International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:5 Issue: 2, Jun 2015

One factor that has highlighted the role of agriculture in the economy is to make the marketing system of agricultural products more efficient. The main purpose of this study was to identify the requirements of marketing the organic pomegranate of Paveh, Kermanshah Province, Iran, from the perspective of farmers. In order to identify contributing factors, an exploratory factor analysis was used. The population of this study consisted of the pomegranate growers of Paveh (N=2000) and 320 people were selected using the Cochran formula and a proportional stratified sampling method. The main research instrument was a questionnaire that was completed by interview. Validity and reliability were confirmed using the feedbacks of advisors through 0.78 Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that the requirements were classified in eight factors of motivational improvement such as informing, technical, policy, economic, marketing, infrastructure, management, and social– services and they could explain 87 percent of the organic pomegranate marketing variance.

One of the obstacles that has caused agricultural sector not to reach significant and expected growth is shortage of short, medium and long–term funds to finance various activities of this sector. This study aims at investigating the economic impacts of credits granted by Agricultural bank on farmers on Hirmand region. The statistical population of the survey included 4691 farmers of Hirmand region and the sample size were 117 farmers who had received loan from agricultural bank at least once during 2006-2011. The Sample was selected using simple random sampling and questionnaires were distributed among them. The results from t-Test showed that significant level for income manufacturing variants was 0.000 and for investment and livelihood variants were 0.014 and 0.077, respectively. This significantly levels suggest that received loan from bank has increased income and production, the living conditions of borrowers, economic profitability and increased productivity.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate effect of access to health facilities on the health status of rural households at Kermanshah Province. Statistical pupation of this study consisted of all heads of rural households at Bisotoun district in Harsin Township, Kermanshah Province, Iran (N=1020), that 278 of them were selected by the cluster random sampling method. The main instrument of this study was a questionnaire which its validity confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was calculated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that the health status of rural households was medium at the given district. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that 36% of the dependent variable (health status) is explained by five following variables: level of water availability, level of sewer system availability, and level of access to health services (e.g. toilet, bath, health home, etc.), access to resources and communication and information channels and the level of waste disposal system availability. The results of this study can be considered by authorities and politicians so that they can pay more attention to the rural health issues.

Due to its location in the dry belt, the vast country of Iran has always been faced with the problem of water shortages. In such a climate one should take measures to increase the productivity and improve the efficiency of irrigation through expansion of water-conserving technology in the agricultural sector, as this is the largest and most important consumer of water. Therefore this study aimed at investigating factors affecting the adoption and application of sprinkler irrigation technology by farmers in the county of Famenin, Iran. Survey research was the dominant approach. The statistical population consisted of farmers in the Famenin County, and, using Cochran’s formula, 280 of them were selected through multi-stage stratified random- sampling equally among adopters and non-adopters. In order to assess the validity of the questionnaire the opinions of experts were used and to measure the reliability of the questionnaire Cronbach’s alpha statistic was used (82%). The results showed the adoption of sprinkler irrigation systems to be influenced by environmental factors such as the area under cultivation, access to water, water quality, and non-environmental factors such as the workforce number in the family, employment diversity, and participation in extension education and courses on agricultural water management. Ultimately the logit model is estimated in this paper. Adopters have also expressed reasons such as failure to adequately train farmers for maintenance after system installation, scientific and practical justifications, lack of availability of efficient repairs, inappropriate design and implementation by companies, low-quality components and fittings, clogging of sprinklers due to salty water, non-compliance with environmental conditions, difficulty using machines, the large area occupied by these systems, transportation, parts shortage, lack of security and the possibility of the theft of parts and fittings, and communal ownership of water resources as their dissatisfaction factors.

Agricultural Research is one of the most important factors in agricultural development, thus, the role and importance of research is increasing. Within the past years, all developed and consequently developing countries have engaged their most attention to promote their researches indexes. This study is investigating the effect of agricultural research on the distribution of income and agricultural value added in Iran, during the period of 1976 - 2012. Three SLS methods were used to determine the income distribution functions, value added and per capita income. The results showed that agricultural researches were effective on improvement of agricultural value added. The results also express that continuance in agricultural researches can increase per capita income and less inequality of income distribution. Effect of agricultural value added on inequality of income distribution was low but though increase in agricultural value added and decrease it.

Pricing policies play an important role in water demand management and its optimal allocation. Determining proper water price leads to optimal allocation of water especially in agricultural consumptions. Applying new subsidy targeting law in Iran which insists on pricing water based on its supply cost, will effects considerably on water resource management in agriculture sector. So, in this study, different Irrigation water pricing methods is investigated and proper irrigation water price is determined using survey data for 2010-2011 farming year in Golestan Province of Iran. At the first step using econometric approach, economic value of irrigation water in different agriculture crops is determined that shows demand side price for water. Then, supply cost of surface and ground water is calculated using accounting approach which shows supply side price for irrigation water. Finally, economic value and supply cost of irrigation water compared and different water pricing methods is evaluated. Results indicated that, weighted average of economic value and supply costs of irrigation water in Golestan province were 1795 and 1399 IRR per cubic meter, respectively. So, improvement of water demand and supply management could be achieved using price policies.

This study investigated the status of mechanized power and self-propelled rice cultivation machinery in Guilan Province in northern Iran. The raw data was obtained from 2013 statistics of the Agricultural Jihad Organization of Guilan province. Power per unit of area, mechanization level, area per unit of self-propelled machinery, and mechanization requirement were calculated for eastern, western and central Guilan. The mean power per unit of area for eastern, western and central Guilan was 2.22, 2.07, and 3.09 hpha-1, respectively. The total mechanization requirements were determined to be 0%, 73.39%, 99.28%, and 52.47% for land preparation, transplanting, weeding, and harvesting operations, respectively. The area per self-propelled rice machinery was 111.38, 3777.97, and 358.99 ha for rice transplanter, weeder, and combine harvester, respectively. This indicates that there is insufficient mechanization for rice weeding and that there is an urgent need to increase the machinery available for this agronomic operation in the paddy fields of Guilan Province.

The main purpose of this study was to analyze of communicative factors affecting in application of Sustainable Rice Farming Practices among paddy farmers of Mazandaran province. The statistical population of consisted of paddy farmers of Mazandaran province (N= 208839). According to Cochran formula, a sample of 240 farmers was selected through cluster sampling method. To collect data, a questionnaire was designed. Reliability of the questionnaire was measured by computing Cronbach’s alpha (α ≥0/7) and its validity was approved by a panel of expert. Factor analysis revealed that communicative factors affecting in application of Sustainable Rice Farming Practices were four factors including: organizational communication, modern communication, local interpersonal communication and external interpersonal communication, respectively according to their importance. These factors explained\ 67.92 percent of the total variance.

The impact of climate change does not only affect the production aspects but also on household income and other socioeconomic aspects. The research aims to determine the household economic behaviors of rice farmers in decisionmaking with relation to the production risks due to climate change and determine the farmer’s adaptation strategies in the face of climate change. The approach taken is the production risk analysis using the coefficient variance. The result shows that the farmers’ behavior to manage rice farming in the tidal area has neutral risk behavior. This means that if there is a risk or possibility of risk recurrence towards rice farming, thus the decision maker (farmer) still does not reduce or enlarge the scale of their business. Adaptation strategies adopted by farmers in swampland consists of short, medium and long term strategies. The improved adaptive capacity on farm level should be through planned adaptation whose development is conducted by the government to be synergistic and rely on autonomous adaptation that has been a tradition in the farmers community.

This paper aims to discover the determinants of farmers’ participation in horticulture-based Education programs in the Western Azerbaijan province, Iran. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the study also tries to make a comparison between participants and non-participants, who have achieved in this program. A sample of 231 farmers (137 participants and 94 non-participants) was selected based on a stratified random sampling method. Data gathering instrument was a questionnaire that its validity was approved by a group of experts and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha (α=0.71). The results showed that, there were significant differences between participants and non-participants in agricultural education programs in terms of all the TPB contexts. Additionally, the results of the regression analysis showed that attitude to how thinking and decision and subjective norms were the best determinants of farmers’ participation.