Abstract: The efficiency of an organization's decision making depends on the matching of decision-making rights with the knowledge important to those decisions. When the decision-making rights and knowledge don't match with each other, either the decision-making rights will be transferred to those with the relevant knowledge or the knowledge will be transferred to those with the decision-making rights. Professional organizations usually transfer the decision-making rights to those with the professional knowledge. Entrusting the governmental departments as the agents of the governmental ag-technology extension organizations will not only prolong the agent chain but also increase the administrative degree of the entrusting process. While entrusting the research institutes as the agents will not only improve the judgment of the agents' behaviors but also shortens the agent chain and improves the quality of decision making.

Key words: governmental ag-technology extension system, decision-making rights, knowledge, principal-agency relation