International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:7 Issue: 4, Dec 2017

Although agriculture has a major role in economy, in general, and employment opportunities for unemployed population, in particular, limited ability of individuals to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture has reduced the share of agriculture in employment. Therefore, the enhancement of opportunity recognition skills among individuals in the agriculture sector is believed to solve unemployment challenges. Social capital is a rich source of information that permits the individuals to identify different combinations of the means-ends in the creation of new products or services for a particular market. Thus, this study sought to explore the role of social capital components in agricultural entrepreneurial opportunity recognition in Kermanshah province. The statistical population of this study consisted of all agricultural entrepreneurs in Kermanshah province (N=136), 102 of them were selected as the sample of the study based on Krejcie and Morgan’s sampling table and the use of a proportional stratified sampling method. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts; its average variance was extracted, and its discriminant validity and reliability coefficient was established by using a Cronbach's alpha as well as the composite reliability index. Data were analyzed by SPSSV23 and Smart PLS softwares. The result of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that the social capital components (strong ties and weak ties) were the main predictors of opportunity recognition among agricultural entrepreneurs in Kermanshah province. Findings of this study carry important implications for agricultural policy makers and educators aiming to foster greater inclusion and cohesion, and to increase transparency and accountability, in order to develop the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities in the process of promoting agricultural entrepreneurship.

Since some raw materials, semi manufactured, intermediate and capital goods in agricultural sector are imported, the exchange rate fluctuations can affect the cost price of products in this sector. Recently, we are facing considerable fluctuations in exchange rate that has an important impact on all sectors including the agriculture. As a result of an increase in import prices in agricultural raw materials, the exchange rate fluctuates. In other words, this relationship is strengthened by lower domestic supply due to the stimulation of the exports of agricultural products induced by an increase in exchange rate. The present study deals with the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on agricultural price index in Iran using MGARCH method. The results show that the past shocks of exchange rate have a positive impact on agriculture price index at the 1% significance level. Moreover, despite the fact that the current fluctuations of agriculture price index do not relate to its past fluctuations, the past fluctuations of exchange rate have a positive impact on current fluctuations of exchange rate.

The research examined effect of climate variability on yield of the two dominant cool weather cereals (wheat and barley) in central highland and Arssi grain plough farming systems of Ethiopia using eight round unbalanced panel data (1994-2014). The stochastic frontier model result revealed that production inputs for producing wheat and barley in the two farming system had significant effect. Crop season rainfall increment had negative and significant effect on technical efficiency of smallholders to produce wheat as to the model result. Technical efficiency of two crops responded differently for cropping season rainfall variability, in which wheat had negative and significant interaction with it while barley had positive. Given this, cropping season temperature had significant and positive effect on technical efficiency of both wheat and barley. Having this into account, yield of the two crops responded similarly for changes in production inputs like working capital, human labor and fertilizer. In general, rainfall inconsistency at the different stages of the production period had strong effect on yield of the two crops. Given this, the study forwarded an assignment to plant scientists in order to have further investigation on how the two crops responded differently to temperature variability.

Rice plays an especial role in Iranian household's nutrition basket. The volatilities of its price during recent years caused consumer's dissatisfaction. This paper investigates spillover effects of price volatilities (at the wholesale and retail levels) in the Guilan Province rice market. The Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Hetroscedasitic (GARCH) model was used for the monthly time period of 1999 to 2013. As the results of the unit root tests showed, the monthly time series of Sadri-Momtaz variety wholesale price and Sadri-Momtaz variety retail price have unit roots in zero frequency or they are I(1). Considering the amounts of trace and maximum eigen values statistics, there is a long-run relationship between Sadri-Momtaz variety wholesale and retail monthly price time series. Coefficients of normalized cointegration vector showed that, with one percent increase (decrease) in retail price, it would be likely that wholesale price could increase (decrease) by 0.99 percent. Results of GRACH model revealed that spillover effects exist from the retail price to the wholesale price and vice versa. In addition, price volatility in retail and wholesale levels had positive and significant effects on its own level price volatility. Accordingly, providing proper policy packages in both supply and demand sides were advised.

In this study, musculoskeletal disorders, energy consumption and input costs of paddy labors have been studied in cultivation, crop protection, and harvesting rice in Northern Iran, Guilan province. The sample size of the study consisted of 74 paddy workers of the study region. The data were collected through Nordic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the labor input energy of cultivation, crop protection, and harvesting were 674.6, 356.8 and 205.9 MJha-1, respectively. The total labor input costs were determined to be 22,860,000 IRRs ha-1. Lower back, back and knees were the most common areas where paddy workers were feeling pain. There were significant differences among the age, working hours and working years of healthy and relatively healthy poor paddy workers (p

Crop insurance is a risk management tool with the potential of dealing with risk more efficiently, the study uses a dichotomous contingent valuation method to elicit the willingness to pay for crop insurance among cereal farmers in the Eastern region of Ghana. The study employed descriptive statistical techniques to analyse primary data obtained from 208 sampled farmers in the region. Approximately, 52.9% of the farmers expressed interest in crop insurance. A Heckman two stage approach was employed to estimate the factors influencing the WTP for crop insurance. The results revealed that farmers were willing to pay approximately GHc 69.6 per cropping season. The demand for insurance was found to be negatively correlated with the premium amounts suggesting that it is a normal good. The Probit model revealed that marital status, education, borrowing, and awareness of crop insurance influenced farmers willingness to purchase insurance. Farmers WTP amount estimated with the interval regression model was shown to be influenced by key variables such as age, crop type, farm size, farm experience, income, weather variation, savings and access to extension agents. Innovative insurance products and the appropriate distribution channels are also recommended to incite demand for crop insurance.

Since a lot of material and human expenditure are spent for implementing extension education programs for rural people, one of the most important aspects of these programs is “effectiveness evaluation” and the rate of accomplishing program objectives, as well as determining program obstacles and solving them for future plans. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of rural extension education programs regarding sheep breeding. To achieve this purpose, the first phase of the present study analyzed effectiveness evaluation models using documentary studies. Then, an Effectiveness Evaluation of Extension Education Programs (EEEEP) model was designed and accomplished in the form of evaluating a rural education program. The second phase used an experimental research method in one-group pretest-posttest design. A purposeful sampling method was used for selecting research sample (n=32) from sheep breeders in Pasargad Township, Fars Province, Iran. The data gathering instrument was a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed with the Lincoln and Guba assessment method. The results revealed that participants’ satisfaction with the programs was higher than average in three dimensions. Also, these courses had a significant influence on the attitude and knowledge of the participants about the educated subjects. The participants’ main problem was the difficulty of attending the class. Finally, based on the findings, some executive recommendations have been provided.

In order to calibrate and validate the PILOTE model for rice in a humid climate, this study was carried in a randomized complete block design with three replications on a popular local variety, Hashemi, during 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007 crop seasons. This research was done at the Rice Research Institute of Rasht, Iran. Evaluation of simulated and measured grain yield and dry matter values was done using Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (EF), Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) and normalized root mean square errors (NRMSE) indices. The results revealed that RMSE for validation and calibration were 0.69 and 0.72 Mg.ha-1, respectively. NRMSE for calibration was 9.5 % and for validation was 14.1 %. NRMSE for grain yield and dry matter were 8.74 and 13.37 %, respectively. EF values were between 0.84 and 0.98. The results showed that the PILOTE model can be used to manage properly rice irrigation in different regimes. Scenario analysis showed that the best irrigation regime was intermittent irrigation with 8-day interval.

The present study aims to investigate income distribution in Zanjan Province, for which the statistics of cost-income of the households in rural areas of Abhar County were used. They were available in the Statistical Center of Iran. In order to measure income distribution, the indicators of Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient, the proportion of high-income groups to low-income groups, as well as the comparison of decades and quintiles are described below. The results indicated that 20% of the richest households in the rural community of Abhar County had more than half of the revenue, and four poor decades had less than 10% of revenue. The richest farmer docile had an income about 28 times as high as the poorest decade, and the richest non-farmer docile had an income about 74 times as high as the poorest non-farmer docile. The results of the Gini coefficient of the two occupational groups suggested that the Gini coefficient of people working in the agricultural sector was equal to 0.55, and that it was 0.56 for non-agricultural workers by comparison. The results of correlation analysis indicated a negative relationship between the age of household’s head and their annual income. Moreover education level of household’s head had a positive relationship with their annual income. In addition, there was no significant difference among annual incomes of households heads with different occupational groups.

This study investigated the mechanisms of seed potato management by potato growers of Freydunshahr County in Isfahan province. Survey research method was used in this study. A sample of 250 potato growers (N=725) was selected for data collection. Stratified random sampling method was used. The research instrument was a questionnaire that was validated for face validity by a panel of faculty members and agricultural experts of Agriculture Jihad Organization in Freydunshahr County. For determining the reliability, Cronbach's alpha was estimated which turned to be higher than 0.7. Results showed that "a part of tubers produced by farmers" was the first priority of farmers as seed tuber source. Results showed that 89.6 percent of potato growers store and keep seed tubers in inappropriate conditions. Majority of the farmers did not have sufficient information on seed potato management and there was a positive and significant relationship between the farmers’ education and potato yield per hectare, but a negative relationship was found for age. Based on logistic regression analysis, the predictive power of the model was 0.639 and the sensitivity of total model to determine the correct percentage was 86.0 percent. Among individual, professional and economic factors, variables of age, number of family labor, area of owned land, area of potato farming, potato yield per hectare, number of owned land parcels and knowledge and information level of respondents significantly impacted on the adoption and use of modern seed potato production systems.

Professional development is a continuous process of individual and experimental tests that must empower individual educators to make complex decisions; to identify and to solve problems; to connect theory and practice in learners’ output; and to enable educators to offer learning opportunities to students and prepare them in terms of provided world class standards and citizen responsibilities of adults inspired by these assumptions, the present study aimed to identify factors affecting the professional development of its faculty members. The statistical sample consisted of 902 individuals all of whom were faculty members of the Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch, Ilam, Iran that were studied by a census method. The survey instrument was a research-made questionnaire whose content and face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability coefficient turned out to be at a desirable level. SPSS21 software and factor analysis technique were employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the factor analysis showed that development services indicated that four components, that is, structural-service maturity, institutional-directorial maturity, personal and character maturity and network-social maturity were identified as factors affecting the professional development of faculty members which explained 50.89% of the total variance altogether.

Countries need short, medium, and long-term investment plans for production growth and development. Different sources for these investments can be supplied through retained profit, stock issuance, and bank loans, or a combination them. Institutions and firms need huge amount of capitals for their survival, production, and also development of activities. In addition, these institutions and firms rely heavily on financial markets for self-financing. The role of financial markets is to provide the required capitals for institutions and firms. Financing strategy is considered as one of the main areas of financial management decisions in companies seeking to increase shareholders’ wealth. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to discuss conventional methods of external financing through debt and stock issuance and explain their associated advantages and disadvantages.

The gathering of rural type in Guilan plains is a kind of planning for physical development of rural settlements that aims at changing dweller's lifestyle from a dispersed to a semi-dispersed state. This change will reduce the problems and difficulties of villages. In addition, it is an optimal way to exploit the resources and facilities for making a desirable spatial organization for villagers’ settlement in rural areas, which in turn provides a favorable condition for the development of a new pattern of settlement. The results of this study suggest that experts’ point of view toward gathering of plain rural types in Guilan province is positive and it can have significant role in alleviating the problems and difficulties of the villages. Also, optimal exploitation of space and achieving rural sustainable development are other side effects of this plan. Because of the low level of information, prominent culture, cultural obstacles and the lack of clear rules and regulations in this field are the main obstacles to run this plan in a short-term period. Given these limitations, the process of gathering plain rural type, then, requires the governmental support, the use of experts in rural development planning, as well as villagers’ cooperation.