JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2012 | Volume:5 | Issue:1 (17)|Papers Count:8

The main purpose of this research was to examine the role of agricultural extension in application of integrated crop management (ICM) by the farmers in Karaj City. Research is applied and statistical population of the study consisted of farmers who participated in ICM classes (N=5647) and 295 of them selected through a simple random sampling method. Validity (Face validity) was obtained by Jihad-e-Agriculture experts of Karaj City and panel of faculty members of agricultural extension and education. To measure reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s Alpha formula calculated (at greater than 0.94). Regression analysis indicated that about 67 percent of the variation in the role of the agricultural extension in application of ICM by the farmers in Karaj City could be explained by variables of participation in extension training classes, effectiveness of training classes in increasing knowledge of farmers, contact with extension agent, effectiveness of training classes in improving farmer's skill and amount of land under cultivation.

The major purpose of this study was to examine affective factors in utilization of bank credits in under pressure irrigation projects in the Esfahan Province. The research was applied and descriptive/correlative and causal correlation methods were used. The Total population consisted of 100 farmers who utilized under pressure irrigation system by using bank credits. Regression analysis results of this study show that requirement for installation of pressure systems, the amount of water in the area, social consequences, disadvantages of installing these systems and the number of plots could explain 48.3 percent of perception of respondents about utilization of under pressure irrigation systems.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of farmers field advisors in wheat self-sufficiency plan in Dehloran Township of Ilam Province. This research was done through descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of this study was wheat farmers of Dhloran Township who participated in wheat self-sufficiency plan and sample consisted 354 respondents. The data collected by using questionnaire. The results showed that field advisors have helped farmers to enhance farmer's technical knowledge, feedback the problems of farmers to related agencies and increasing knowledge about principle of farming.

The present research aims at comparing the effectiveness of environment teaching on students' achievement in the fields of knowledge, concepts applying, and mental durability based on multiple intelligence theory and traditional approach. The research method is a semi- experimental plan with a control group along with a pre-test and a post-test. Counting all students, two groups, each 23, were selected among the statistical population of boys' high schools in Tehran as treatment and control groups and then they were appointed as randomly classified. Then, selected concepts of environment were taught to each group in each of the above cited approaches and at last a post-test was conducted in two times. The analysis of the data was done applying SPSS software and an independent-groups t-test was used to test the research hypothesis. The results showed that in the questions of knowledge level of the post-test, there was no significant difference between the treatment and control groups while in the field of applying concepts and mental durability, a meaningful difference was observed. Therefore, based on the findings of this research, teaching of environment based on multiple intelligence theory has a higher effectiveness on the students' ability to apply concepts and their mental durability than traditional approach. In the field of knowledge, both approaches act similarly.

The main purpose of this study was to compare the perception of rural farmers in Kangavar about effectiveness of extension/education methods in transferring new agricultural knowledge and information. Survey method was used to collect the data. The total population included all farmers in Kangavar and based on Morgan & Jeresy table, 354 people were chosen through using stratified sampling. The validity was confirmed by experts and faculty member and by using Cronbach alpha, its reliability was determined (0.79) by agricultural education and extension expert and Faculty members. The results showed that rural woman indicated demonstration methods, discussion and result methods were the most effective methods, while rural men considered field visits, result demonstrations and extension visits were the most effective methods respectively. The result of Man Whitney test shows that there were meaningful differences between perception rural men and women about effectiveness of lecturing, Filed visits, extension visits, demonstration methods and visit to extension offices.

This study is based on the feasibility of using e-marketing in rice trade in the city of Rasht. Sixty eight rural ICT managers, fifty seven agricultural experts and 367 rice farmers out of 90000 farmers population have been selected by using Cochran formula. This research was applied type and descriptive method was used. Three questionnaires were designed to collect the data with using Likert scale. The Kruskal-Wallis, T, and Mann-Whitney U Tests have been used to identify the affective factors on e-marketing and compared the opinion of different groups. The result of research showed that nearly 80% of ICT office managers and 68% of farmers had high tendency toward using rice e-marketing and more than 70% of respondents chose rural ICT offices for rice e-marketing. Finally, the result of research presents 2 models. The first model is about trade between farmers and consumers with using catalog and second model trade between rural ICT office and consumers with method as brokerage.

In this study, in order to anticipate the whole sale price for one day old fleshy chicken in Iran, for time horizon of the future one, three and six months, artificial neural network method and Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average were used. The required data for a period from April, 2001 up to March, 2009 was received monthly by trade union of one day old fleshy chicken producers. Data of a period from April, 2001 up to March, 2009 was used to compare the methods and data of the last six months was used to study the anticipation power. In order to compare the anticipation error of these two methods, Mean Error, Mean Absolute Error, Mean Square Error and Mean Absolute Percent error were utilized. Study results showed that artificial neural network has lower error to anticipate the price for one day old fleshy chicken in time horizons of the future one, three and six months and it is meaningfully more precise than Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the affective factors in optimizing water resources management in agricultural sector of Iran. The total population was 350 farmers in Khuzestan, Zanjan, Ghazvin, Ilam, Yazd and Tehran Provinces in Iran in 2009.Structural equation model was used and the results show that 37 percent of variance on the perception of respondents was explained by governmental activities, personal and physical characteristic, extension services and management mechanisms.