Delivering too much, too little or off target—possible consequences of differences in perceptions on agricultural advisory services

Table 3 Advisors’ perceptions on farmers’ motives^a versus farmers’ descriptions of their motives^a for choosing advisory services sorted in descending order based on t ratio for discrepancies between the two groups; boxplots with medians and quartiles illustrate the distribution of responses

Statement	Group	N	Mean	Sd	t ratio	p-value
Use as sounding board	Advisor	219	6.4	0.8	14.1	< 0.001
Use as sounding board	Farmer	518	5.2	1.6	14.1	< 0.001
Help to lead change	Advisor	219	5.4	1.1	11.6	< 0.001
Help to lead change	Farmer	498	4.2	1.7	11.6	< 0.001
Get new ideas	Advisor	219	5.9	1.0	8.7	< 0.001
Get new ideas	Farmer	510	5.0	1.6	8.7	< 0.001
Get challenged	Advisor	219	4.8	1.2	7.9	< 0.001
Get challenged	Farmer	495	3.9	1.9	7.9	< 0.001
Increased profitability	Advisor	219	6.0	0.9	2.7	0.007
Increased profitability	Farmer	513	5.8	1.5	2.7	0.007
Avoid mistakes	Advisor	219	5.6	1.2	2.1	0.037
Avoid mistakes	Farmer	513	5.4	1.6	2.1	0.037
Save time	Advisor	219	5.4	1.3	0.9	0.359
Save time	Farmer	514	5.3	1.6	0.9	0.359
Save money	Advisor	219	5.4	1.3	0.6	0.538
Save money	Farmer	516	5.4	1.6	0.6	0.538

^aAdvisors were asked why they thought farmers chose to use advisory services, while farmers were asked why they chose to use advisory services