Factors Influencing on Farmer's Willingness in Equipping Farm to Renewable Energies Technology

The main purpose of this survey research was to study effective factors on farmer's willingness to equip their farms to renewable energies technology in the Tafresh Township. A descriptive- survey method was used for collecting the data. The statistical population of the study consisted of 2470 small farmers working in the smallholder farming systems of the region. According to the Krejcie & Morgan, a sample size of 300 was selected by using the stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. A panel of the experts confirmed validity of the questionnaire. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument. The Cronbach alpha's coefficient for the main scales of the questionnaire was higher than 0.75. The results of a regression analysis showed that 32.3 percent of variances of effective factors on farmer's willingness to equip their farms to renewable energies technology were explained by the seven variables including: willingness to install solar energy technology in the case of government support, willingness to change the current crop pattern, accept the risk of investing on solar technology, getting information from television about renewable energy resources, diversification of production activities, confidence to projects of taking energy from solar or plant debris and annual cost of home electricity.