Although the Government of Ethiopia has developed a grand Five-Year Growth and Transformation
Plan (FYGTP) for economic development, aspiring to achieve a middle income country status by the
year 2025 through a transformation of the economy of the agriculture led industry, the shift of focus in
the role of development from agriculture to industrialization has not altered the objective of enhancing
agricultural production and productivity. To this end, the agricultural extension service which is
determined by its institutional effectiveness and competency of the development agents (DAs) at field
has pivotal role to derive the transformation process. This study was based on data collected from 108
DAs in SNNPR from 12 Woredas using structured questionnaire. Results indicated that manmade and
natural factors are affecting the DAs effectiveness on their job performance. The challenges were found
to have three categories, namely DAs capacity based challenges, farmer based constraints and
infrastructure/ service based constraints. On the job training that would build the knowledge, skill and
commitment level of the expertise and improve the working environment of DAs including availability of
logistics, incentives in kind and promotion is recommended.