An Investigation of Attitude towards Sustainable Agricultural Activities among Isfahan Cotton Producers

Farmer's attitudes play an important role in their towards sustainable agriculture behavior. Factors affecting men and women cotton producers’ attitude towards sustainable agriculture were investigated in the course of this worke. The research was a survey one using Stratified Random Sampling, conducted in Esfahan Province. The subjects were selected from 179 cotton producing families (357 men and women, 179 and 178 in number respectively). The necessary data for the research was obtained through questionnaire. The findings indicated that access to information related to sustainable agriculture, knowledge of sustainability, moral and social norms for implementing sustainable activities, religious and spiritual values, environmental affects, awareness of environmental consequences and an ascription of behavioral environmental responsibility are positively and significantly correlated with the attitude of sustainability. On the other hand, the number of household members and the years being involved in cotton cultivation arein a significant negative correlation with the attitude of sustainability. The findings also indicated that moral norm for sustainable activity in cotton cultivation as well as land were major determinants of women and men cotton producers’ attitude of sustainability. The variables of: environmental affects, ascription of behavioral environmental responsibility, access to information related to sustainable agriculture, land under cotton cultivation, age and religious as well as spiritual values were some determinants of women cotton producers’ attitude of sustainability. Also, findings indicated that in addition to moral norm for doing sustainable activities in cotton cultivation and land factor, awareness of environmental consequences is also an important determinant of men cotton producers’ attitude of sustainability.