to human societies, climate change is posing serious threats to human survival and impacting every aspect of human life, including food production systems. It is, therefore, imperative to gauge the local knowledge, perceptions, and adaptation capacity for the effective mitigation of the ill impacts of climate change. In this backdrop, the present study has been designed to investigate the perceptions of farmers regarding causes and impacts of climate change on agriculture. Required data were collected from the Madinah region in Saudi Arabia and analyzed to answer the following study questions: How do farmers perceive impacts of climate change? What factors affect their perceived impacts of climate change? Additionally, what factors affect their perception about the causes of climate change? Individual logit models were used to assess the impacts of various factors on perceived causes and perceived impacts of climate change on agriculture. A multinomial logit model was also employed to figure out significant determinants of perceived causes of climate change on agriculture. Results indicated that the most dominant perceived impacts of climate change are its effects on crop production, followed by drying water sources. The results also revealed that the age of the farmers had a positive effect on their perception of natural processes being the cause of climate change. Similarly, farming experience had an inverse effect on their perceptions regarding causes of climate change. The majority of the farmers seemed clear about the possible drivers of climate change in the country. In particular, about 79 percent of the farmers believed that GHGs and pollution are causing climate change in the country. The findings provide useful insights into farmers’ perceptions about causes and impacts of climate change and may be used by policymakers to strategically design extension and agricultural development initiatives for helping the farmers to implement sustainable agricultural practices to adapt to and lower the adverse impacts of climate change in the Kingdom.

This research determines the extent to which farmers benefit from agricultural extension activities and services through realizing higher biological crop yields in the Al-Baha region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the nature of the relationship between the personal, economic and social characteristics of farmers and the degree to which they benefit from agricultural extension activities and services are studied. A simple random sample representing the community of 315 farmers was drawn. Data were collected through a personal interview with a pre-tested questionnaire to satisfy the objectives of the study. Data are subjected to analyses and are interpreted in terms of percentages, arithmetic averages, and standard deviations in addition to the simple Pearson correlation coefficients. The results show that most of the respondents depend on personal experience, friends, family and neighbors, merchants and sellers of agricultural production supplies as sources of agricultural information for enhanced crop yields. Multiple regression analysis reveals that both the educational status and the agricultural information sources are important factors that increase farmers benefit from extension activities. Farmers receive most benefits from the extension activities and services from bringing in foreign workers, conducting field trips to farms, and identifying problems faced by farmers. The outcome of this questionnaire limits generalization of the findings for other parts of the Kingdom due to geographical and natural resources variations. The personal and socio-economic characteristics of the surveyed population provide the extension service with insight into their composition – a basis to formulate workable extension programs. For the extension planners of the area, this effort provides a baseline study and may assist with targeting the appropriate farmers and catering the right solutions to the problems. Such a study will help devise meaningful extension programs and save time and resources. Little previous research on the usefulness of the Extension Service has been conducted in the region. Effective, well-planned extension programs targeting the educated and mature farmers provided more benefits and helped them obtain higher crop yields.

The Agricultural Guide application is a crucial component of the digital extension system in Saudi Arabia, providing modern and evidence-based information on sustainable agricultural practices to the farming community. The adoption of digital extension tools has been widely recognized as a key driver in enhancing crop productivity. This study aimed to assess the impact of the Agricultural Guide application on the adoption of sustainable olive farming practices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The impact was evaluated by analyzing the farming practices of the users and non-users of the application, identifying key determinants of application usage through machine learning techniques. The study also analyzed barriers to its adoption. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect data from 229 olive farmers in the Al-Jouf region. The findings reveal that the majority of respondents were non-users of the application. Significant differences were observed between users and non-users regarding the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, including irrigation management, soil improvement, pest control, and harvesting techniques. Furthermore, farmers’ productivity, income levels, and digital information sources were significantly influenced by their usage of the application. A random forest analysis, with a predictive accuracy of 94.12%, identified key determinants of the application usage, including digital information sources, soil improvement practices, irrigation management, and education level. The study highlights the need for targeted educational programs under the supervision of the Agricultural Extension Department to enhance farmers’ awareness and knowledge of the Agricultural Guide application. Expanding its adoption within the farming community has the potential to significantly promote sustainable agricultural practices and improve overall agricultural productivity in Saudi Arabia.

Understanding beekeepers’ satisfaction, attitudes toward extension services, and the adoption of recommended beekeeping practices could play a vital role in designing and executing effective interventions to promote the adoption of recommended beekeeping practices to improve honey production. Therefore, a study was undertaken to assess beekeepers’ satisfaction and attitudes towards extension services and the level of adoption of recommended beekeeping practices among rural women in the Hail region, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from women beekeepers located in the Hail region, Saudi Arabia, using a simple random sampling technique with the help of a pre-tested paper-based questionnaire. The results revealed that most beekeepers were highly satisfied and showed neutral attitudes toward extension services. Despite the neutral attitudes toward extension services, a considerable portion indicated a higher adoption of recommended beekeeping practices. Moreover, rural women needed professional guidance and training for beekeeping. The beekeepers’ age showed a negatively significant correlation with the beekeepers’ satisfaction. Beekeepers’ education level showed a positively significant correlation with satisfaction. The extension services provided to beekeepers showed a negatively significant correlation with beekeepers’ attitudes. Therefore, the study suggests that training extension agents through the active involvement of the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, should be implemented to improve beekeepers’ attitudes toward beekeeping. In addition, the government should facilitate the adoption of innovative and sustainable beekeeping practices by enhancing its availability on the market at low prices.

The study aimed to investigate farmers’ participation, perceived benefits from local extension activities, and identified barriers to participation, A Simple Random Sampling technique was used for data collection. A personal interview was conducted, and 219 responses were usable for research analysis. The results showed that more than a half of the respondents (63.5%) have not participated in any agricultural extension activity. However, 36.5% of the respondents reported that they have participated in at least one agricultural extension activity. Regarding non-agriculture activities, only 11.9% of the respondents have not participated in any local activity, most of them (88.1%) participated in at least one local activity. Participation and perceived benefits from agricultural extension had negative significant relationships with “Low direct financial returns form activities”, “Uncertainty about the feasibility of local extension services”, “Not suitable for my schedule”, “The activities places are too far”, and with “Lack of confidence in the agricultural extension agents”. Participation and perceived benefits from non-agricultural activities had negative significant relationships with “No advertisement for activities”, “Not suitable for my schedule”, “Difficult to reach locations of the activities” and with “The activities places are too far”.

The current study examined the information preferences of the subscribers of various agricultural content accounts on social media as well as the perceived impact of social media on crop production skills in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from the subscribers of the agricultural content accounts of Saudi Arabia on social media using an online survey with the help of a structured questionnaire and a convenient sampling methodology. Both descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were run to analyse the data. The majority (81%) of the respondents preferred agricultural information in the form of videos, followed by photos (75%). Moreover, a moderate to high impact was reported by the respondents on their various agricultural skills. Trust in social media had a significant negative correlation with respondents’ perceived impact on their crop production skills. The respondents’ preferences for a particular type of information had a significant positive correlation with the perceived impact of social media on their crop production skills. We conclude that subscribers’ trust in social media and their preference for agricultural information in the form of videos are the critical factors that may shape their behaviour positively.