Evaluation of student's awareness from the principles of sustainable agriculture within Iran universities

Students awareness from the principles of sustainable agriculture were evaluated among undergraduate and graduate students with specialization in agronomy, horticulture, phytopathology, soil sciences and irrigation in 8 universities around the country including Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz, Hamedan, Kerman, Mashhad, Azad Eslami–Mashhad and Science and Research Center of Azad Eslami–Tehran. Evaluation was conducted using questionnaires containing 12 questions about concepts (8 question) and application (4 questions) of sustainable agriculture. Two additional questions were included for assessing students’ views about their main source of information and the importance of inclusion of formal courses on sustainable agriculture in the current curriculum. Results of 347 questionnaires were extracted and exposed to analysis of variance and proper statistical comparisons. Frequency of correct answers was significantly different between universities. While students’ knowledge about concepts of sustainable agriculture was significantly lower than its application, frequency of corrects answers were never exceeded 50%. Students with specialization in agronomy and horticulture had significantly higher awareness from both concepts and application of sustainable agriculture compared to other specializations. Educational level was also an important source of variation in students’ knowledge. However, the observed difference between specializations was the same for graduate and undergraduate students. Informal books and scattered information within formal courses were the main sources of students’ information on principles of sustainable agriculture. Importance of inclusion of special courses on sustainable agriculture in the current curriculum was rated as high to very high by 70 and 93% of undergraduate and graduate students, respectively.