Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Research
Year:2015 | Volume:46 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:22

Food security is the first element for people's health in the society, for they can play their role in development of policy, economy, society and culture. Therefore checking a society's food security and determination of effective factors on it to offer political solutions for improvement of nutrition and food of low income families is essential. In the recent study by using the Expenditure-Income Information of family and the usage of logistics model, the effective factors on food security of urban and rural families were distinguished. The results showed that in both urban and rural model, the variables such as number of family members, educated members, and being studying of family head has a negative and significant effect on food security. Although in rural model upper education leads to increasing the information of family head about the quality of food and the status of food security but this factor in urban model has negative effect on food security. Income elasticity in urban families is (0. 03) less than the rural model (0. 102) that this shows the security and placement of political income in rural places for the support of low income families and improving of their food condition. In cities it is shown that by improving the food knowledge and by using food stuffs correctly we get that these things are more important than the increase of their salary. Although checking the agricultural income shows the importance of this element in villages was more than cities and includes the important part of guarantee of rural families' food security.

The purpose of this study was to investigate relation between learning style, personality traits and academic performance among students of University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. All the students of the university college of agriculture in the university of Tehran were (N= 3859). Out of them 297 students were selected through Proportional Stratified-randomization method (n=297). The instruments of research were standard inventories, Kolb Learning Style (LSI) and personality traits (NEO-FFI), a wide variety of researches confirm the validity of it and Cranach's Alpha computed to measure reliability of the items of learning style and personality traits that it was between 0. 73 and 0. 93. Data is analyzed by SPSS: win program. According to research, there is significant correlation between learning style, personality traits and academic performance. The result of the regression indicates that openness to experiences, concrete experience and active experimentation had the most effect on academic performance respectively.

The main purpose of this survey study was to analysis of Cherry Producers' difficulties in production, marketing and accessing extension services in Khomeinishahr county. The statistical population of this study consisted of 200 Cherry producers of Khomeinishahr that 70 of them were chosen as statistical sample by applying simple random sampling and Cochran formula. The data were collected by questionnaire which its face and content validity was approved by a panel of experts. To measure the reliability of the questionnaire Cronbach's alpha coefficient was applied which for the production, marketing and extension and education parts was respectively, 0. 79, 0. 81, 0. 71 that showed that research instrument was appropriate. Questionnaire was designed in two parts. The first part addressed personal and professional characteristics of farmers and the second, barriers and difficulties of cultivation and production, marketing and extension and education of cherry. SPSS software was used to analyze the gathered data. Based on the results of prioritization, Lack of technical skills in producing, intermediaries in the supply of cherry and disaffiliation of family members in various production steps were most significant Barriers of production, marketing, extension and education of cherry production in farmers opinion.

Nowadays Agricultural productive systems With the use of modern technology to produce transgenic crops have attempt to supply the additional needs of food in the word, but despite of the importance of this crops in improvement of food security and access to sustainable development, their reception is still disputed. In this way, the main purpose of this study was investigating the factors affecting consumer attitude towards GM crops in Qazvin County. The statistical population of this study consists of all consumers of GM food crops in Qazvin County that 239 person were selected by available sample method for the study. The main instrument of this study was questionnaire that it’ s validity confirmed by panel of experts and its reliability confirmed by calculating of Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0. 92). Collected data were analyzed by SPSSWin21 and LISREL8. 80 software. The measurement model of the attitude toward GM food crops, were confirmed by the confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that most respondents' attitudes towards GM food crops were in the neutral range and people were handled with GM crops like the other products. The result of mean comparison indicated that there is significant difference between respondents' attitudes towards GM food crops base on research variable such as sex, marital status, employment status and residence. Moreover, the result of stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that " buying Organic food", "trust in institutions", "knowledge about GM crops", "reading food labels", "annual income" and "age" are variables that can explain 84. 6 % of the variance of dependent variable (attitudes towards GM food crops). The findings of this study will have application for policymakers to promote the development of GM food crops in the country.

The country of Iran, with an average annual rainfall of less than one-third of the world average, is located in arid and semiarid regions and has always been prone to drought conditions and also is confronted every few years with it. The overall aim of this qualitative study, carried out by phenomenological method, was conducted to investigate the views of farmers and drought identifies behaviors in dealing with it. In this study, the rural society of Sarpol-e-zehab as most experienced drought, were chosen. Notified cases were identified using a snowball. Data from this study were collected using in-depth interviews and direct observation beside the use of photographs, internet and libraries. Data analysis was based on collaizzi pattern. Based on the results, farmers' perceptions of drought were different, as a kind of fatalism, some participants attributed the drought to God and others believed that climate change causes by drought. It was found that some of the participants introduced their behaviors drought agent. According to the farmers drought has been caused for their own behavior and their own abuse and cruelty to each other and their attitude. Some other look at drought as a reflect of their bad chance. Therefore, it is recommended that measures be taken with classes the necessary training and provide training and transfer of knowledge to farmers about the causes and management of drought.

Food Industry has an important impact on domestic economy and food security. Moreover, food export can have a significant impact on non-oil exports. So, this study aims to identify and prioritization of factors affecting the export of food industry products in Khorasan Razavi province. For this purpose, based on experts’ views and review of previous studies, the factors were classified into five main groups; macro economic, business and market, technical, financial and credit and the exchange process factors. Then, interviewed with sixty experts and after that the Fuzzy Delphi method was used for prioritization of these factors. The results showed that the stability of exchange rates, international trade, marketing and research and development (R&D), banking facilities, sanitary regulations and quality standards, have the highest priorities in each groups.

Meat has always been one of the most important commodities for Iranian households, and most of the times have had the largest households’ budget share among the goods and beverages groups. This study aims to estimate and forecast the seasonal price of meats in Iran. To address this aim, we used seasonal data of chicken, beef and lamb for the period of 1998-2011. In this context, first HEGY test was applied to check the seasonal unit root, then Fanses & Paap’ s periodic unit root test and Boswijk & Franses’ s seasonal periodic behavior test were used. Results indicated that periodic autoregressive model of order one [PAR(1)] is the best fit for chicken price forecasts. The seasonal unit root test for beef and lamb also gives that they follow autoregressive moving average patterns; therefore ARIMA model is a suitable model to forecast the prices of these commodities.

Today climate change is one of the most important environmental challenges of 21 century that cause serious economic consequences. This study has been done due to important of climate change and its effect on agricultural sector with purpose of investigating the effect of climate variables on land rent in Golestan province by using Ricardian approach and panel data at 1981 to 2011. Thus, temperature, precipitation and production cost data have been used. The results of Ricardian model show that temperature and precipitation variables have a negative and a positive effect on agricultural rent, respectively. In other words with increase 17. 25° C of temperature, rent of agricultural land have been reduced and with increase 259. 72 mm of precipitation, rent of agricultural land have been increase. Also the results of different scenarios during past years show that climate change had negative effect and decrease 38 percent rent of products in future. According these results, development of new varieties and new hybrids of resistant products and improve of water resources management to tackle the problem of water shortage, risk of temperature changes and other weather conditions have been suggested.

Extension productivity as a process are combined of efficiency, effectiveness, intellectual orientation and attention to the standard quality levels for the system that have to be consider its goal in obtaining maximum benefits and potentials regarding to current resources and facilities. Such organized process requires an extensive awareness from all effective factors in productivity improvement and increase from which the achieved results can be available for planners, policy-makers and administrators. The purpose of this causal-correlative study was to investigate affecting factors of apicultural extension productivity in Caspian zone, Iran by applying path analysis. Research population was all beekeepers of Caspian zone (5273 people) that out of which, 315 beekeepers were selected through stratified random sampling method. The research tool included a questionnaire that validity of which was confirmed by a group of professionals. A pilot study was conducted during the Cronbach's alpha test which was calculated to determinate the reliability of data collection instrument and was found to be in acceptable range from 0. 68 to 0. 81. Results showed that age of beekeepers, had a negative effect and use of audio-visual equipment, personal communication channels; apiary area and adoption of innovations have a positive effect on apicultural extension productivity. Also two variables of beekeeper’ s age and apiary area affect the apicultural extension productivity directly and indirectly by influencing on the use of audio-visual equipment, personal communication channels and adoption of innovations. In this analysis, beekeeper’ s age and adoption of innovations had minimum and maximum direct effects respectively on apicultural extension productivity. Also, Beekeeper’ s age had maximum indirect effect. Based on the findings, some executive recommendations have been presented at the end of the article.

Current research aims to measure inter-provincial efficiency by balance model under agricultural policies to reduce chemical inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) for wheat and barley crops. Therefore data for wheat and barley related inputs such: land, seed, fertilizer (nitrate, phosphate and other fertilizer), pesticides (insecticide, herbicide and fungicide) and yield was collected through office of statistical and information, affiliated to the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad in cropping year 2008-2009. Using basic CCR model (disregarding strategic policies), balance model (considering strategic policies) and balance factor (ratio of score extracted from current two models) the provincial efficiency was calculated. The results showed that despite some deprived provinces (Eilam, Bushehr, Lorestan, Charmohal & Bakhtiari and Khozestan) attain high score in balance factor but they have been in low level of efficacy because of considering agricultural sustainable development macro policies. While some developed province (Tehran, Qom, Esfahan, Mazandaran and Markazi) have favorite situation in efficiency score but weak score in balance score. This implies that these provinces couldn’ t reflect on agro-environmental macro policies.

This study Investigates challenges facing extension services concerning interaction with other AKIS1 actors from agricultural extension specialists` point of view. The research design for this study employed a survey method. Though Krejcie and Morgan simply size table and 103 specialists were purposive selected as a sample out of 140 agricultural extension specialists in Iran and finally 90 questionnaires was collected. A questionnaire was used to collect data concerning interactive challenges of extension services with other six AKIS actors namely research sector, education sector, farmers, policy makers, private sector and farmers organization. Specialists` interaction with other related sub-systems was also investigated. Content and face validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by a panel of experts consisting of agricultural extension and education specialists. Questionnaire reliability was estimated by calculating Cronbach’ s alpha. The overall Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient for the instrument was 0. 95. Results of this study revealed that interactive challenges of extension services were as follow respectively; interaction with policy makers, research centers, farmers, education sector, farmers’ organization and privet sector. Findings showed that major challenges facing extension services in interaction with other intended actors in this study were; lack of guaranteed sanction by policy-makers in reflection the problems facing farmers through extension agents, reluctance of researchers and extension agents to cooperate with each other, disproportion ratio of extension agents and farmers, and inadequate experiences of private sector in providing extension services. Findings revealed that there was no significant difference between perceptions of agricultural extension faculty members, ministerial senior managers of deputy of agricultural extension and education and Ph. D. Student regarding interactive challenges of agricultural extension services with other AKIS actors.

The present study was conducted to analyzing integration of sustainability concepts into approved outlines of compulsory specialized courses in the six agricultural disciplines in the last 20 years using mix content analysis method. Population in this analysis was all of the approved outlines of compulsory specialized courses of agricultural disciplines at the agricultural and natural resources college of university of Tehran in during 1370-90. The samples were disciplines that 1365's and 1383's outlines were available simultaneously. Therefore, 191 courses have been analyzed. The results indicated the low mean of the integration level of sustainability categories in analyzed disciplines. Environmental sustainability category has allocated the highest level of integration to itself with 3. 41 percent among other categories. Hence, content of compulsory courses of analyzed disciplines have been trended toward environmental category. In addition, institutional, social and economic categories priorities have been the second to fourth respectively in integration level of sustainability concepts.

The purpose of this study was to assessing components of Information seeking behavior of agricultural graduate students and factors associated with this behavior in University of Zanjan. Agricultural graduate students of Zanjan University formed the statistical population of this descriptive correlational study (N =250). The sample was estimated using Cochran's formula (n=80) and stratified random sampling method used for selecting samples. The questionnaire used for collecting data. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by feedback of related faculty members. A pilot test was conducted to deter mine the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was estimate between 0. 71-0. 87). Results showed that the most incentive of students from information seeking are conducting research, updating and maintaining up to date in their field study. Conference proceedings, Indexes, reference books and the magazines include the most used source of information from viewpoint of students. Being authentic source, listed in the ISI and ISC indexes are the most important measure of resources from viewpoint of students Inclusion in ISI and ISC indexes. General search engines, free web sites, e-resources and personal efforts are most important channels of information seeking. Using factor analysis, problems of access to information summarized in six factors including Internet and computer service problems, limitations of accessing to the resources, the high costs of data bases sharing and communication problems, lower levels of research skills, computer hardware and software issues and problems of university facilities. These factors explained 36/60% of the total variance problems of access to information.

In order to evaluate Effects of Elimination Subsidies of Agricultural Inputs such as fertilizers, toxin and energy on Crop Cultivation Pattern is used the approach of Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) with Maximum Entropy techniques. Tehran province has 19% of the country's population and 40% of the market provided, it is politically, and sociality a good sample to examine the effect of elimination of agricultural inputs. PMP methodology based on simulated data base year (crop year 1389-90) changes in acreage products. Policy limits are expressed in terms of four scenarios and the results indicate that acreage of cotton products, Onion, Cucumber and Melons are sensitive to changes of input prices rather than the other crops Corn, wheat and alfalfa also show little sensitivity to changes of prices.

Information in agriculture and rural development is the most important element for Improving efficiency and effectiveness of other production and development resources. Jahad-e-Keshavarzi’ experts and Agricultural Engineering and Technical Consulting Services’ Experts are one of the important elements in informing farmers and improving agricultural productivity. So they should have sufficient updated information on agricultural activities. The purpose of this study is to investigation of effective factors on Information Seeking Behavior of Jahad-e-Keshavarzi and Agricultural Engineering and Technical Consulting Services’ Experts in Meshginshahr Township. A descriptive-correlation survey approach is applied in this study. Sample for this study was selected based on random sampling and Cochran formula of the population of research (n=100). The results showed that the main motivation of participants for seeking information was their interest to job promotion. The top three mostly used information sources by experts were "Persian books", "scientific technical reports", and "Internet Websites". Regarding communication channels: In-service training courses, office library and "TV" were three top communication channels. "Lack of time flexibility for doing job tasks" was the main barrier to seeking information. Also, there were significant positive relationships between motivations for seeking career information, the extent of use of channels and sources, job satisfaction of experts and “ their information behavior” .

An important feature of agriculture is the high level of production, market and financial risks faced by farmers. There are different policies, programs and measures that contribute to the reduction of these risks. The farmers prefer programs that reduce the income risk and increase the income level. Crop insurance is one of the best these programs. The purpose is to determine the best option of Pistachio supplemental insurance from the perspective of Pistachio Growers in Rafsanjan district. Therefore, net income per hectar for different options was simulated and the best option was determined according to stochastic dominance criteria. Six years data of price, yield, production cost per hectar, premium and compensation per hectar were used for this analysis. The results showed that three options of Pistachio supplemental insurance exhibited first degree stochastic dominance over the refusal of insurance and results of stochastic dominance with respect to a function indicated that for risk aversion less Pistachio Growers, the third option but at risk aversion greater, the second option is the best option.

With regard to the role of agricultural production cooperatives are in improving the system of interest-taking, increased income, employment, provision of basic necessities and equal distribution facilities, necessary to the function of these companies be carefully evaluated. Therefore, the present study aimed at identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats agricultural production cooperatives have been done. Method of study is descriptive-survey. Data from questionnaires and interviews collected in 2013. The data were analyzed using the SWOT matrix. According to the results, 9 strengths against 15 internal weaknesses and 17 external opportunities against 7 external threats identify and investigate. A total of 26 strengths and opportunities as advantage and 22 weaknesses and threats as constraint and bottleneck agricultural production cooperatives are facing. Therefore success threshold of cooperative was high and the provision of appropriate strategies and use of strengths and opportunities in order to overcome the weaknesses and threats can be added to the success of cooperatives.

In the beginning of the 2000s, the curriculum of Agricultural Extension and Education undergraduate program has been revised. Toward decreasing its inefficiency agricultural minor courses has been added to the curriculum. After a decade of implementing the curriculum, its quality is questionable. In this regards, this study was undertaken to assess the quality of Agricultural Extension and Education' minor courses in Khuzestan Ramin University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Regarding data collection this study was a quantitative and descriptive– survey based. All 120 B. A. graduates of Agricultural Extension and Education course at the University in three consecutive periods were considered as the statistical population (N=120). From which 92 graduates were selected randomly as a sample based on Krejcie and Morgan's table. Researcher-made questionnaire consisting of two main constructs of quality was based on the World Bank's two main elements of definition of quality: "Learning outcomes" and "Learning environment" which were measured using the five point Likert scale. The results stated that most participants tend to prefer to have name of their course on their final certificate and in their opinion the subjects were useful. The respondents also assessed the variable of learning environment at an undesirable level and the variable of learning outcomes and the quality of the subjects at a desirable level. They also found that the faculty members of other courses did not have a positive outlook towards students of Agricultural Extension and Education course. They also declared that agricultural promotion and training course at the present state cannot prepare students to enter the job market. The type of subject selection for the course and the type of family activities presented a significance difference between the main research variables.

Agricultural sector is one of the most important economic sectors in Southern Khorasan province and due to climatic constraints requires strong organizational structure for suitable policy and planning. Organizational effectiveness requires motivated and mental health employees to perform their duties. Job burnout has adverse outcomes for the organization and must take measures to control it. The first step should be to examine the prevalence and factors affecting this phenomenon. The main purpose of this study was survey burnout of Southern Khorasan Agricultural Jahad Organization’ s employees using job demand-control-social support model. The sample of study consisted of 122 employees of Southern Khorasan Agricultural jahad Organization. The questionnaire validity confirmed using expert opinion and Cronbach's alpha coefficient for job demand, job control, coworker support, supervisor support and job burnout were 0. 74, 0. 82, 0. 77, 0. 80 and 0. 78 respectively. Results of the study showed that there was significant relationship between burnout and job demand, job control and social support. The results of hierarchical regression showed that just job demands and work experience have able to predict 30. 4% of changes on job burnout and job control and social support are not moderated the effects Job demands. At the end, to reduce of job burnout suggested creates social structures and networks, and more interaction with the staff director and definition of appropriate mechanisms in order to give control to the employees.

Setting the price of water equal to its economic value has important role in the management of water demand, especially in the recent water crisis. One of the main components in determining economic value of water is the price of the product. Therefore, it is important to adopt precise supportive policies on pricing the product. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to analysis the effect of guaranteed price policy for sugar beet on the real value of water and its optimal allocation in Neyshabur. To this end, at the first, the appropriate functional form conformed to the production technology of the sugar beet was selected based on econometric criteria and using information about 95 farmers in the year 2011 which were selected by two stage sampling method and marginal productivity of water was calculated. Then, the economic value of water was analyzed in several scenarios considering different guaranteed prices. The results show that the best functional form for the production function is Translog function and economic value of water based on 2011 price was estimated1430. 5 Rails per cubic meters which has major difference with the farmers paying price. Moreover, the results indicate that imposing different guaranteed prices for sugar beet will lead to significant differences in the economic value of water. So, for improving efficiency of water use, guaranteed price of agricultural products should be determined with more caution so as to reflect the real value of water for preventing wastage of it.

In this study, the relationship between environmental quality and trade liberalization in developed and developing countries during the years 1990-2013 were examined. in this context the two indicators of carbon dioxide emissions (air pollution) and organic materials (water pollutions) was used to demonstrate the quality of the environment. The results of modeling the combined data for the two groups of developing and developed countries, showed that the long term relationship between variable quality of the environment and trade liberalization. Also, there is an environmental Kuznets curve for both types of pollution to air pollution in developed countries and developing countries was approved. On the other hand, the results showed the absence of water pollution in developing countries is the graph above.

Reduced rainfall and consequently reduce agricultural water resources the use of technologies that could Influence on water consumption It is essential. This study was conducted to investigate role of extension factors in the adoption of water conservation technologies in Semnan province. The methodological approach in this research was a causal-regression and applied survey. Independent variable included extension methods and dependent variable was adoption rate of water conservation technologies by farmers in the Semnan province. The statistical population of about 14, 000 farmers in the Semnan province in which the city settled quartiles based on Cochran's formula was used to determine sample, n= 215 but For more correct, this number rose to 220 and 212 analyzable questionnaires were checked. In conclusion, these factors totally explained 54. 2 percent of the adoption. Collaborative-facilitated methods were explained 16. 4 percent of variance related to water conservation technologies. Using of technologies in exhibitive farms and distribution of video films included 25. 3 of the variance, two variables of technology adoption by farmers and training samples (7. 7%) explained and finally in the fourth step, the two variables through the use of technology consulting careers with advocacy and education consulting (4. 8%) were in the process.