IRANIAN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION JOURNAL
Year:2016 | Volume:11 | Issue:2|Papers Count:16

Farmers’ satisfaction with technology impacts is considered as one of the determinants of continuation of adopted technology is considering the promotion of laser land leveling it is important to compere the level of farmers’ satisfaction with the new technology and the conventional method. Purpose of this paper was to analysis farmers’ satisfaction with implementation of conventional and laser land levelling. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In quantitative stage of survey method and in qualitative stage case study were used. The participants at quantitative stage were 375 farmers (258 adopters of laser land leveling and 117 adopters of conventional leveling) were selected with using stratified random sampling. At qualitative stage 7 farmers were interviewed. The results show that the farmers believe that the main problems of conventional leveling are improper slope rating, high volume of excavation and lack of expertise of topographer. The main problems of laser land leveling are uneconomical efficiency in the first year after leveling, lack of monitoring and low accuracy leveling. Also the satisfaction of farmers with laser land levelling is higher than conventional levelling. At the end based on the results some practical suggestions have been presented. 

Use of pesticides in agriculture has increased agricultural production and productivity. However, negative externalities from such use have increased too. These externalities include damage to agricultural land, fisheries, fauna and flora. Furthermore, increased mortality and morbidity of humans due to unsafe use of these chemicals are the most prevalent and serious occupational hazards faced by farmers and agricultural workers in developing countries. As such, the aim of this article to investigate farmers’ intention regarding safe use of pesticides. To achieving this aim, the study uses health beliefs model to predict the intentions regarding safe use of pesticides in a multistage, random quota sample of farmers (n=150) in a survey conducted in Southern Iran, Boushehr province. Findings revealed that the model is a suitable for predicting intention. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that cue to action, perceived severity and self-efficacy can predict 38.5% of variances in safe use pesticides intentions. Therefore, those farmers who received more cue to action, perceived more severity and feel less self-efficacy also had a greater intention to engage in safe behavior.

Today, the improvement of the quality of life (QL) is one of the main objectives of development programs in every country. Thus, at first, an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the current status of QL should be achieved through a systematic approach. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess the QL status of rural areas of Esfandegheh Township. A survey research method was used in this study. Research population included villages with 10 or more households (34 villages) that about 343 household heads of these villages were selected as research sample based on Kerjcie and Morgan Sampling table. A researcher constructed questionnaire was used to collect data that its validity was verified via face validity procedure and its reliability was also verified calculating Cronbach's Alpha reliability (0.63≤a≤0.82). Numerical Taxonomy, coefficient of variation and one sample T tests were used to analyze data. Data processing was done using MATLAB7.10 software. The findings of the current situation of of QL criteria showed that the studied villages had an inappropriate conditions in some aspects of QL such as property, education, community resources and satisfaction about eco-tourism situation. Moreover, the findings of numerical taxonomy showed that villages named Dowlatabad, Ferdows and Hosseinabad ranked first to third respectively and Gloueieh, Darrehbami and Dehnezam ranked last in terms of the QL. The overall results of this study showed that the QL is not in a good situation in the studied areas and spatial distribution of quality of life in the study areas is not in a balanced state.

So far, many technological solutions, like precision agriculture, offered to solve environmental challenges. But nowadays, ethical dimension has been added to other dimensions to protection of environment which shows the importance of attention to soft dimension beside hard dimensions in protection of environment. This research implemented for investigation of environmental moral norms among farmers in Shiraz County. In this study, survey technique and questionnaire instrument have been used to collect data from 272 farmers as a sample. Questionnaire validity was confirmed by agricultural extension and education experts, and its’ reliability was confirmed by pilot study and Cronbach’s Alpha. In this research, based on virtue theory, four types of environmental moral norms such as profit-centered orientation, water saving, taking responsibility and forecasting were investigated among farmers community. Results showed many farmers in spite of incidental acceptation of taking responsibility for consumers health, other organisms and biosphere, are following only their profits by excessive use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides and burning residuals. In other hand, many farmers in spite of incidental acceptation of future generation rights to use natural resources have a little forethought and practice unsustainable behaviors that can decrease future generation ability to use these resources. At the end, some suggestions recommended for farmers’ practical commitment to environmental moral norms.

Recognition and understanding of existing differences between regions potential for development levels in the agricultural sector are necessary for planning and appropriate decision making. The main purpose of study was to measure the level of agriculture development in the Western provinces of Iran (Hamedan, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Lorestan and Ilam) by using the Multi-Criteria Decision Technique. For this purpose, 33 different indicators in three groups of socio-structural, technological and services -infrastructure were defined. Their weights were determined by using the Entropy method. Then the development level of agricultural sector was determined by using TOPSIS, SAW and numerical taxonomy techniques and for final ranking agricultural development levels of provinces, the results of all three techniques were merged by using mean scores, Copland and Borda methods. Final results indicated the Hamedan and Kermanshah provinces have the highest level of agricultural development level and Lorestan, Ilam and Kurdistan provinces had lower level of development.

The energy reality constructed by farmers, whose connections with energy resources, the ways they perceive them and the kind of valuing the energy sources, all determine the modality of energy consumption in agriculture community. As a result, present study aims at simulating the greenhouse farmers’ energy consumption behavior in Yazd county. Research population consisted of all the greenhouse farmers raising cucumber in 2012-2013. from 2076 greenhouse farmers, 322 ones were selected in random stratified sampling. The human ecology and goal-based theories were theoretically base used to explain the interactions of greenhouse farmers with the energy resources. To analyze the data and simulate energy consumption scenarios, the software of SPSS (version 12) and Netlogo were used, respectively. It was found that after changing in the value of the predictor parameters of the behavioral intention, e.g., “environmental paradigm, “incentives of changing the energy use behavior and attitude” and “attitude towards the targeted energy subsidy plan”, the power-saving amounted to about 15% in greenhouse systems. Furthermore, by changing the life-time of appliances, the power-saving amounted between 57% and 77%. In order to optimize the energy consumption, paper recommends some practical solutions and implications.

Despite increasing attention to natural resources conservation, protection measures and polices have not been successful. As a result, water, soil, forest and natural habitats’ loss and degradation have increased during the last decades. These degradations of natural resources have raised serious concern. Some believe that the world is running out of natural resources. Also, there is an increasing awareness towards human interventions which inevitably contribute to intensified environmental destruction due to environment policies that grew from the technocratic utilitarianism. This approach considers the natural resources degradation as a part of the natural functioning of the nature and ignores the people-environment interaction. Sustainability is achieved if the conservation policies are considered in light of comtemporary conservation views. Contemporary natural resource management is expanding its focus as a result of the dynamic interchange between conservationists and local people. To attain this goal, it is imperative to pay adequate attention to the social-ecological integration in a systematic and inclusive manner, and understand the humanistic aspects of ecological adaptation. Therefore, the role of culture, values and attitudes in the process of planning, dissemination and implementation of conservation programs must be noticed.

The main purpose of this descriptive- correlative research was to study the effect of social capital on organizational performance of the Alborz Jihad-e-Agriculture organization. The study was a descriptive-correlational survey research. The statistical population of the study consisted of 272 experts of the Alborz Agriculture Jihad Organization. According to the Krejcie and Morgan table, a sample size of 213 was selected using a stratified random sampling method. Standard questionnaires were used to collect the data. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. 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 (SEM) multivariate technique. The results verified the hypothesis of the research in a way that social capital had positive and significant effect on dependent variable. All in all, social capital explained about 64 percent of the variances of organizational performance of the Alborz Agriculture Jihad Organization. Based on the findings, it could be concluded that reinforcing social capital directly results in improvement of organizational performance of the Agriculture Jihad Organizations.

The purpose of this survey study was to investigate factors affecting the possibility of using solar energy in agriculture as perceived by expert of Agriculture Jihad Organization Tehran province. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire with close-ended questions, which its validity was confirmed by a panel of exprts and its reliability by Cronbach's Alpha test (a=0.82-0.95). The target population in this research, includes the province agriculture experts (N=308). Then, 196 respondents were selected as statistical sample using Morgan’s table and stratified random sampling. The results indicate that there are positive and significant relationships among variebles including work background, economic, socio-cultural, and educational and research requirements with possibility of using solar energy in agriculture. Also, there is a positive and significant relationship between age and education level with possibility of using solar energy in agriculture. Stepwise regression analysis showed that economic requirements, research requirements, work background and educational requirements could explaine 33 percent of changes dependent variable.

One of the main constraints of potato production is the cost of seed potato tubers that accounts for 30-50 percent of production costs. From an economic point of view, the mini-tuber system of seed tuber production has a world wide important place in potato production. The aim of this survey study was to investigate factors influencing adoption of seed potato mini-tuber in Ardabil County. The statistical population of the study was potato growers who were familier with seed potato mini-tuber. A sample of 100 farmers was randomly selected and the data were collected from them. Questionnaire was the instrument of the study. It was validated by specialists and potato field experts. A pilot study was conducted using 30 farmers for reliability and the obtained Cronbach’s Alpha were between 0.77-0.87. Results revealed that higher yield was the main farmers’ reason for the adoption. On the contrary, more seed cost and lack of technical knowledge about mini-tuber cultivation were the main reasons for non-adoption, respectively. According to the results, adopters had more mechanized farms. The findings revealed that the number of parcels hold by a farmer, age of farmer and years of farming had a negative relationship with adoption. On the other hand, farm size, year of education and number of literate person in the farm household had a positive impact on adoption.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural television programs based on farmers’ perspective in Fars province and to distinguish its effective factors. This was an applied research using survey technique. The study population included 280,000 farmers in Fars province that 397 of them were selected as research sample group based on stratified random sampling method. Questionnaire was used for collection of data. Its validity was approved by an expert’s panel. In order to determine reliability, a pilot study was conducted, which revealed that the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for different scales used in the study to range from 0.6 to 0.95. Perse’s model was used to investigate effectiveness of provincial agricultural television programs. Findings revealed that low percent of farmers are as the programs audiences. According to the programs audiences, provincial agricultural television programs have been evaluated about medium level regarding direct, conditional and overall effects and they have been evaluated less than medium toward cumulative and cognitive effects. Variables that have had the most important roles in predicting audiences’ opinion toward effectiveness of the programs are: Satisfaction toward provincial television network; audiences’ goals to pay attention to programs; and trust in provincial programs. Findings revealed that among audiences’ agricultural information resources, television has the forth rank. Some applicable recommendations is presented at the end of article to enhance programs effectiveness and improve program attraction for audiences.

Recent droughts and consequently water scarcity and also mismanagement toward exploitation of water resources in Urmia Lake’s catchment area have caused numerous environmental problems. Pro-environmental analysis of farmers' participatory behavior toward conservation of surface water resources in southern part of Urmia Lake’s catchment area was the main purpose of this study. This study is a "descriptive and causal-correlative" research that was conducted using survey technique as a research method. The statistical population was farmers in southern part of Urmia Lake's catchment area (N= 23750) that 378 farmers were selected as a sample using Krejcie and Morgan sample size Table and stratified random sampling method. The research tool was a questionnaire which its validity confirmed by a panel of agricultural extension and education specialists and its items' reliability were confirmed using a pilot test and calculating Cronbach's Alpha test (0.70≤a≤0.90). One Way ANOVA analysis showed that there are a significant difference among three groups of farmers with biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic pro-environmental values regarding participatory behavior toward conservation of surface water resources and farmers who had biospheric and egoistic values had higher and lower participatory behavior respectively. Casual analysis results revealed that participation norms have the highest effect on farmers’ participatory behavior (b=0.583).

Agricultural water poverty, generally, means the scarcity of good quality of water for agriculture. Agricultural water poverty index (AWPI) through a combination of natural, physical, social, economic and institutional factors in agricultural context helps to analyze the agricultural water poverty of each place, according to its situation. This characteristic depends on its ability to take advantageous of appropriate weighting techniques by involving the viewpoints of important subjects regarding the issue. In line with this, using Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) a study was carried out to weighting the components and sub-components of the AWPI in Dezful County. A purposive sample including five agricultural water and soil experts, who showed high academic qualifications and practical experience in Agriculture Jihad Services Centers across Dezful, were selected. They were asked to complete the study questionnaire which contained several paired comparison matrices. The ANP model was constructed according to the original format of the AWPI, in which all the components (5 nodes), criteria (9 nodes) and sub-criteria (27 nodes) were analyzed and weighted using paired comparison. For analyzing of the data collected, Excel, Super Decisions and Expert Choice software were used. Results revealed that the ANP model compared with AHP one is more capable to analyze the Agricultural Water Poverty Index based on the region. In addition, among the effective sub-criteria, drainage system, fertilizer consumption and distances between water source and farm were the most important ones, respectively. On the other hand, upstream lands in water allocation and distribution, land leveling and attending water management classes demonstrated the lowest weight, and also the least important sub-criteria, respectively.