shahram mohammadzadeh

In developing countries, young people are not only future leaders but also part of the human capital to achieve development. The unwillingness of young people to choose agricultural jobs is a serious threat to achieving sustainable rural development. The purpose of the research was to analyze the factors affecting the motivation of rural youth to choose agricultural jobs in the Maku free zone. The research was conducted using a survey method and questionnaire tool in 2016. The statistical population included all rural youth aged 15-24 in Maku Free Zone, 128 of whom were selected as samples by random sampling method. Data were analyzed by applying the chi-square test, phi and Eta coefficients, logistic regression, and SPSS software. The results showed that 74.2% of young people are interested in choosing agricultural jobs and 25.8% are interested in choosing non-agricultural jobs. Four variables including, the youth's view of agriculture (with Exp., 4.932), the literacy level of young people (with Exp., 0.538), the literacy level of the respondent's father (with Exp., 0.711), and marriage (with Exp., 1.350) explained their choice for agricultural jobs. Therefore, it is suggested that governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions, while giving importance to the agricultural sector in macro-politics and introducing successful models of agriculture promote the value of work and employment in the agricultural sector so that, it is considered as part of the norms of the society. In addition, using free zone potential, the government can help their employment in the agricultural field by allocating land and water, providing facilities, and developing transformational and complementary industries.

Regarding the importance of climate change on agriculture sector, in this study, the economic impacts of climate change on irrigated baley land rent are investigated by using the panel data technique and random effect model (2001-2018 agricultural year). The needed data were collected using secondary data and referring to the relevant organizations and institutions such as Iran Meteorological Organization and the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad. Based on the result, after determination of futer value of rent, the trend of irrigated barley land rent in some provine is positive and in the some province is negative.  The land rent of East Azarbayejan, Ardebil, Razavi Khorasan, South Khorasan, North Khorasan, Qom, Kerman, and Khuzestan provinces is decreased. The land rent of Tehran, Esfahan, Qazvin, Hamedan, and Markazi provinces is increased. In addition, With one percent increase in the precipitation, barley rent increases by 28351 (10 Rial). there is a positive relation between pericipitation and agricultural land rent. Also, labor and fertilizer has positive effect on irrigated barley land rent.

Context and purpose:

  One of the important issues in the agricultural production cooperatives sustainability is its role in creating and strengthening social capital. The pourpose was to measure and compare social capital between members and non-members farmers of production cooperatives.

The research was applied and quasi-experimental. The statistical population consisted of 460 farmers of Araz 1 and 2 production cooperatives (as experimental group) and Qiqaj Plain (as control group) in the the margin of Aras River in Poldasht Township. According to Krejcie and Morgan table and using proportional stratified random sampling, 142 and 68 people from the experimental group and control group were selected respectively. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by university faculty members and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.73 to 85).

Overall, the extent of social capital was lower than average. According to Mann-Whitney test, the rank average of social capital and components of social trust, trust in government institutions, participation and relationships network were significantly lower among production cooperative members than non-members. However, no significant difference was observed between the components of social cohesion and trust in civic institutions between these two groups. Therefore, these production cooperatives have been established by the government in a top-down manner, which has caused the destruction of rural subculture and reduce social trust.

Previous studies have investigated social capital only form members viewpoint. Therefore, the use of experimental research method provides useful results for establishing and management of cooperatives.

In developing countries, including Iran, universities have been criticized for focusing on educational and research roles with minimal impact on societies. In this regard, the purpose of research was to design a model for providing university extension services in the colleges of agriculture and natural resources. The s tatis tical population of the research consis ted of two parts: 1) All faculty members of the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Urmia University, including 110 people, of which 82 people were randomly selected based on the Karjik and Morgan table. 2) The community of academic and organizational experts including 18 people who were selected in a purposeful way until reaching the theoretical saturation index. Qualitative method of grounded theory and quantitative survey method with ques tionnaire and interview ins truments were used. The results of the descriptive s tatis tics showed that the majority of the respondents are dedicated to the mechanisms of providing extension services, including the es tablishment of the extension office at college, the organizational pos t of extension expert in educational departments, the creation of pos tgraduate courses in the field of extension and agricultural education, as well as the formation of thematic technical committees. They agreed on allocated parts of the duties to the extension if these activities will consider as promotion indicators. According to the field data obtained from the opinions of experts, the model of providing extension services in agricultural and natural resources colleges was designed, which includes the components of causal requirements, contextual conditions, intervening conditions and the paradigm necessary for this work that It can have had positive

The facilities allocated to agricultural projects can play a key role in the sustainable development of agriculture if they are subjected to a detailed economic, social and environmental assessment. The purpose of the research was to provide a framework for evaluating the sustainability of agricultural projects applying for the Agricultural Bank facilities. The statistical population included the faculties and facility experts of the Agricultural Bank. Using a targeted sampling, 30 people were selected includes: 15 university faculties with expertised in sustainable agriculture and 15 facilites experts in the supervision and various branches of the Agricultural Bank of West Azarbaijan Province. The analytical hierarchical process method was used with two scenarios of experts and faculties. In order to identify and weight the sustainability criteria and sub-criteria of agricultural projects, a questionnaire tool was used. Also, three selected agricultural projects were considered for sustainability evaluation. Based on the results, the inconsistency rate (CR) value for both faculties and experts was calculated as 0.00, which was less than 0.1, so the consistency of the results was confirmed. A combined economic, social and environmental index was introduced to evaluate the alignment of agricultural projects with sustainable development. The results indicated that university faculties prioritize environmental issues in the evaluation of projects, while experts consider economic issues to be more important. In both scenarios the project's financial resources, social capital and water consumption from the economic, social and environmental aspects had the most weights in the evaluation of agricultural sustainability. In addition, the greenhouse banana project is the first priority of sustainability and the projects of growing rose cut flowers and hydroponic cucumbers were in the next ranks, respectively. Therefore, if the allocation of facilities is done in the same order and share, it will have the least negative economic, social and environmental effects.

The concept “social capital” was proposed by experts after the topic of “sustainable development” was raised in the last decades of the 20th century. The central concept of social capital is that social interactions create social networks, strengthen trust, form values, support norms and culture, and create community. Social capital and its components influence many people's views, attitudes and behaviors of environmental protection. Environmental protection behavior is also called pro-environmental behavior. The purpose of this research is to measure the amount of social capital of farmers and its effect on their Pro-Environmental Behavioral Tendencies (PEBT). The purpose of this research is to measure the extent of social capital of farmers and its effect on their PEBT.

This research was done with a quantitative paradigm and survey method. The statistical population included all farmers of Urmia, 184 of them were selected by random sampling. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, whose validity was confirmed by 4 related faculty members of Urmia University and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.75 to 0.83). Data were collected by interview technique and analyzed with SPSS version 26 software and by using one-sample and two-sample t tests, regression modeling and path analysis.

The findings showed that in overall, the extent of social capital among farmers is lower than average. The results of the components of social capital also showed that internal social capital includeing, trust in the internal society, social cohesion, participation and interaction with the internal society (internal relations network) were significantly higher than the average, but external social capital including, trust in the external society, trust in public, civil, and private institutions, and the interaction of the villagers with the external society (external relations network) is significantly lower than the average. Overwhelming majority (95%) of farmers had destructive environmental behavioral tendencies. The variables of trust in social institutions, external relations network, the educational levels of farmers and their children (ELFCH), and using extension publications and the Internet have a significant positive relationship, and the variables of age and number of children have a significant negative relationship with PEBT. In addition, the level of PEBT among urban farmers with non-agricultural occupations is higher than rural farmers with agricultural occupations. The variables of the external relations network and ELFCH, explain more than 15% of the changes in farmers' PEBT, and the two variables of ELFCH play a moderating role.

Based on the results, it is suggested that the agricultural governmental and non-govermental organizations put transparency and accountability and fight against corruption in their work priorities in order to strengthen trust and social capital. By making policies, creating a suitable market for organic products and formulating suitable mechanisms, the agricultural governmental organization should drive the behavior of farmers towards pro-environmental behavior. At the same time, using extension channels, agricultural extension officiers should try to provide more information and training, especially for the elderly farmers, and do not forget this group because most of these farmers are subsistence, small-scale and traditional farmers, and extension training should be a priority for this group. Finally, the development of human resources in rural areas should continue at a faster pace so that by improving the education level of farmers, their behaviors will be directed towards environmentally friendly behaviors.

One of the problems of universities in Iran is the lack of participation of faculty members in extension activities. The purpose was to investigate factors affecting the intention of Agricultural and Natural Resources Colleges’ Faculties (ANRCF) toward participation in Extension Services (ES). This research was taken from both quantitative and qualitative paradigms and a survey conducted from March 2020 to March 2021. The statistical population was 110 ANRCF of Urmia University. 82 people were selected as sample. The research tool were interview and questionnaire. The questionaire was designed based on theory of planned behavior. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 5 faculty members at Urmia University and its convergent validity was confirmed using AVE (0.52-0.73). The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated with the ordinal theta (0.71-0.90) and CR (0.81-0.95). Ordinal logistic regression results showed that: The intention of faculties to participate in ES is moderate influenced by three factors: age, trust to the farmers community, and behavioral control variables. To strengthen the participation of faculties to ES, some suggestions include: adding the extension task into the mission of the Ministry of Science; Signing a contract between the universities and the agricultural organization; Considering the material and spiritual motives; participating faculties in participatory approaches, online agricultural education, radio and television programs, and providing content for extension media.

Mens Rea (Mental element) merely doesn’t consist the people who decide to violate the law or knowingly their conducts may create prohibited result, rather in some cases can encompass some people who should foresee risk of their conduct. Recklessness and Negligence are the most obvious examples of fault (Shortcoming) in Iran and England criminal systems which can create criminal liability. Now the questions are these:Frist, what are the concepts of these examples and what is two criminal system’s approach to them. Second, what are the criterions for evaluation of these conducts and how will criminal liability be imposed in these criminal systems. It means that, which one of the subjective or objective tests will create criminal liability. In this article we want to prove that mere reliance to one of these tests won’t adapt with judicial justice. We should integrate these tests with balanced point of view and blame perpetrators of these conducts.

The present research is an applied research conducted by survey method in order to determine the sustainable farming system in the downstream lands of the Karamabad dam. The statistical population includes all experts who had sufficient information and experience about dimensions of sustainability of farming systems especially in the research area. Using targeted sampling method, 15 experts were identified. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the faculty members in economics, extension and environment majors of the Urmia University. The inconsistibility rate was used to measure reliability. Utilizing the Hierarchical Analysis Process (AHP) the decision tree was made consisting of criteria, sub-criteria and options, for determining a sustainable farming system. The data were analyzed using Expert choice software. The results showed that considering economic, social and environmental criteria, farming joint stock companies was introduced as the most sustainable farming system from the viewpoint of experts. Also, in terms of economic and environmental criteria, the agro-industry farming system was in the second priority. In terms of social sub-criteria, the small peasant farming system had better than other farming systems because of solving the problem of ownership conflict. Necessary suggestions for setting up farming joint stock companies in the study area were provided.

Although the export of agricultural products in Iran has an important role in the national economy, but agricultural production cooperatives have failed in marketing and exporting products. The aim of this study was to determine the appropriative strategies for marketing and exporting of agricultural products in agricultural production cooperatives of Maku Industrial and Trade Free Zone. An applied research was conducted by using a survey method and a questionnaire. The statistical population included directors and members of the board of directors of the two production cooperatives and experts who were 40 people in overall that were studied by the census method. Using internal and external matrices and SWOT analytical matrix, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing cooperatives were prioritized and then appropriate strategies were identified. Based on the results, a total of 12 strength versus 20 weaknesses and 13 opportunities against 13 threats were identified. Based on the results, a conservative- revision strategy was identified to use opportunities and eliminate weaknesses. The proposed strategies were: using investors to create processing and complementary industries; Utilization of new production technologies; Employing specialized staff and managers in production cooperatives; Granting banking facilities with special conditions to exporters of agricultural products; Conduct marketing research; Quantitative and qualitative improvement of agricultural products; And timely provision of production inputs.