JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2016 | Volume:9 | Issue:3 (35)|Papers Count:7

The weak performance of the public extension system, and the financial crisis have caused many countries to seriously think about the privatization of agricultural extension. The aim of this study was to investigate dairy farmers› attitudes toward privatization of extension services. Sampling was stratified random sample with probability proportionate to the number of 300 was determined based on Cochran formula. To achieve this, the Logit model is used. In this research, the establishment and extension of educational services by public organizations is the highest priority from the perspective of farmers and private promotion We also showed better results in the government and in support of the action is in progress. The study of the relationship between personal qualities tend to privatize extension services with farmers indicate that farmers variables such as age, education, income, use of new technologies, the main occupation of livestock, extension services and the need to tend to promote promoting the privatization of a significant relationship exists.

This survey research was conducted to examine the factors affecting ecotourism development in Lavasan-e Kuchak Rural District. The statistical population included the experts of Tourism Organization, Municipality and County Seat of Lavasanat District. The data collection instruments consisted of a questionnaire which included personal and professional traits of the respondents, ecotourism development and seven factors including economy, infrastructure, policymaking, culture, geography and extensional-educational factors affecting ecotourism development. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a group of experts› opinions and its reliability was also determined by Cronbach›s alpha the value of which was above 0.7 for the main scales, which is acceptable. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 18. The results of Pearson correlation test showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between economic, infrastructural, policymaking, social and extensional-educational factors and ecotourism development in Lavasan-e Kuchak Rural District but there was no significant relationship between cultural, geographical and natural factors and ecotourism development. The results of stepwise regression also indicated that extensional-educational accounted for 63.9% of the variance of ecotourism development variable in Lavasan-e Kuchak Rural District. In this regard, some suggestions were given for ecotourism development in Lavasan.

Urban agriculture as the new strategy in the process of urban sustainable development and extension is one of the mechanisms of its development. Using efficient and capable manpower is essential for urban agricultural extension. The purpose of this study was to identify the competencies required for urban agriculture extension agents. Descriptive-survey method was used in this study. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of academic experts. Pre-test and calculating Cronbach›s alpha coefficients were used to measure the reliability (0.90). Extension agents in Zanjan province formed the population of the study (N=168) and samples were selected using stratified random sampling (n=91). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the competencies required for urban agriculture extension agents were summarized in seven factors including: extension and education planning skills, Innovative and entrepreneurial responsibility, capabilities in ICT and educational technology and urban communication skills, high legal- administrative knowledge, experience and knowledge in education and adult learning, positive attitude to urban agriculture with up to date experience and knowledge and scientific ethics worthy. These factors explained 76.91% of the total variance. Result of F test showed that the views of experts on the first and sixth factor were significant, but the rest were not significant.

One of the main purposes of providing credit facilities granted by agricultural bank is spending these credits facilities in the agricultural sector and improving production and job opportunities in this sector. With respect to this fact, we face with the questions of; how much the studied farmers have spent the credit facilities on the agricultural activities? what are the obstacles for not spending agricultural credit facilities in the agricultural sector? And what factors determine spending agricultural credits for creating job opportunities in the agricultural sector? This survey research was designed to answer these questions. The statistical population of this study was 205 farmers who had introduced to get loan from the Agricultural Bank by Jihad-keshavarzi organization in the Bushehr province in 1391. Random sampling was used for selecting 132 farmers. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Face validity was confirmed by panel of experts, and the questionnaires were subjected to reliability testing through a pilot study. Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was computed between 0.69 to 0.92. The finding showed that the most important obstacles for entrepreneurship among farmers were doing non-agriculture activities, inappropriate and complex laws and lack of necessary technical information. Also, the results revealed that using media to access information about job, membership in the organizations, communication with experts and age can predict the .entrepreneurship among farmers.

Living in rural areas tend to have less access to socio-economic services, so improving the quality of Life of rural communities is the ultimate goal of rural development projects or programs. The targeted subsidies law has been implemented in Iran by emphasis on establishing of Justice and social welfare, and also improving the quality of life for poor society layers. This descriptive analytical survey was aimed to study of socio-economic impact of targeted subsidies law on rural households’ of Urmia Township. The statistical population of the studied areas consisted of all the rural households in Urmia Township (N=71353). According to the Cochran formula, a sample size of 265 was selected using a multistage sampling technique (n=265). A questionnaire was used to collect the data required. The validity of the questionnaire used was confirmed by a panel of experts. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument used. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the main scales of the questionnaire was 0.7 to 0.93. The results revealed that the targeted subsidies law implementation has a significant positive effect on social (sig=0.000 and b=0.582) and economical (sig=0.000 and b=0.531) dimensions of the quality of life on rural households’ of Urmia Township, but its’ social effects has been more than economic effects. However, all the changes cannot be associated to targeted subsidies law implementation uncertainly, because, the quality of life conditions and factors are very diverse and numerous.

The main purpose of this descriptive-correlation research was to evaluate the effect of components of intellectual capital on entrepreneurship, Organization of Jahad-e- Agriculture of Kermanshah Township. The study population included all employees of Organization of Jahad-e- Agriculture of Kermanshah Township (N=104) by using Morgan table, that 86 of them were selected as research sample by using random simple sampling method. Data were collected by standard questionnaire which its validity by experts’ poll and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach›s alpha coefficient. In order to analyze the data from the Spsswin20 Software was used. The results of correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between the components of intellectual capital and organizational entrepreneurship. Based on the results of Enter multiple regression analysis method, 32 percent of the entrepreneurial variance by two components of intellectual capital including human capital and structural capital, is predictable. About the impact of intellectual capital components was found greatest impact on entrepreneurship is structural components.