Knowledge and Implementation by Wheat Farmers in Sharkia Governorate of Technical Recommendations to Confront Climate Change Using the Electronic Application WhatsApp

The research mainly aimed to identify the knowledge and implementation of wheat farmers in Sharkia Governorate of technical recommendations to confront climate change using the WhatsApp electronic application to educate wheat farmers about practices related to confronting climate change. This was done through identifying the cognitive and implementation level of the respondents regarding the recommendations related to confronting climate change for the wheat crop, identifying the relative importance of the advantages of using the WhatsApp electronic application in raising awareness of practices related to confronting climate change for the wheat crop, and identifying the relative importance of the obstacles to using the WhatsApp electronic application in raising respondents’ awareness of practices related to confronting climate change related to the wheat crop. This research was conducted in Sharkia Governorate as one of the main governorates in the cultivation of field crops. The number of wheat farmers using social communication activities was counted, and it was found that the WhatsApp application is one of the most used means of social communication among farmers by the Agricultural Extension Authority in the governorate’s centers. Then the three largest centers were selected, and then the largest village from each center was selected in terms of the number of farmers using the WhatsApp application, which are Al-Kilani village in Belbeis Center, Al-Sawa village in Abu Hammad Center, and Al-Qanayat village in Zagazig. The total number of farmers reached was 1450 wheat farmers using the WhatsApp application, representing the research as comprehensive. 10% of the comprehensive sample was selected randomly, bringing the size of the selected sample to 145 wheat farmers using the WhatsApp application. The research data was collected using a questionnaire form through a personal interview. The arithmetic mean, the weighted mean, and the tabular presentation with frequencies and percentages were used in analyzing the data and extracting the research results. The most important results were that approximately three-quarters of the respondents, about 71% of the respondents (or of the sample), had a high level of knowledge of the combined technical recommendations for confronting climate change. The first rank in knowledge of technical practices for confronting climate change for the wheat crop was occupied by recommendations for planting at the appropriate time in the event of expectations of rising temperatures and adding fertilizer in two batches, the most important of which is in the first irrigation (simulation irrigation), with a relative weight of 100 degrees. About 73.1% of the total respondents had a high level of implementation of the technical recommendations for confronting climate change as a whole. The top practices for confronting climate change in wheat crops included adding agricultural sulfur during planting, along with an average of five irrigations per season depending on weather conditions, with a relative weight of (100). The results indicated that the most important advantage of using WhatsApp was overcoming the significant shortage in the number of agricultural extension workers, which topped the list with a relative weight of 2. This was followed by the advantage of quickly delivering guidance recommendations to beneficiaries, which came in second place with a relative weight of 1.86. The results also indicated that the most prominent obstacles to using WhatsApp to educate respondents about practices related to climate change were the difficulty of evaluating the educational impact of social media in agricultural extension work and the high material cost of establishing communications infrastructure, with a weighted average of 2.8 out of a maximum of 3.