JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2011 | Volume:4 | Issue:1 (13)|Papers Count:12

This present research dealt with studying the effectiveness of educational and extensional activities in promoting the level of knowledge of the members of agricultural production cooperatives in Semnan Province. This research is an applied one which was conducted in a causual/correlative method. The total population is consisted of 3367 members of agricultural production cooperatives who had attended in the educational and agricultural courses and 209 members were selected based of random sampling method. The data was collected by using questionnaire and its validity was confirmed by experts and faculty members. The reliability of questionnaire was measured by using cronbach alpha coefficient and data was analyzed by SPSS-16. Resulted gained from Spearman coefficient correlation showed that there was a significant relationship among variables including main occupations, consulting the agricultural experts, visiting a sample cooperative, watching educational videos and films, contacting the agricultural extension agents, scientific trips, participating in educational and training workshops, reading agricultural publications and magazines, taking part in agricultural extension and research plans, educational contents, the abilities and capabilities of instructors, educational technologies, human resource development and members' participating in planning and implementing programs along with the effectiveness of educational and agricultural extension activities. The result of stepwise regression analysis shows that the developmental role of agricultural extension, educational resources, educational method, and crop-production stages explained 53.8 percent of changes on the dependent variable of knowledge level.

The current research was conducted to compare master students' views about developing entrepreneurship in agricultural higher agricultural education. The population of the study consisted of 1425 master students studying in three agricultural colleges of Tehran province in 2008-9 educational years and 260 students were selected as sample of study by using stratified sampling method. The data of study was collected by a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was established through calculating Cronbach Alpha coefficient, as estimated to be 84%. Based on findings of the research, male and female students, single and married students, students who study in different fields of agriculture, and also students of different colleges have the same attitude toward developing entrepreneurship in agricultural higher education.Meanwhile, there is a significant different between students' views who studied in different fields in high school, and students' views who have different occupational status.Furthermore, comparison of entrepreneurial characteristics of students and their attitudes toward training methods influenced the development of entrepreneurship.

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) is one of the recent solutions in order to achieve sustainable development proposed by international organizations such as FAO. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the barriers in application of GAP standard in agricultural sector of Iran. It was an applied type research and the main instrument which used in this survey was questionnaire. Population of the study consisted of 60 experts, because of small population a census was conducted and finally 50 questionnaires were analyzed. Validity of the instrument was established by faculty members in agricultural extension and education department, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch. A reliability analysis was conducted, Cronbach's Alpha value being reported to be 93 Percent. In this research, six latent factors structural- organizational barriers, attitude and lack of producers’ and consumers' awareness barriers, research barriers, economic barriers, trade and marketing barriers, barriers related to the private sector and mass media explained 58.44 percent of variance.

This study examines the law of one price in three Iranian agricultural product markets (Barley, Rice and Cotton) using monthly data of domestic and world prices for the period of 1370-1387. The modern time series econometric analysis methods including co integration and error correction model was used by researchers. Main results confirm existence of long- term relation between domestic and world prices for barley and rice but there was no evidence of long term relation in the case of cotton. Controls imposed by government might be the main reason for this situation. The results of estimated error correction model in barley market shows that at 0.3 percent of disequilibrium will be corrected through each period, but the rice market doesn’t show any significant tendency to equilibrium. Monitoring of world rice and barley markets and adoption of appropriate trade policies in order to reduce the sensitivity of domestic prices to world price changes are main recommendations of this study.

The purpose of this research was predicting adoption behavior of vegetable producers regarding sustainable strategies of weed controls in Shoushtar township. Total population in the study included all vegetable producers in Shoushtar township (N= 1100). A random sample of farmers was selected based on Krejcie and Morgan table (n= 285). The sampling method of this research was random cluster sampling. To test the validity of questionnaire, panel of experts was used. Reliability of evidence was examined by 30 respondents and amount of Cronbach Alpha of each item higher than 0.70 was determined. The type of research was applied research and research method was correlative/descriptive. The main results of the research indicated that 49.7 percent of farmers had unsustainable system regarding weed management. By stepwise discriminant analysis was determined the technical knowledge, social participation, amount of watershed lands and type of ownership system explained 68.8 percent changes in level of sustainable weed management.

The main purpose of this study was to analyze managerial skills of poultry production mangers in Guilan province by using a descriptive-analytical research design. The population of this study consisted of all industrial poultry production enterprises of Guilan Province (N=580), and out of them, 150 managers had been selected as statistical sample through simple random sampling. The instrument used to achieve objectives of the study was a questionnaire by reliability 0.92. Findings of the study reveal that the ability level of managers were in medium to high range. The ability of mangers in production and technica was ranked the highest and marketing skills was ranked at the lowest ability.

In order to determine the optimal planting model, the multi objective programming was used in Sari Dashte Naz agriculture Company. Also the current model has been compared with two optimal models that one of them is consistent with consumption values and the other is estimated according to the amount of critical consumption of fertilizer and pesticides. The results showed that the current model is different with optimal pattern and it is more appropriate with the environmental and sustainable development objectives.This model not only would increase the gross output to 1230 million Rials but, it is considered as the most appropriate planting model for this region. Therefore, the cropping pattern should be changed and consistence with the self sufficiency objectives of government in production of seeds, the areas under cultivation of canola should be increase and the amount of pesticides and fertilizers usages should be reduced.

The major purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the tourism industry of rural areas of Kelardasht. The total population of this study was all household members of two villages of Velvoal and Roodbarak (n=1320) and sample size was 300 respondents.According to result, participation of local people and relevant authorities in protecting environment and cultural heritage could affect the development of tourism industry.Development of this sector required some precondition in different areas and education and informing people through the related organizations is one aspect of strengthening the tourism industry.