JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2017 | Volume:10 | Issue:1 (37)|Papers Count:8

The current drought in Esfahan Township and damages incurred on agricultural sector clearly indicate that vulnerability among farmers is increasing. However, limited attention has been paid to drought mitigation and preparedness across the affected area. Therefore, it is imperative to study vulnerable group which is the bench mark in drought risk management the predictors of vulnerability among farmers in Isfahan Township. In this study used survey research design and data was collected from 275 wheat farmers using multistage stratified sampling through questionnaire and personal interview with farmers whom has experienced drought. Farmers' vulnerability was determined using Mebar & Valdez (2005). Results revealed that farmers in Jarghooyeh Olya had the highest vulnerability (3.77) and farmers in Bon Rood had the lowest vulnerability (3.32). Results of this study have implications for policy makers in distributing resources to farmers with high vulnerability. Innovation of this paper is to quantify the vulnerability of rural communities using formula and the ranking these communities based on the vulnerability. Thus vulnerability assessment could be basic to the allocation of resources and funds.

The current study aimed to analyze the role of economic and extension factors affecting the success and continuation of activities of plant clinics in the south of Tehran province. The population of study was the farmers in the south of Tehran province (N = 13222). The sample size of 209 was chosen by Bartlett et al., (2001) among which 191 of them was useable. The data were collected using a questionnaire and the data analysis was performed utilizing SPSs20 and AMOS20 softwares. The descriptive result showed that 73.3 % of respondents evaluated the continuation of activities and 50.3% the success of plant medical clinics in a moderate level. Also the result indicated that the variables of information resources, participation in extension workshops and economic factors had a positive and significant effect on the success and continuation of activities of plat medical clinics in the south of Tehran province. In addition, the result of testing the mediation effect of plant clinics success showed that the indirect effect of information resources, participation in extension workshops and economic factors through the plant medical clinics success on continuation of activities of these clinics was significant.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and skills acquired by employees' and capability of trainers of in-service training in Agricultural Jihad Organization of the Markazi province. A Kirkpatrick's model was used based on the first and second levels. In evaluating the various aspects of the program review, but due to the breadth of content in this article only acquired the knowledge and skills of employees and the ability of teachers training courses have been investigated. This study is a combination of exploratory and applied research is conducted. Employees participating in training courses Agricultural Jihad Organization of Markazi province, target population, respectively. The sample using stratified random sampling of 173 people. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires made via one sample t test, t-test, ANOVA and Spearman correlation coefficient were analyzed using SPSS software. Based on the findings, the quality of educational courses in components increase the knowledge and skills acquired capability of employees and the quality of teachers is relatively desirable. Among demographic factors have not been any impact.

Entrepreneur University of Agriculture and rural (EUAR) is an important institution for economic development and effective social change. Poor conditions in employment of agricultural graduates indicate a distant in the current situation of country's universities and entrepreneurial university. The purpose of this research was to identifying barriers to establishment of EUAR in Iran. Grounded theory methodology was used in this study. Information in this study collected by using semi-structured interviews with a sample of 37 members of academic staff in faculties and Universities of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Content analysis of interviews showed; 149 phrases in connection with the barriers to establishment of EUAR were extracted. List of these phrases regard to concept affinity and hierarchy coding in grounded theory grouped in 17 concepts and three categories as follows: Human, inhuman and strategic and infrastructure barriers. The results also showed that the most important obstacles in establishment of EUAR are »strategic infrastructure« and »communication« barriers.

In recent years, it have seen that graduated students are seriously interested in creating businesses independently. So the need for entrepreneurs graduated students has increased. The aim of many prestigious universities of the world is to develop the entrepreneurs graduates and students. This study sought to investigate the factors affecting the entrepreneurial skills of agricultural students in Technical and Vocational University of Tehran. The statistical population is comprised of 992 agricultural students that are educating in three Thechnical-Agricultural colleges (Shahriar-Damavnd & Pakdasht). By using Cochran formula 277 students were selected through a stratified random sampling method in 3 colleges. The data collection instrument was questionnaire survey which it s' validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed in the interval 0.73-0.88 by Chronbach Alpha Coefficient. The results of multiple regression indicate that variables: personality factors, Training methods, educational content and management factors have explained 65.6 percent of the changes in dependent variable. The finding of Path analysis showed that the most direct effect is related to educational content(P=0.632) and the most indirect effect is related to management factors(P=0.184), Also variables: Educational content, Personality factors and Training methods have the most effect on entrepreneurial skills.

The study was performed in the form of survey, aimed at explaining barriers to develop agriculture in the Rostam County (Fars Province). The statistical population of the study was composed of all farmers at the intended area. For this purpose, the number of households in villages with more than 20 households (10 villages), was counted (672 households). Then, 220 households were determined as sample based on Krejcie and Morgan sample size table and distributed among selected villages proportionally. In this study, the main tool for data collection was a questionnaire. The accuracy of indices and variables in the questionnaire (face validity) was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was approved by calculating Cronbach's alpha (a=0.83). Factor analysis was used to analyze the data. The KMO test and Bartlett statistics were considered for measuring internal consistency of items. Results suggested that the internal consistency of items is suitable for using factorial analysis technique (KMO=0.706) and Bartlett statistics was significant (p=0.001). Regarding Keiser criteria, 10 factors with Eigen-values greater than 1 were extracted in this study. They explained 58.491% of variance for total factors. Accordingly, 10 factors entitled; economic, social, facility, water, training-primitive, organizational-managerial, capital, planning, participatory and technical were recognized as the barriers to develop agriculture, neglecting which could jeopardize the future of agriculture in this area. Finally, regarding the results of this study, some recommendations have been provided to overcome the barriers to develop agriculture.