The external organizational environment of agricultural extension: key to organic coffee

Abstract

Currently, organizations face new challenges due to the changing and dynamic situations in their environments, with the need to evolve, where not applying appropriate strategies for their adaptation are headed for failure, a situation that is the same for coffee growers in Venezuela. This article was executed following the Organizational Design model considering the structural dimensions of the proposal of the Agricultural Extension Program for the Promotion of Organic Coffee in Venezuela, in order to determine the contextual dimensions, in the approximation of the features required for a strategy. An Action-Participation research design was developed with a qualitative approach, based on Strategic Planning under the analysis methodology of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, where the method was started with an inductive course and the development of a workshop, applied to a total of fifty people from various organizations who expressed their expert opinion that gives them their status as organic coffee producer leaders, which were analyzed through the aforementioned methodology. It concludes with a strategy that includes the elements of the organizational contextual dimension, which are fundamental results in the design of an action plan for the organic coffee production extension program.  Keywords: Organizational design; agricultural extension; program; coffee