Factors affecting the intention of Urmia University’s agricultural and natural resources faculty members toward participation in agricultural extension services

One of the problems of universities in Iran is the lack of participation of faculty members in extension activities. The purpose was to investigate factors affecting the intention of Agricultural and Natural Resources Colleges’ Faculties (ANRCF) toward participation in Extension Services (ES). This research was taken from both quantitative and qualitative paradigms and a survey conducted from March 2020 to March 2021. The statistical population was 110 ANRCF of Urmia University. 82 people were selected as sample. The research tool were interview and questionnaire. The questionaire was designed based on theory of planned behavior. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 5 faculty members at Urmia University and its convergent validity was confirmed using AVE (0.52-0.73). The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated with the ordinal theta (0.71-0.90) and CR (0.81-0.95). Ordinal logistic regression results showed that: The intention of faculties to participate in ES is moderate influenced by three factors: age, trust to the farmers community, and behavioral control variables. To strengthen the participation of faculties to ES, some suggestions include: adding the extension task into the mission of the Ministry of Science; Signing a contract between the universities and the agricultural organization; Considering the material and spiritual motives; participating faculties in participatory approaches, online agricultural education, radio and television programs, and providing content for extension media.