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Abstract
The Greek State, through the Ministry of Rural Development and Food (MRDF) offers
different types of public services for rural development to farmers and especially
young farmers. The evaluation of these services is of critical importance for the government,
concerning the adopted policy and the farmers themselves. In this study,
SERVQUAL instrument has been used in a sample of 146 young farmers participating
in the measure 112 ‘Setting up of young farmers’ (Common Agricultural Policy, Pillar
II), in order to explore their expectations, their perceptions and, through them, the service
quality provided by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food in central Macedonia
– Greece. Τhe results indicate that the level of quality of the services provided by
the ministry is not satisfactory. These quality gaps are observed in quality characteristics
concerning the “social skills” of the MRDF’s employees.