Taher Azizi-Khalkheili; Mehdi Haddadinejad; Meysam Menatizadeh
Abstract
This research was conducted to identify the educational and extensional needs of strawberry growers in Mazandaran province. The statistical population consisted of strawberry growers in five counties of Mazandaran province (with more than 70% of the province's production, N = 3000), 240 of them were ...
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This research was conducted to identify the educational and extensional needs of strawberry growers in Mazandaran province. The statistical population consisted of strawberry growers in five counties of Mazandaran province (with more than 70% of the province's production, N = 3000), 240 of them were selected by Cochran's formula and multi stage random sampling technique. Data was collected through a questionnaire that its validity was confirmed by faculty members of agricultural extension & education and horticulture departments in Sari Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources University and Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, also calculating Ordinal Theta revealed the suitable reliability of measuring instrument (range 0.78 to 0.86). Mean, standard deviation and spearman correlation, were used for data analysis and prioritization of needs as well as inferential statistics: mean rank comparison and ordinal regression. The results of study showed that three educational needs: stress tolerance, fruit quantity and fruit quality ranked first to third in importance. In tolerance to stress dimension, the resistance of the plant to winter cold and plant resistance to disease and pests were in the first and second priorities. In total, from 55 studied needs, fruit firmness in transfer was the most significant item. Based on Spearman’ correlation test, the variables of agricultural experience, education, income and daily work hours had significant relationship with the educational & extensional needs. According to ordinal regression results and Nagelkerke coefficient, these four variables can predict 59.7% of the changes in the educational and extensional needs of strawberries growers.
Taher Azizi-Khalkheili
Abstract
In order to rural development and farmers’ wellbeing, Jihad Agricultural Centers play an important role in educating and increasing farmers’ knowledge and information. This study was conducted to investigate farmers’ motivation for attending in educational programs of Jihad Agricultural ...
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In order to rural development and farmers’ wellbeing, Jihad Agricultural Centers play an important role in educating and increasing farmers’ knowledge and information. This study was conducted to investigate farmers’ motivation for attending in educational programs of Jihad Agricultural Centers. Farmers of Mazandaran province included research population (N= 336532), using Kerejcie & Morgan Sampling Table 384 person were determined as sample size and to increase confidence they were raised to 414 farmers that were selected by multistage random sampling. This study is a semi-experimental research and the survey technique was used to gather data. Research instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed with experts and university professors. The Ordinal Theta coefficients (θ = 0.756 - 0.898) revealed the suitable reliability of measuring instrument. Investigation of farmers’ motivation in four components showed that idealistic and physiological motivations had a higher average than the pleasure and recognition motivations. Using cluster analysis farmers divided to 3 homogeneous groups and analysis of variance test showed these groups significantly differ in variables that used for clustering. Ordinal regression in these clusters revealed that recognizing the problems of attendance, attitude toward personnel of Jihad Agricultural Centers, , visiting the Jihad Agricultural Centers, taking responsibility in the village, and the number of household members had main role in predicting farmers’ motivation, also 15.2 to 83.5 percent of variation in dependent variable were predicted by these variables.
