JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND EDUCATION RESEARCH
Year:2020 | Volume:12 | Issue:4 (48)|Papers Count:6

This study examined the major effective factors on farmer’ s adoption of improved wheat varieties and investigated their impacts on food security in East Azarbaijan province based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. The population of this study comprised wheat growers who adopted improved wheat varieties in 21 regions. The study sample consisted of 380 wheat growers selected through stratified random sampling. A questionnaire was utilized for data collection. Validity was confirmed by face validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity and reliability was calculated using Composite Reliability and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data was analyzed using Smart-PLS software. The findings showed that the performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, and trust, had a positive and significant effect on the intention to adopt technology as well as on the dimensions of food security. In addition, the moderating variables of age, gender, and experience did not have a significant effect on related constructs.

Current mixed method research which used the Q-method to examine and explain agricultural extension managers’ Mental patterns regarding psychological empowerment of employees. The main idea Q-method is identify Mental thoughts hinking, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs of people about the phenomenon under examination. The participants (N=12) included Agricultural Extension managers that were selected through purposive sampling. To collect data, some deep interviews were administered. Given the appraisal and summarization of concourse, 60 short statements were selected as Q phrases and after a survey of experts, 41 Q samples were selected. Gathered information was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using VARIMAX rotation. Semantic analysis showed that 4 distinct subjective patterns in psychological empowerment of agricultural extension staff were distinced by participants which could account for 81. 49 percent of total variance. These 4 subjective pattern were called as “ conductive Mental of context factors empowering ", “ conductive Mental of environments factors empowering” “ conductive Mental of structural factors empowering” and “ conductive Mental of Individual Factors empowering” . The importance and priority of the identified factors were determined based on subjective patterns. By interpreting each of these patterns, suggestions were made to implement them.

While there is no reliable scientific information about the results of the cultivation and consumption of transgenic products at the community level, and the controversy between the proponents and opponents has led the process to continue, researchers seem to be the only group that due to high knowledge, they can be responsive to consumers, farmers and the Governors. In this regard, the present study was conducted on the basis of qualitative paradigm and using content analysis to analyze the views of researchers at agricultural research centers on the opposition to cultivation and consumption of transgenic products in Iran. In order to collect the data, a semi-structured interview method with 23 researchers was used with purposeful sampling and snowball sampling. The findings of this study showed that the three factors of "environmental degradation", "endangering human health" and "Imposing cultivation and consumption, weak ethical considerations and lack of national independence" are the reasons for the opposition to the cultivation and consumption of transgenic products from the viewpoint of researchers at agricultural research centers.

The purpose of this research was to Investigation and analysing the challenges of Micro and Peasant systems in West Azerbaijan Province. Their average land area is less than twenty hectares and their number of farm was scattered between five and twelve sector. By using the Krejcie Morgan table, 384 individuals were selected as sample size. And proportional assignment using cluster sampling method was used for selection sample. Questionnaire was used for data collection; the validity of the research instrument was confirmed by the panel of related professors and experts who have specialist at this subject. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's alpha 0. 732. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Factor analysis results showed that the most important challenges in micro and peasant systems in West Azarbaijan province were summarized and categorized into seven factors. These seven factors could account 66. 2% of the challenge of micro and peasant systems in West Azerbaijan province. The most important challenge was the economic factor, which included increases in the cost of renting land and agricultural equipment, increased input costs, a slight increase in the prices of agricultural products, and a shortage of agricultural financial and credit institutions.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of agricultural water use management on food security in family farming system in Kermanshah county. The statistical population of the study consisted of 9656 of irrigation farmers in Kermanshah county. Sample size was determined using Cochran’ s formula, 217 farmers were selected by stratified sampling method. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by content validity method using the comments related to the panel of experts (faculty members of the department of agricultural management and development at university of Tehran) and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient (0. 73-0. 81). SPSSWin23 software was used to analyze the data. The results of path analysis showed that agricultural water use management directly and indirectly influences farmers’ food security by improving product quality and product diversity, changing crop pattern, increasing agricultural consumption and agricultural production, and also increasing inputs’ productivity and income increase. Improving Farmers' water use management In addition to increasing production and productivity of inputs and improving farmers' income, it will increase farmers' access to a diverse and quality food basket and ultimately improve their food security.

The present study is an attempt to explain the the mechanisms and social impacts on economic development in the agricultural sector by extracting the causal and hybrid route. The method of this study is comparative-quantitative and the data set of 31 provinces of the country has been analyzed using the fuzzy logic approach. The results of the necessary and sufficient conditions showed that the condition of economic habitus (credit ethics), economic habitus (low imposed traditionalism), economic habitus (low degree of satisfaction), reciprocal economic action (work), reciprocal economic action (the expansion of instrumental relations) And the reciprocal economic action (calculation) of each alone is a necessary condition and economic habitat (economic rationality) is a sufficient condition for the outcome (agricultural development). In the causal and hybrid causalities, four causal paths of Ali were necessary based on the theoretical and experimental adequacy criteria (coefficient of coverage and adaptability), and the essential causative components that have an appropriate compatibility and coverage index, the condition of economic habitus (credit ethics ) Is common and is introduced as a necessary final condition.