IRANIAN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION JOURNAL
Year:2018 | Volume:14 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:15

Environmental education to farmers is the first step in achieving food safety and production of healthy crops and education policy has strengthened the mechanisms of public entry into the food control system and it is effective in comprehensive of food safety in the community, so Mazhrzak model was used to analyze. To collect data an interview tool through in-semi-depth interviews was used. A purposeful sampling method was used to select samples during the snowball procedure. Data were theoretically saturated by interviewing with 40 managers with at least 10 years of policy experience about environment and food safety. Data analyzing was proceed with grounded theory in MAXQDA2010. Results showed that a complementary political intervention should be used in the public policy of education of environmental in agriculture that themes include comprehensive approach of environmental education policy making and creating a supportive macroenvironment as contex. Farmers’ participation in environmental management for safe food production as phenomenon, establishment of a biomedical extension training system and sustainable production as causal conditions, fulfilling resource needs as action strategies, motivational intervention and trust building as intervening conditions and healthy crops production in the farm as consequences.

Iran’ s agricultural extension system, as one of the main component of agricultural development, has faced different challenges during the past two decades, which has caused the system to be criticized by the authorities, employers and villagers. In order to solve the problems of this system, it was proposed to reform the structure of the agricultural extension system in the framework of a new extension approach with the aim of revitalizing extension services and appropriate transfer of research and technology. However, after about four years from the implementation of this project, the results of various studies indicate a large gap between the current situation and the desired situation. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify the main challenges and requirements of the Iranian agricultural extension and the pathology of the new agricultural extension system, which has been carried out in two stages using a qualitative approach. The first phase, using the Delphi technique, identifies the challenges and requirements of the Iranian agricultural extension system. The statistical population of this stage consists of faculty members of the field of agricultural extension in all over the country (N1= 138), experts of agricultural extension of cities and experts in the area in five provinces of Mazandaran, Fars, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Esfahan and Alborz (N2= 1300). Also, managers and experts of the agricultural research organization at the headquarters of the organization (N3= 10) have been selected using a purposeful sampling method. The results of this phase identified 33 main challenges in the form of 6 categories and 17 requirements for the agricultural extension system. The second stage of the research was carried out using the phenomenological method. At this stage, the experience of the experts of the system of extension on the achievements of the new system and the challenges facing this system was evaluated. The results of this phase revealed that this system was successful in knowledge management, communication and staff empowerment, but was weak in the fields of infrastructure and human resources.

Destruction of Urmia Lake (UL) has caused a lot of social-economic and environmental problems in Iran. It should be considered that agricultural sector and rural regions have low adaptive capacity to this crisis. Therefore, this study was designed to assess adaptive capacity of Eastern regions of Lake Urmia basin to Water Crisis (68 regions). Data were collected using documentary and survey research methods and adaptive capacity of eastern regions was calculated based on average of five capitals. Results revealed that adaptive capacity of eastern regions were divided into three classes: low, moderate and high. Also, most regions had low adaptive capacity and only three regions had high adaptive capacity to water crisis. The results also showed all variables of physical and natural capitals made a significant difference in the adaptive capacity of three groups. This study provides recommendation to national and regional Lake Urmia Restoration program for adaptive capacity building and sustainable development in the study regions.

Changing livelihoods is one of the strategies for farmers' adaptation to drought. In this regard, current empirical research was conducted to investigate the role of farmer's perception of vulnerability and adopt livelihood change strategy. This applied research was conducted as a survey research. The statistical population is comprised of thousands of rural households living in the Komijan County, which have been subjected to drought over the past ten years. Which of them, 200 households were randomly selected using Daniel's sampling formula. The main statistical method was the logistic regression. Farmers' perception of vulnerability and the problems caused by changing livelihoods was independent variables and dichotomous variable, decision to change livelihood, were the dependent variable of the research. Estimated logit function showed 69. 2% classification accuracy. Based on the mentioned function, it was found that the upper limit of the perceived vulnerability could result in reduction in the tendency to change livelihoods and to adopt a passive strategy (remaining in the current situation). It was also found that farmers' awareness of potential financial risks in the process of changing livelihoods is not an obstacle. It was also found that the lack of educational support for changing livelihoods prevented the change in livelihoods.

Local family poultry husbandry has a major contribution to improving the economic situation of poor rural households in developing countries. Identifying the status of this production system and attempting to plan its improvement requires a deep and qualitative study of this system. This qualitative research was conducted to identify and explain the role of local poultry farming system in rural household livelihoods. The purposeful sampling method for selecting samples and the process of selecting women to achieve theoretical saturation led to the study of 17 units. The method of data collection was in-depth interviews and in-person interviews using the technique of taking note and recording the voice of rural women. Also, by implementing seven focused group interviews (groups of 5-8 people), the necessary information was gathered. The results showed that local family poultry farming has four main components needed for sustainable food security and this system has an important role in providing of food security for the health of vulnerable rural populations. As well, the results showed that family poultry husbandry has been effective in helping to family economy, promoting social status of the family, improving human assets, increasing the ability and skills of women and children, increasing the sense of satisfaction and mental relaxation and sustainable use of natural resources. As a final result it was concluded that a part of household livelihoods is provided by this productive system.

The agricultural section, which has the mission of supplying and enhancing food security in the country, faces several serious threats such as limited water resources and favorable farming lands, and sometimes their nonrenewability and severe climate change. One of the major problems of the agricultural section is the increase in the amount of greenhouse gases, which is mostly due to human activities causing climate change. Therefore, first of all, the effects of climate change on agriculture should be investigated and then, the adaptation strategies should be considered. The purpose of this article is to explain the adaptation strategies to climate change using the grounded theory method in South Khorasan province. The statistical population of this research is 90 experts, informed people, and pundits. The snowball sampling was started purposefully, and it was continued up to saturation in theoretical form, and data were collected by semi-structured interview, observation, and field notes. For data analysis, the comparative analysis method was used and the extracted strategies were classified in 5 distinct categories including economic and financial, education and extensional, managerial, institutional and infrastructural, technical and agricultural. Moreover, all sections and concepts are interpreted, and recommendations and suggestions are provided.

Agriculture sector plays an important role in provision of food security and poverty alleviation. However, climate change has created substantial challenges for this sector. It is while climate change is projected to exacerbate in the arid and semi-arid regions of Iran. On the other hand, addressing various challenges of climate change requires enhancing the adaptive capacity and mitigation potential of agricultural systems and farm households. Therefore, this survey aimed to investigate the efforts of farmers regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation. The paper also identified the barriers to achieving climate smart agriculture. A multistage stratified random sampling method was used to collect the data set and a total of 251 Fars farmers were interviewed using a questionnaire. A panel of experts verified face validity and a pilot study was used to assess the reliability of the measuring instrument. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the choice of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and adaptation measures were adopted more by farmers. Also, the findings revealed different levels of contribution towards climate smart agriculture, specifically the low, moderate and high, which were principally distinguished by various degrees of mitigation and adaptive capacity. Moreover, climate smartness of different farmers was determined by a variety of physical-environmental, financial, natural and knowledge-information barriers. Some recommendations and policy implications are offered to acquire climate smart agriculture.

Today, the crisis of freshwater scarcity is a serious threat to the environment, health and human welfare. Agriculture as the main consumer of water and rice is one of the most water-using agricultural products. Therefore, it is necessary to change the crop pattern of rice to crops with less water requirement. In this study, two models of interpersonal behavior and health belief model were used to investigate rice producers` views and attitudes of Shushtar region in relation to changing the pattern of rice cultivation to a crop with less water requirement. The statistical population was Shushtar rice farmers, and a sample of 250 individuals was determined using Krejcie and Morgan table. Random multistage cluster sampling was used to select the sample farmers. The results of interpersonal behavior indicated that the moral norm had a positive and significant effect on the farmers' attitudes to change the pattern of cultivation. Also, the emotion had a positive and significant effect on their intention. The results of the health belief model also showed that the perceived benefit had a positive and significant effect on the intention. Therefore, both models have high potential to predict the attitudes and intentions of rice producers to change the cultivation pattern. Interpersonal behavior theory can predict 50 percent of the intent variable, and the health belief model is only able to explain 27percent of those changes. Therefore, the prediction power of interpersonal behavior model is stronger than the health belief model.

Nowaday, women's empowerment is one of the goals of development and it means increasing awareness, reliability, choice, skill and control power by them. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the effect of social capital on the psychological empowerment of rural women in Salmas township. The research method was descriptive and correlation. The statistical population consisted of rural women in Salmas township located at West Azarbaijan. The statistical population of this study was 31996 rural women. The sample size calculated 382 via Krejcie and Morgan table. A multistage cluster sampling method was used to select the samples. The research instrument was a questionnaire which its face and content validity were confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed via calculating the Cronbach's and the composite reliability coefficients. The findings of structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that social capital had positive and significant effect on the psychological empowerment of rural women. So that, this variable explained 34 percent of the variance in rural women's psychological empowerment.

Today, the use of chemical pesticides in the world is considered to be the most effective, fastest and cheapest pest control method. Although, chemical pesticides are essential components of modern agriculture, it is also considered one of the most important sources of environmental pollution and its exposure is one of the most common and serious health-safety hazards faced by farmers. The purpose of this study was to analyze the health-safety behavior on the use of chemical pesticides among farmers of Moghan plain. The statistical population of this study was farmers of water crops in Bilesavar, Parsabad, Germi counties in the years of 2017-2018 (N = 9996). The sample size was determined by multi-stage sampling method and using Kerjesi and Morgan table (1970), (n= 400). The content validity of the research tool was confirmed by panel of faculty members and its reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. According to the findings, the attitude of the majority of farmers (34%) was relatively positive on the use of chemical pesticides. Also, farmers with a job satisfaction from agriculture, lacking a second job and higher education, had higher health-safety behaviors than using chemical pesticides. Based on the results of the structural equation model, variables of knowledge (the most important variable), attitude and experience of poisoning by chemical pesticides have predicted 88 percent of the changes affecting the health effects of farmers on the use of pesticides.

The main purpose of present study was to identify the social risk perception of agricultural students toward GM crops and factors affecting it. This study used a survey research to collect data from a sample of the population of biotechnology and plant breeding graduate students of public agricultural colleges of Iran (N = 429). Using a two-stage stratified random sampling 210 students were selected for the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The face validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by experts and calculating Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient. Results revealed that respondents had moderate perception of GM crops' social risks. Using cluster analysis, respondents were divided to three groups, high, moderate, and low social risk perceivers. Regression analysis results showed that high-risk perceivers of GM crops had lower perceived benefits, more psychological risk, and had higher level of negative attitude toward the use of new technologies and believed in immorality of producing GM crops. Ordinal regression analysis revealed that 20 percent of variation in dependent variable was predicted by independent variables. Finally, some suggestions for promotion of GM crops were provided.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the pathology of agro-industrial exploitation system and provide proposed solutions. For this purpose, SWOT analysis and facilitating techniques and focused groups with semistructured group interviews were used. Considering the nature of the subject and the social, economic, and technical aspects of the research, the multi-disciplinary facilitation group was used. According to the results, the weakest performance of agro-industrial exploitation is in the field of network communication with other cultivations and industries and cooperatives, participation in regional and international markets, participation in financial investment, the establishment of factories and factories of rural industries and the export of manufactured products. The results of SWOT analysis showed that efficient decision-making system is the main strength of agro-industrial exploitation. Also, the most important weakness of agro-industrial exploitation is the withdrawal of efficient human resources. The inadequacy of manufactured products and the presence of demand in the market for manufactured products was also recognized as the most important opportunity for these companies. The most important threat of agro-industrial exploitation is the lack of precision in privatization. According to SWOT analysis, the most appropriate strategies for development of agro-industrial exploitation are conducting studies and determine the cultivate pattern and identifying the priorities for the implementation of agronomic, horticultural and livestock programs, empowerment of human resources from the participatory and motivational dimension, modernization and rebuilding of machinery and buildings of production units, provide the credit with low profit, and doing strategic plan. The role of government support in development of agro-industrial activities is also very important.

Population growth, energy need, scarcity and contamination fossil energy resources in rural area make using clean and renewable energies unavoidable all over the country. Biogas is one of those renewable energies with a high potential to use, among Iranian rural communities. The main object of this study was to investigate factors affecting biogas usage intention among traditional ranchers in Iran. In order to measure those factors, Comprehensive Action Determination Model, which is a model for measuring ecological intention and behavior, was examined. Iranian ranchers were the statistical population of the study and 383 ranchers were selected as sample group using stratified random sampling method. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire which its face and content validity was confirmed by a panel of agricultural extension and education experts and its reliability was estimated by implementing a pilot study. The Cronbach's alpha value confirmed the reliability of the questionnaire towards measuring variables. Findings revealed comprehensive action determination model could assess the intension determinants, appropriately, so that extension system could consider them towards developing biogas usage among traditional ranchers. Besides, findings showed that social norms, attitude, animal husbandry situation, constraints, awareness of needs and consequences, amount of communication with local organizations, and subjective schemata were determinant factors in relation to biogas usage intention by ranchers.

The drought drives many rural households into cities. The negative consequences of this migration in cities and villages, including marginalization, uneven development and agricultural damage, have transformed this phenomenon into a crisis in the country. The purpose of this study was to design a model of factors affecting the Zarqan farmers’ intention to migrate under drought condition. This study was conducted using Descriptive method and survey. Data was gathered using a questionnaire which its face validity was confirmed by Shiraz University professors, and its reliability was obtained through a pilot test and Calculate the Cronbach’ s alphas. Path analysis results showed that attitude toward migration was the most important determinant of intention to migrate. Other factors affecting independent variable include feeling the need to migrate, idealistic motivation, education, attitude toward agriculture and social link, the number of unemployed members in family, perspective to the ease of migration, using media, income, government weak support in drought condition, and accessibility to extension services. Therefore, Migration can be accelerated by applying government support policies to non-farm businesses, expanding rural cooperatives, and using the media to improve its extension services.