IRANIAN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION JOURNAL
Year:2019 | Volume:15 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:17

Research centers are important parts of the research and development, innovation, and technology system of the country and have a crucial place in expanding the boundaries of knowledge and technology and solving the scientific issues of the country. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors affecting the level of transgenic agricultural production technology usage in agricultural research centers in Iran. The statistical population consisted of 421 researchers in transgenic domain which worked in 14 agricultural research centers. The Yaman formula was used to determine the sample size. The sample size was 205, which increased to 216 researchers to reduce the error and also to cover the unanswered questionnaires. A questionnaire was designed and used to collect the data. This questionnaire consisted of nine sections, including individual-social characteristics, Transgenic knowledge, transgenic attitude, perceived usefulness, perceived risk, ease of use, social impact, ethical concerns, and the level of transgenic technology usage. The structural equation modeling technique was applyed to analyze the data. Based on the obtained information, there was sufficient evidence for the confirmation of negative and significant effect of the two variables of perceived risk and ethical concerns about the level of transgenic technology usage, as well as the positive and significant effects of the two variables of attitude and social impact on the level of transgenic technology usage. Based on the results, the following recommendations are proposed: Providing the appropriate context for training courses inside and outside the country, bottom-up management, using experienced and provident managers, giving the opportunity to researchers to further engage in all stages of planning, government funding, completing the researches and labeling the transgenic products.

The main purpose of this study was to determine the type and amount of food waste by households and its effective factors using integrated model. For this purpose, a survey method was used. The statistical population of the study consisted of all households in centeral district of Najaf Abad County. Totally, 405 of which were estimated as sample size according to Bartlett and colleague table and were studied by stratified random sampling technique. The questionnaire face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was approved by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that most household food waste was related to bread, rice, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. The results of the path analysis of the integrated model indicated the direct effect of perceived behavioral control and the social norm and the indirect effect of social norm, problem awareness, feeling of guilt, attitude, moral norm, and internal attribution on the behavior of reducing household food waste. Since awareness of problem is a predictor of independent variables of the path analysis model and indirectly affects on reducing food waste, but it does not have the appropriate status in the studied sample. It is suggested to use different methods of consumers awareness enhancement to describe the negative consequences of food waste behavior.

Evidence shows that agriculture high school educators' job performance is not at a desirable level, which has increased the necessity to recognize the variables affecting improvement of their job performance. Therefore, the main objective of this descriptive-correlative research was to examine the effect of psychological empowerment dimensions on agricultural high school educators' job performance in the North West provinces. The statistical population consisted of all educators of agricultural high school in the four provinces of Iran, including West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardebil and Zanjan (N=295), of which a sample size of 210 people was selected using stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. A panel of experts confirmed the content validity of the questionnaire. The construct validity and the composite reliability of the research instrument were tested by estimating the measurement model and they were satisfied after making necessary corrections. Data were collected and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling Multivariate Technique. The results verified the hypotheses of the research in the way that five dimensions of psychological empowerment including competence, self-determination, impact, meaning and trust had significant effects on the dependent variable of educators' job performance explaining about 40 percent of its variances. Overall, it can conclude that one of the main prerequisites for increasing the educators' job performance is to improve the level of psychological empowerment of educators by paying attention to its main dimensions, in particular, meaning and competence (self-efficacy).

Management and planning of rural tourism in the wetland areas, if combined with the consent of the residents, can pave the way for the development of the region. In this regard, the present study answered this question: which factors affect the commitment and preference of local residents to the development of tourism among the villagers of the Khuzestan province wetland areas? This applied research was conducted as survey. The statistical population was the households living in the villages in the four Khuzestan province wetland areas (Shadegan, Miangaran, Bamdezh and Hoor Al Azim). The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire which developed based on the theoretical framework of the study. A total of 350 households were selected using a stratified random sampling method as a statistical sample. Content validity and reliability confirmed by a panel of experts and calculated Chronbach’ s alpha. Moreover, the convergent and discriminant validity and composite reliability confirmed the accuracy of the measurement model. SPSS and AMOS software version 20 were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the place image and awareness of tourism had a positive and significant effect on residents' satisfaction with tourism development and residents' satisfaction also has a significant and positive impact on the commitment and preferences of tourism development among the residents in the wetland areas. In this regard, it is suggested to use these components as a basis for assessing the residents' commitment and preferences to tourism development. Also, due to the family-oriented tourism activities in the studied regions, it is suggested that, while organizing activities and businesses, facilities should be provided to develop them.

Drought is a recurrent socio-natural hazard that increases its magnitude due to climate change. The main objective of this study was to identify farmers' perceptions of drought and their stratagems for dealing with this weather change event. For this purpose, 250 farmers in the Mohr county, south of Fars province, were selected by stratified random sampling and were interviewed using a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by agricultural extension and development experts, and their reliability was confirmed by pilot study and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that the perception of drought can be attributed to four factors, namely experience, memory, expectation and definition, which in totally these factors explain more than 71 percent of the variance of drought perception. Another finding of this study indicated that farmers have used various strategies such as farm production management, water demand management, financial management, production technology management, water supply management, soil management and reactive management to deal with this climatic event. Moreover, the relationship between drought perception and dealing strategies was positive and significant. In addition, the results of ANOVA test showed that perceptual clusters had a significant difference in terms of dealing strategies; So that farmers with a high level of perception (third cluster), in comparison with other groups, had a higher mean in this regard. The results of this study can be effective to understanding the social aspects of agricultural societies and planning for public and private adaptation/mitigation strategies to drought.

Subjective norms are recognized to be one of the main factors influencing individuals’ behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting grape farmers’ subjective norms regarding the utilization of innovations for improving and reforming their vineyards. The study was conducted in the Khoramdared Township, located in the Zanjan Province of Iran using a cross-sectional and descriptive-explanatory research design. The data were collected using a questionnaire through structured interviews with a sample of 260 out of 3942 grape farmers, who were randomly selected by a multi-stage sampling technique. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts and the construct validity and reliability were tested using the Categorical Principle Component Analysis method. Moreover, the Theta Coefficient for the reliability test of different constructs was obtained between 0. 75 and 0. 96. The subjective norms for using this innovation tended to be high, but it was higher for the farmers who were covered by the government’ s orchard improving plan. Farmers’ subjective norms for adopting this innovation were explained by various factors in that 58 percent of the variance of the subjective norm construct was determined directly and indirectly by the variables of farmers' attitude towards the relative advantage of this innovation, attending extension training courses, informal information sources inside and outside their rural communities, governmental interventions in terms of being covered by orchard improving plan, trust to the information of specialists, household size, farmers' age, grape production yield.

Based on the Career Construction Theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior and prior personality studies, the main purpose of this research was to examine the mediating role of career adaptability and entrepreneurial selfefficacy between personality traits (Five-Factor Model personality traits) and entrepreneurial intentions. The study population was including 1300 senior bachelor agriculture students at Bu-Ali Sina University and Arak University. According to the table of Krejcie and Morgan, 341 of them were selected through proportional stratified sampling. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The content and face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by evaluating measurement model and using Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient. Data were then analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling by the help of Smart PLS 3. 0 software. The results indicated that entrepreneurial self-efficacy completely mediated the relations among career adaptability, personality traits (openness and conscientiousness) and entrepreneurial intentions. The results also showed that there were positive relations among personality traits (openness and conscientiousness) and career adaptability. However, the direct effects of personality traits and career adaptability on entrepreneurial intentions were not supported by the results. Theoretical and practical implications for developing entrepreneurial self-efficacy, intentions and career adaptability are discussed.

Nowadays, water scarcity has become a concern in Iran, and agriculture, in particular, appears to be at the core of the water shortage problem. The results of various studies state that a large part of water waste is in the route of water transmission to the fields. Thus, it is essential to optimize the consumption of water by using modern irrigation technologies. The main purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the Adoption of modern irrigation technology in Behbahan township. This research was applied research and a descriptivesurvey method was used for collecting data. Statistical population of the study consisted of adopters and nonadopters farmers of modern irrigation technology in Behbahan township. The total number of adopters of new irrigation technologies included 174 farmers who were selected by census and among of non-adopters farmers whose their lands were in the neighborhood of adopters by random sampling method were selected. The standard questionnaire was used to collect data. Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of faculty members. A pilot study was conducted to establish reliability of the instrument. Cronbach’ s alpha coefficients for the main scales of the questionnaire were at the appropriate level. Collected data were analyzed using the SPSS20 software. The results showed that the discriminant function derived from three models of diffusion, economic constraints and combination model could categorize adopters and non-adopters of modern irrigation technology distance to agricultural services center variable in economic constraints model and farmers’ age variable in combination and diffusion models are the most important distinctive variables between adopters and non-adopters groups. Also, the finding indicated that combination model has a higher ability in classification of adopters and non-adopters of modern irrigation technology.

The purpose of the study was to identify and prioritize the educational needs of Jahrom citrus producers towards agricultural e-commerce with application of the Borich need assessment model and the Quadrant analysis model. The required data were collected using a survey method with questionnaire and a sample of 60 experts in horticulture and agricultural economics of Shiraz and Jahrom Agricultural Jahad Administrations and 270 Jahrom citrus producers. To selection of Agricultural Jahad experts, were used random sampling method and to selection of citrus growers, stratified random sampling method. Face validity of the questionnaire confirmed by a panel of experts and its scales' reliability were evaluated using a pilot test and calculating Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. According to the results, experts had a correct understanding of citrus producers’ e-commerce educational needs and also citrus producers had a correct understanding of their e-commerce educational needs. In this regard, the results indicate proficiency towards working with computer and internet, understanding the methods of e-commerce for agricultural products, understanding the legal laws of e-commerce, the basic literacy of English language, understanding safe electronic payment methods, the ability to create and manage a weblog for the firm and skills in contracting business contracts are seven definitive e-commerce educational needs of citrus producers. Therefore, it is recommended that create or strengthen of these competencies are placed on the top of the educational and extensional programs of e-commerce.

Due to the large amount of information, critical thinking provides the ability to process and utilize the mass of information of the present era. On the other hand, self-efficacy as one of the motivating explanatory structures can be important to the critical thinking of faculty members. The aim of this study was, “ the study of relationship between critical thinking skills and self-efficacy of faculty members of agriculture and natural resources of the State and Azad universities in Isfahan". The study population were 168 faculty members. Sample size was determined by Cochran Formula of 117 faculty members. Stratified random sampling was used with probability proportionate manner. Research tools included the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Form B) and teacher self-efficacy standard questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSSwin23. The results showed that the critical thinking skills of faculty members at a low level and high level of self-efficacy. However, there was no significant relationship between critical thinking and self-efficacy reiationship of faculty members. As well as critical thinking, skills and self-efficacy with faculty member's demographic characteristics revealed no significant. Cluster analysis and correspondence analysis of the results showed Critical thinking solidified cluster is near the low level of self-efficacy and critical thinking is growing cluster self-efficacy near a high-level.

Agriculture is the largest user of fresh water resources and thus farmers' norms and behaviors are of great importance in water resource management system. The main aim of the present research was to investigate the determinants of farmers' moral norms and ascription of responsibility towards water conservation. This study was a descriptive-correlational research which was carried out using survey method. The study population composed of farmers of Mahabad and Miandoab counties in West Azerbaijan Province from whom 380 farmers were selected as a sample through stratified random sampling method. The research instrument was a questionnaire which its validity confirmed by a panel of experts and the reliability of the items approved through a pilot study. The results revealed that water conservation concern, ascription of responsibility, and place attachment had positive and significant effects on moral norms of water conservation. Furthermore, collectivistic value orientation positively and significantly affected ascription of responsibility. However, individualistic value orientation has significant negative effect on ascription of responsibility. The results generally revealed that independent variables could predict about 58 percent of the variation of farmers' moral norms of water conservation.

Due to the cost of research activities and agricultural skills training, lack of attention to commercialization of technologies and research achievements, should be considered as loss of opportunities. The present research did by survey method and SWOT Model, in order to understand the internal and external factors affecting the establishment and institutionalization of the commercialization of technological achievements in the agricultural research and education centers of Agriculture-Jahad Ministry. The statistical population consisted of those faculty members who had at least two research projects in the last five years. The face validity of the measuring instrument was confirmed by 10 experts and its reliability was measurd by the coefficients of Cronbach alpha. The findings showed that the sum of the final coefficients of "internal factors" is less than zero (-0. 763). In the interior, centers of weaknesses are dominant and their role in establishing and institutionalization the commercialization system in the investigated centers is more than their strengths. Lack of technical infrastructure development technology, dependence of Governmental Education and Research Centers on government grants and lack of proper interaction between centers and private sector were the most serious weaknesses of the centers are in the above process. The results of external space analysis of centers showed that the sum of final coefficients of external factors was less than zero (-0. 857) and in the external environment more than opportunities, the "threats" are dominant. The most threats are: Less than 2 percent of GDP, is allocated to research grants, instability of economic conditions, disruption of international relations, and the limitation of in-service training credits for organizations. In general, the locations of the centers studied are in the context of adopting "defensive strategies". The most important defensive strategies are: Creating a strong and desirable organizational structure with a credit line and suitable organizational posts for the superior management of the commercialization system in the centers by removing or integrating some of the existing organizational units, developing and equipping and complying with international standards for farms, laboratories and research and educational centers, the government's support from the private sector for purchasing indigenous technology gains from the centers, maximizing the potential of legal authorities for approval of the rules of sponsors of instructors and researchers producing commercialized and revenue-generating gains including hardcore intellectual property upholding ideas and innovations, continuous presence in the national and international agricultural technology market (fan market, research and technology exhibitions, etc. ), and holding acceleration events, the idea of turning and startups.