JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2019 | Volume:12 | Issue:1 (45)|Papers Count:6

Entrepreneurship Development is the most practical strategy to exit the economic and social crisis in Iran, especially this issue needs to identifying its barriers and difficulties and solving them in rural communities. The aim of this article was to identify and assess the most important barriers of rural entrepreneurship in Iran. For this purpose, Fuzzy Delphi process was used based on group thinking of the 10 qualified experts, who were selected with purposive sampling method. The results showed that among the five major groups of barriers, including: individual-personality barriers, political-institutional, economic, social and cultural, education and basic, the economic barriers group was higher ranked. In this group, the barriers of disability to change jobs in the rural environment and lack of access to factors of production placed the first order (with 0. 133 weighting), both low familiarity with the new requirements of the labor market and credit facilities and high-interest loans got the second place (with 0. 125 standard weighting) and lack of awareness of how to enter the market and expand market share, gaining initial capital and liquidity difficulties and the lack of the requirements for selling and supplying the products placed the third rank (with 0. 122 standard weighting). Finally, suggestion and practical suggestions were presented.

The aim of this study was to study influencing factors on agricultural knowledge and information system. The methodological approach of this study was descriptive-correlative. The research population consisted of 110 extension experts, which all them was census. Validity of the instrument was established by a panel of experts consisting of senior faculty members and research committee advisors. Also a pilot test was conducted to determine the reliability of the survey instrument. In this test, the mentioned questionnaires were given to 30 expert which were similar to statistical society in regional, economic, cultural and social conditions. Reliability analysis was conducted by using and Cronbach alpha formula and result was 0. 85. The results showed that factors of interactions improvement of extension-education, extension-farmers, extension-research, extension-private companies, extension-agricultural organization, education-research, education-farmers and research-farmers with agricultural knowledge and information system had been relationship of positive and significant. The results of the multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) revealed that the factors of interactions improvement extension-research and education-farmers explained a variation of 38. 9% of the agricultural knowledge and information system.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors affecting the job satisfaction of soldiers in the organizations of Jihad-e-Agriculture in the northwest provinces of Iran. The statistical population of the study consisted of soldiers serving in Jihad-e-Agriculture organizations in the provinces of East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan and Ardebil. 244 of them were selected by random sampling for the study. In order to collect data, a survey tool was used in the form of a questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire included closed questions and a number of open questions whose formal validity was confirmed by experts. In order to test the reliability of the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted outside the sample and the Cronbach's alpha coefficients was calculated for different indices. The results showed that the variables of the welfare conditions of the work environment, the relationship between the soldiers, the relationship of officials with the soldiers, the motivation of progress and service motivation have a significant correlation with job satisfaction. Also, the results of regression analysis showed that the variables of achievement motivation, relationship between soldiers and the relationship between officials with soldiers predict about 40% of changes in the job satisfaction of soldiers.

The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate the effective dimensions of social capital and organizational commitment on organizational learning in Fars Jihad-e-Agriculture organization. The statistical population of research consisted of 300 members of the Fars Agriculture Jihad organization which according to Bartlett et. al. ’ s table, a sample size of 124 was selected using stratified random sampling based on organizational sections. Questionnaire was used to collect the data. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts and the reliability of the scale used in the study was assessed by calculating Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient test and the result was 0. 94. For primary analysis of data SPSS software was used. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the effects of research variables on the basis of multivariate techniques using the LISREL 8. 8 software. The results of correlation test showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between organizational commitment and social capital with organizational learning. Structural equation modeling analysis, showed that hypotheses were approved, with a very good level of model indices (RMSEA = 0. 066). The findings show that the three dimensions of social capital, including structural, cognitive, and cognitive dimensions, and two dimensions of organizational commitment, including dimensions of normative commitment and continuous commitment, affect the organizational learning of employees. More precisely, in order to achieve and enhance organizational learning, it is recommended to strengthen the dimensions of social capital of the employees and improve organizational commitment.

The purpose of this research was to specify a structural model in order to estimate the impact of policymaking factors (financial policy and energy policy) on institutional components related to the risk management in agricultural and rural areas of Rostov on Don. At the first stage, we explored and ranked a risk profile in agriculture based on the Rostov situation including climate, production, socio-economic, agricultural market, labor market and land regulation. At the next stage, the main strategies were identified in order to manage related risks and increase economic resilience. The data used in this paper were collected through a structured questionnaire from 75 subject matter specialists in the field of economics and agricultural economics from Southern Federal University (Rostov on Don) and Saratov State Agrarian University along with a number of governmental experts. Two confirmatory models of policy making and institutions fitted the data or supported by the obtained sample data. Resulted from the structural model showed that two factors of “ financial policy” and “ energy policy” explains 48 and 38 percent of variance in “ institutional technology” and “ institutional building” respectively.

Due to adverse effect of chemical fertilizers overconsumption, bio-fertilizers have been considered as an alternative or supplementary input. However, sustainable consumption of bio-fertilizers is dependent to their adoption by farmers. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to examine the impact of bio-fertilizers perceived innovation characteristics on intention to use them in Yengijeh village in Zanjan County. The statistical population consisted of 313 farmers working in this village from which 165 farmers were chosen through convenience sampling. A questionnaire was applied to gather data that its reliability and face validity was examined, respectively by computing Cronbach Alfa and a panel of expert. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Results revealed that among five bio-fertilizers’ innovation perceived characteristics (compatibility, complexity, trial ability, observability and relative advantage), only observability had positive significant impact on intention to use these fertilizers. It seems that the observability of bio-fertilizers in comparison with other innovation characteristics can be achieved without need for any action to be taken through environmental indicators and informal relationships. Thus, intention to use bio-fertilizers can be predicted by characteristics that easily and without extra effort can be understood.