JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2020 | Volume:13 | Issue:1 (49)|Papers Count:8

The present research was conducted to investigate the risks of peppermint production in Kermanshah province, Iran. The research was a quantitative study in paradigm, an applied study in terms of objective, and a descriptive survey in terms of data collection methodology. The statistical population consisted of 101 peppermint farmers whose data were collected by the complete enumeration technique. The research instrument was a researcher made questionnaire consisting of two sections pertaining to the demographic and occupational characteristics of the participants and some items to measure risks. The data were analyzed by opinion polls and related formulas. The users of the peppermint medicinal plant ranked the three main risks in the order of institutional, price/market, and human social in importance. The most important institutional risks included the lack of government support for crop selling and marketing at a reasonable price, the lack of support for the presentation of climatically compatible cultivars in the province, and the lack of government support for farmers regarding training and introduction of cultivation of medicinal plants. The main market risks of peppermint were listed as the involvement of intermediaries and dealers, the lack of (formal/informal) guaranteed sales, and the lack of equipment and facilities for product processing and packaging. The most important human risks were enumerated as high labor costs, labor unavailable for cultivation, and the lack of labor knowledge and skill of harvest operation.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to analyzing relationship between ethics norms, knowledge and water conservation behavior. The statistical population consisted of farmers of Halil Rood watershed located at Jiroft county (N=2601) that 339 farmers were studied using Krejcie and Morgan and proportional stratified random sampling method. Face and content validity of questionnaire were confirmed a by panel of experts and its reliability was approved with calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0. 71-0. 79). Descriptive statistics results showed that frequency distribution of the three studied variables (water conservation behavior, ethics norms, knowledge) were at medium level. Correlation analysis findings showed that variables such as: ethics norms, knowledge of storage and preservation and knowledge of reduce water evaporation had significant and positive correlation with water conservation behavior of farmers. Results of linear regression by stepwise method showed that ethics norms and knowledge of storage and preservation explained about 66 percent of the variability of water conservation behavior among farmers

Indicators of growing popularity of organic food products, such as the rapid growth of organic land cultivation and the continuous growth in demand for these products, are increasing. This study aimed to analysis of factors affecting the behavioral intention of organic crops technology from the perspective of agricultural experts. The statistical population of this study is experts of East Azarbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization (N = 837). For this statistical population, sample size of 310 was determined using Krejcie and Morgan table and were randomly studied. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis. According to field data, there was sufficient evidence to support the significant effect of “ organic crops knowledge” , “ perceived usefulness” and “ perceived risk” on “ attitude toward organic crops” . The significant effect of "social justice", "attitude toward organic crops" and "perceived ease of use" on "behavioral intentions of organic crops technology" was also confirmed. . Based on the results, the following recommendations are proposed: more government support, specialized training courses, specialized seminars and targeted debates (especially transgenic agriculture specialists), providing the necessary background for experts to receive courses at abroad, the formation of a committee combining the three sectors of research, education and extension.

This survey study aimed to investigate the influence of five dimensions of job satisfaction including satisfaction with the nature of work, satisfaction with colleagues, satisfaction with promotion, satisfaction with the supervisor and satisfaction with wages on the organizational commitment of experts in the Agriculture-Jahad organization of Kermanshah province. Data for the study was collected using a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study consisted of experts in the Agriculture-Jahad organization of Kermanshah province which 265 of them were selected for the study based on the Kerjesi and Morgan sampling table and through stratified random sampling method. Findings of the study indicated the effect of satisfaction with the nature of work, satisfaction with the supervisor, satisfaction with wages and satisfaction with promotion have influence on the organizational commitment. Among these, satisfaction with the nature of work had the most positive and significant effect on the organizational commitment, while satisfaction with promotion had a negative effect on the organizational commitment. Based on the findings of the study, practical suggestions were made to improve the organizational commitment of experts of Agriculture-Jahad organization of Kermanshah Province.

The instability of production and the reduction of food security have been the result of man's profitable use of nature's capacities. In the field of environmental protection, the behavior of human beings as a key factor in the formation of environmental problems is irrefutable. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to identify the factors influencing the ethical behavior of the villagers, according to Experts of Jihad Agriculture and Environmental Organizations in Khuzestan Province using Grounded Theory method. In this method, coding is a basic technique for data analysis that has a three-step process and includes: Open Coding, Axial Coding and Selective Coding. In the Open coding phase, after conducting 10 in-depth interviews with employees of Jihad-Agriculture Organization and Khuzestan Province Environmental Organization, Line-by-line analysis was used to analyze the findings. Then the sentences and paragraphs were broken down into concepts. In the Axial coding stage of the categories, three categories: Political factors ", " environmental ethics Perspective "and" educational factors "were identified as the main categories. Finally, the research paradigm model was drawn, considering the main categories under the terms casual condition, the cynicism of the villagers and the educators about each other as interventionist conditions, drought and lack of fallow as background, and necessary strategies to implement ethical behavior with the environment and their its associated consequences among the villagers, were formulated.

One of the main indicators of national economic modernization and social development, is the participation of women and the role of women in economic structures. The current study was conducted to evaluate the effective factors over social and economic empowerments of rural women membership of micro-credit funds of the Firouzkouh county. The statically population of this research, was rural women memberships of micro-credit fund of the city of Firoozkooh (N = 102). Due to the small sample size in this study, the census method was used. Finally, SPSS v19, Cronbach's alpha coefficients (0/823) for different sections of the questionnaire was calculated. The results showed that there is positive and significant relationship at level of 1% error among socioeconomically empowerment of women membership of micro-credit funds of Firouzkouh county and economical, educational-promotional, social-cultural, personality-psychological and level of education and there is a significant and negative correlation with age variable and there is a level of 1% error. The results also showed that 55 percent of variance changes of socioeconomically empowerment of rural women memberships of micro-credit funds were depended on personality-psychological and educational-promotional factors.