The Role of Social Capital on Female Citrus Orchardist's Empowerment in Sari Township

The overall aim of this research was to identify the role of social capital on empowerment of female citrus orchardists in Sari Township. A combination of quantitative, descriptive-inferential statistics served as the methodology of the study. In this research, 248 female citrus orchardists were selected through stratified random sampling. SPSS 16 was applied for data analysis. Cronbach's alpha was 0.87. The average age range of female citrus orchardists in the study was 49.88 years old and their relative work experience was 25.66 years old. The average amount of social capital and female citrus orchardist's empowerment in Sari Township were more. Regression showed that 8.9 percent of the variance of female citrus orchardist's empowerment was determined by social capital. It is recommended that social capital variables be considred to strengthen the women citrus orchardist's empowerment including th use of mass media by female citrus orchardists. However recommendations from other citrus orchardists, help from other female citrus orchardists with personal and family affairs, municipality and village council member's help and female citrus orchardist's information increase about modern horticultural machinery would be effective.