Agricultural extension development agents need to possess the necessary competencies in order to deliver quality service. This study is a comprehensive work that sought to assess competence and motivation levels of development agents, review the curricula of three agricultural training colleges and determine factors affecting competence and motivation of development agents. The study was conducted in Baso Liben, Gozamen, Debre Elias and Machakel districts of East Gojjam zone, Ethiopia. Different sampling procedures were applied to select development agents, government extension officers and agricultural college teachers who participated in the survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Six core competence areas were identified based on the information drawn from literature review and the job description of development agents set by Amhara National Regional State Council. The six core competences are extension program planning, extension program implementation, monitoring and evaluation, communication, subject matter and Information and Communication Technology. On the scale 1 to 5 (lowest to highest), 149 development agents rated their own competence level for each competence area. The mean score results show that development agents scored above average on communication and program implementation competence areas with total mean score of 3.51 and 3.24 respectively. And they score below average on the rest four competence areas from which ICT was the least with 1.94 mean score. Regarding work motivation, proportion of development agents with low, medium and high motivation levels was 34.2%, 61.1%, 4.7% respectively. In addition, majority 53% of development agents want to leave the profession from which 20.8% are attending advanced education outside of agricultural profession. And based on regression analysis, independent variables like education level, relationship with co-workers, supervisor’s visit and evaluation have significant influence on competence of extension agents. On the other hand, qualitative findings indicate limitations of curricula of agricultural colleges and recruitment process extension agents. It was concluded that significant proportion extension agents lack core competencies and also majority of them are not interested to work as extension agents. In recommendation, curricula of training institutions need reformation to ensure alignment of education programs with expected competence areas. The recruitment process should be revised in order to get qualified agents. Keywords: Agricultural Colleges, Agricultural Extension, Core Competence, Competence, Development Agents, Motivation