0023-6152

AA00697606

7388811

Agricultural extension is increasingly shifting its focus toward integrating production with marketing, and competency enhancement among extension officers plays a crucial role. There remains limited understanding of how the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) enhances extension officers’ capacity to deliver market–oriented extension. This study examines the role of various competencies in delivering market–oriented extension, comparing public and private sector officers. We employ Exploratory Factor Analysis to identify key domains of market–oriented extension, followed by multivariate regression for in–depth analysis. Our findings show no difference in performance between the public and private extension officers. However, SHEP–trained public extension officers demonstrate significantly higher ability to identify market–oriented practices, while their private sector counterparts exhibit significantly greater capacity in market engagement. Leadership skills emerge as a critical competency, complementing the facilitation skills emphasized by SHEP. In addition, positive social factors significantly influence market–oriented outcomes, and County–level prioritization of agriculture positively influences service delivery. These findings underscore the importance of strengthening public–private partnerships, integrating social factors into program design, and expanding competency development efforts to include leadership skills alongside facilitation to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of market–oriented extension.