The use of local leaders and leader farmers in extension programs, such as modeling for other farmers and producers, the dissemination of beneficial innovations as well as extensional notifications, has been common in most countries. The overall objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of leader horticultural producers in increasing the quantitative and qualitative efficiency of horticultural products in Kerman province from the gardeners’ perspective .The research method was descriptive-co relational. The statistical population of the study consisted of horticultural producers in Kerman province (Bardsir, Baft and Orzuiyeh) in 2015-2016 (=310). Sixty gardeners were selected using Cochran formula and random cluster sampling. The research instrument was a questionnaire whose face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. Reliability was also obtained using the ordinal alpha coefficient in the range (0.75-0.89). The results showed that “leader producersâ€ can influence different aspects of production process. Therefore, use of leader producers as extension workers, as well as holding training classes and field visits, were suggested.

Keyword: Effectiveness; Horticultural producers; Increase production; Kerman; Leader gardeners;