International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Jun 2018

The purpose of this study was to study the feasibility of establishing agricultural processing industries in Ilam Province.
A mixed research method (Dominant, Less Dominant and two-phase design) was used. A Delphi technique as qualitative research method, and a descriptive-survey method for quantitative phase was applied. Based on the results of the Delphi panel, 65 different types of agricultural processing industries were identified to be appropriate for Ilam Province and were used in designing a questionnaire for the quantitative phase of the study. The statistical population of the quantitative phase comprised all agricultural experts working in the Jihad- Agriculture Organization of Ilam Province (N=85). From among them, and by using the Morgan Table, 70 individuals were selected through stratified random sampling and were studied by the questionnaire. In the quantitative phase, based on the variation ratio (VR), the respondents prioritized the agricultural processing industries for all counties of Ilam Province. Results of Kendall’s W test showed that there was agreement among the respondents about the feasibility of establishing agricultural processing industries in this Province.

Lack of understanding of the extension, education, and development practitioners’ role and their contribution to sustainable agriculture is the main challenge of sustainability projects in Iran. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to identify the extension system that has been more successful in sustainable horticulture. The population consisted of 22 pioneer farmers that had used or are using the services and/or consultations of both public and private extension experts in different ways. Based on census data, 20 farmers were studied. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. To determine the face and content validity, a panel of experts and to assess the reliability, inconsistency ratio was used (IR=0.03). Based on the five sustainability criteria, public extension system was identified as the superior system in the improvement of the sustainability of horticulture activities. Analytical hierarchy process based on the pair-wise comparison and the combination of the relative weights of sub-criteria and options showed that the public system is preferred over the private system, especially in ecological, cultural, and social dimensions. Given the relative superiority of the public extension system over the private extension system, it is recommended to use private extension system along with the public system as a supplementary system so as to gradually pave the way for assigning the authorities and activities to the private sector. Then, we can hope for the full privatization of agricultural education and extension system.

Sustainable Livelihoods Approach emerged in the 1980s as a new analytical approach in the field of rural development in which the rural livelihood capitals form the basis of the villager's empowerment and their ability to get involved in their own individual and social destiny. This study aimed to answer the question that how much the importance of each type of livelihood capitals is in the Central District of Dena County in an attempt to improve rural development interventions. The statistical population of the study consisted of local experts of Central District of Dena County that involved village managers and village council members out of which 15 individuals were purposefully selected based on their accessibility. Data were collected through a questionnaire which was developed to conduct pairwise comparisons of livelihood capitals according to the ANP method. Super Decisions software was used in order to rank livelihood capitals and their sub-indexes. The results showed that from among the five types of capital, physical capital was at the first priority. In addition, human, natural and social capitals were at the second, third and fourth priorities, respectively. Finally, financial capital was in the last priority. Therefore, in planning and investing to achieve sustainable livelihood in rural areas, physical and human capital should be taken into consideration more than any other capitals.

Strategic management is defined as a set of management decisions and actions that determine a company's long-term performance and lead and control the organization so that it can quickly respond to some internal and external environmental changes. Obviously, the agricultural sector and natural resources are one of the most significant economic sectors of the country because of their vital role in providing the required food and nutritional safety. The present study aims to determine the appropriate strategies for Eshraq agro-industry Company. In this study, agricultural sector and animal husbandry strategies are determined simultaneously. The SWOT analytical framework has been used to determine the appropriate strategies. Eventually, after assessing the situations and strategic actions by the SPACE method using the QSPM strategic approach, the determined strategies have been sorted according to importance and priority which include small livestock, aviculture, aquaculture, establishing dairy plants and value-added production, developing the existing dairy cattle, increasing milk and meat production and changing land uses from farms to gardens respectively.

The waste of agricultural products is considered as one of the major problems in Iranian agricultural sector. The present study is a descriptive-survey one in nature that focused on exploring correlations and comparison. Data were collected through a number of questionnaires and were analyzed by SPSS. The relationships between dependent and independent variables were analyzed by obtaining the Pearson's correlation coefficient. The statistical population of the study comprised the participants of vermicompost Training Courses in 2011-12, farmers of Estalkh Zir Village where the vermicompost project was implemented, and facilitators and promoters of the agricultural sector. The results of this investigation showed that there was a relationship between the dependent (familiarity, the skills and interest rate) and independent variables (agricultural waste management) and that it was confirmed p

At the household level, livestock plays a critical economic and social role in pastoralists and at the household level, livestock plays a critical economic and social role in pastoralists and smallholder farm households. The objectives of this study were to analyze factors affecting participation in cattle fattening and its impacts on household income in Fadis district of Eastern Hararghe. Both primary and secondary data were used. The data were collected by means of a semi-structured questionnaire from 124 samples during the period of April 20-May20/ 2017. Logit estimation revealed that participation in cattle fattening is significantly influenced by five variables. Age of household head, labor force in family member, market information, access to agricultural extension services and number of livestock are significant variables which affect the participation of the household in cattle fattening practices. Propensity score matching method was applied to analyze the impact of the cattle fattening on the household income generation. In matching processes, kernel matching with 0.25 band width was resulted in relatively low pseudo-R2 with best balancing test was found to be the best matching algorithm. This method was checked for standardized bias, t-test, and joint significance level. Propensity score matching results revealed that household participated in cattle fattening practice have got 14,071 more farm income and 12,617 total household income in Ethiopian Birr (ETB) than those household that were not participated in fattening practices. This income difference shows how non-farm and off-farm income compensated for income obtained from cattle fattening activities with farm income.

The main objective of the present study was to explore the barriers to the development of agricultural businesses in the incubator of Razi University, Iran. The research was an applied study in terms of objective and an exploratory mixed method in terms of data collection methodology. The statistical population was composed of agricultural businesses and their personnel in the incubator of Razi University in the qualitative phase and of the agricultural experts in the quantitative phase, as well. The samples for both qualitative and quantitative phases were taken by purposive sampling method. Ten people were sampled for the qualitative phase, and three were sampled for the quantitative phase. In qualitative phase, data were collected by semi-structured interviews that were kept on until theoretical saturation. Then, the content of the interviews was analyzed to classify the data. In quantitative phase, a questionnaire was developed according to the results of the first phase and was administered to the experts. Data were analyzed by the Analytical Hierarchy process method using Expert Choice Software Package. The results revealed that in-incubator agricultural businesses are challenged with a lot of barriers to their development. They were classified in five main categories including knowledge-skill, structural-legal, business-production environment, support-facility limitations, and administrative-financial. Among these factors, support-facility limitations were ranked the first with relative importance (weight of 0.237).

Innovation is a complex phenomenon and process involving translation of knowledge into new techniques, products, services. It is considered crucial for sustainable agriculture development and achievement of long-term food security. The review describes the diversity of innovation and relates it to agro-food sector. It also sheds light on different innovation models and explores their contribution to framing agro-food sustainability transitions. There are many variations in the use of the term ‘innovation’. Typical distinctions encountered in the literature are incremental vs. radical innovation and product vs. process vs. organizational innovation. A significant feature of the development of modern innovation thinking has been a gradual broadening of innovation scope as well as more attention to sustainability. The scope of innovation was broadened to include soft (social/organisation) innovations besides hard/technical ones. In fact, the interest has shifted from technological innovation to disruptive niche innovations fundamental for socio-technical transitions. Moreover, as a recognition of system complexity, frameworks such as the Innovation systems and the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) were developed and promoted. However, despite positive innovation benefits, relationship between innovation and sustainability in the agro-food arena is far from straightforward. Therefore, focus is gradually moving from innovation process to its impacts in terms of sustainability and its contribution to sustainability transitions in agriculture and food systems.

Delphi is a powerful technique used to seek answers to appropriate questions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Delphi technique as a research method. This paper discusses the scientific merit of the Delphi technique by investigating on 41 studies of Journal of Agricultural Education from 1981 to 2013, and 2 studies of Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology. The results showed that there is no general agreement on using indexes in different rounds of Delphi technique; however, according to the frequencies of using indexes in different studies, the following suggestions are presented. The favourable number of panel of experts is between 10 to 20. Purposive sampling method is used for selecting the panel members. Usually a three rounds of Delphi method is used. One question is designed in round one. Mean and standard deviation indexes are used for passing from round two to round three and agreement level of 70 present is used for achieving expert's consensus in round three.

Multifunctional agriculture (MFA) has emerged as a key concept in science and politics with respect to the future of agriculture and rural development in the recent decade. Overall, MFA implies that in addition to their main function in production and support of rural livelihood, the agricultural activities have some other advantages for the environment including the conservation of water and soil resources and the enhancement of food security. This paper takes a look at the benefits of MFA as a concept and path toward agricultural development from an integrated perspective within the framework of sustainable development. Also, it tries to clarify the distinction between MFA and conventional agriculture in sustainable development approaches.

In today's turbulent business environment, organizations face the need to rapidly respond to demands, explore new opportunities, apply evolving technologies, and create novel competitive advantages. Knowledge Management (KM) and Organizational Entrepreneurship (OE) are two strategic tools through which companies can concurrently improve their competitive advantage while seeking new potential opportunities. Since KM and OE practically help to improve organizational performance through their own resources, they not only seem to be interrelated but they also influence each other. In this regard, the aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of KM on the OE among agricultural extension experts in Kermanshah Province, Iran. The population of this study consisted of all agricultural extension experts in Jihad-e-Agriculture management and centers of agricultural services in Kermanshah Province (N=536). Using Bartlett’s et al. (2001) sampling table, 155 extension experts were selected as the sample using the proportionate stratified sampling method (n=155). The main instrument used in this study was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts, and its reliability was established by a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (α> 0.70). The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that KM components (knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge organizing, knowledge storage, knowledge dissemination and knowledge application) had significant and positive effect on OE among agricultural extension experts in Kermanshah Province.

To evaluate the effect of climate change on peanut production in Northern Iran on the basis of 2oC rise in temperature, a study was conducted using the SSM-Peanut. The simulation was done based on the long-term data obtained from synoptic stations in Guilan including Anzali, Astara, Kiashahr (Astaneh Ashrafieh), Lahijan, Rasht (Agriculture station), Rasht (Airport station), Roudsar and Talesh. When model was run for each year and each scenario, the following parameters were recorded in the outputs: days to beginning bloom, days to beginning pod, days to beginning seed, days to harvest maturity, maximum leaf area index, accumulated crop dry matter, seed yield, and pod yield. Data analysis: data analysis was done using SPSS 18. Furthermore, from ArcGIS was used for zoning of Guilan in terms of peanut production in the current condition and after the climate change. To compare the difference between peanut growth and yield in the current condition and when the climate change happens, t-test and discriminant analysis were used. The results showed that there is a statistically significant difference in terms of all parameters between the current condition and after climate change 2oC rise in temperature) in Guilan Province. With the rise temperature, average peanut growth period in Guilan decreased from 142 days to 123 days. Generally, the average peanut yield changes in Guilan with 2-degree rise in temperature is 8.73 percent more than that in the current condition.

Developmental plans of the country emphasize on the exports-focused growth strategy, and export diversification is one of the most appropriate policies in this area. Export diversification moves from primary goods to industrial goods. Yet, export diversification, according to the principles of international trade, must be based on comparative advantage until to change value-added. Changes in the value-added of industrial activities can show manufacturing and export capabilities of a country and also production growth. Due to the importance and high value-added of the agricultural sector in developing countries, added value and influencing factors in triple industries of food, wood, and paper are studied. To this end, human capital and physical capital in agricultural triple industries is considered. The variable of weighted comparative advantage of agricultural triple industries and diversification in these industries are considered for the period of 1998 to 2013 by using panel data. The results of the model estimation indicated that, during the period under study, the wood and paper industries had the lack of comparative advantage in the production and export. This variable will have a negative effect on the growth of value-added. Exports diversification is only carried out in food industries; however, this variable had a positive impact on the growth of the value-added of agricultural sector industries. The human capital and physical capital have a high positive effect on value-added of the industries in the agricultural sector.

Tourism plays a significant role in the development of the society at different levels and is seen as an important source of employment and income especially in rural areas. Considering its different potential impacts, the present study aims to explore the effects of tourism development on the rural area of Giyan district. The target population comprised the residents of rural areas in the vicinity of Giyan tourism district (N=7500). Using the Cochran’s formula, the sample size was estimated to be 285, and a completely random sampling method was applied for data collection. A self-administered questionnaire was used as research instrument whose face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. In order to estimate the reliability of the questionnaire, a Cronbach’s alpha was used for the pre-test. The reliability and validity of the factor analysis were estimated by Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for study components, respectively. In addition to the descriptive analysis, an Explanatory Factor Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to classify research variables. It was found that from the residents’ viewpoint, the major effects of tourism include ‘improved job opportunities’, ‘increased income’ and ‘decreased number of agricultural sector employees’ The results of factor analysis revealed that economic, socio-cultural, and environmental factors account for 63% of the total variance. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that all the employed indices were acceptable to fit the model. Moreover, it was shown that the economic factor, with a coefficient of 0.93, had the highest share in explaining the latent variable of the effects of tourism development.

Organic agriculture is rapidly growing while the lack of knowledge and skills to manage organic farms and the lack of market opportunities for the organic products are the most important reasons for the disinclination to the use of the organic agriculture practices. The main aim of this study was to determine the factors underpinning the marketing of organic agriculture products. The research was a descriptive survey in terms of purpose. The research instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was determined by the content validity and its reliability was estimated to be 89% by Cronbach's Alpha. The population of the study included all organic farmers who have supplied their products to a fruit and vegetable market in Miandoab. The sample size was determined as 148 by the Morgan-Kerjisy table and was selected by stratified sampling method and simple randomization. Finally, 150 questionnaires were collected. The results showed a significant relationship between the marketing of the organic agriculture products with educational factors, economic factors, intelligence agents, production factors and social factors at the 0.05 level. Also, the results of regression analysis showed that the variables of production factors, educational factors, and economic factors captured 53% of the variance of the dependent variable.

The purpose of this study was to identify strategies for Agricultural Entrepreneurs Empowerment in Javanrod, Salasebabajani, Ravansar and Paveh counties of Kermanshah Province. The structural impact obtained was based on different qualitative techniques and was analysed based on the SWOT model. The finding suggested that the most effective strengths were: adoption of social responsibilities increasing with weighted score "0.305", knowledge, attitudes and values increasing in the agricultural entrepreneurs with weighted score "0.300"; the most effective weaknesses were: Lack of enough capital with weighted score "0.260", lack of entrepreneurial culture with weighted score "0.208"; the most effective opportunities were: supporting ideas and projects with weighted score "0.330", entrepreneurial skills trading (the capacity to identify opportunities, problems and solutions) with weighted score "0.315", and the most effective threats were: lack of economic security "0.265" and suitable market lack for products "0.250". The results suggested that by aggressive strategies such as training and entrepreneurial skills development and technical, knowing the sources of ideas, using new technologies, increasing access to training and funds, access to commercial networks, creating exhibitions and conferences application; adaptive strategy promoting use of banking facilities; contingency strategies such as reducing the threat of being able to create diverse career opportunities, reducing administrative bureaucracy, difficulty in getting a licence and infrastructure to create suitable market production; defence strategy including reduction of threats such as economic insecurity can be used as background empowerment entrepreneurs for agricultural entrepreneurs empowerment.