FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION OF INNOVATIONS: THE CASE OF SAFFLOWER IN BANDAMIR DISTRICT

The entry of any innovation into a social system usually faces various barriers and limitations and it cannot be expected to be necessarily accompanied by acceptance and use. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting the adoption of safflower cultivation in Bandamir district of Zarghan area of ​​Fars Province. The study was conducted using a stratified random sampling method, data were collected from 64 adopters of safflower cultivars and 36 non-adopters. The data collection tool was a questionnaire whose face validity was confirmed by experts. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for different parts of the questionnaire was higher than 0.71. Data were analyzed using SPSSv22 software. The results showed that the most important difference between the adopters and non-adopters of safflower cultivation is related to age, agricultural experience, and the amount of the loan received. The results also indicated that the high accuracy and utility of discriminant analysis can classify adopter farmers of safflower cultivating from non-adopter ones. From the total variables entered the model, some variables including awareness rate, the received loan rate, communicational factors, the total amount of land under cultivation and literacy level, were the most important distinguishing variables of two adopter and non-adopter groups of safflower cultivation. In addition, the results of studying the characteristics of safflower products showed that according to farmer's view, this product is generally in desirable condition so that respondent's understanding of its relative advantage was higher than average score, in terms of compatibility it was in good conditions, in terms of the complexity it was nearly low, in terms of trial- ability, it gained a medium-to-high score and, about visibility, also it was moderate.