Evaluation of Agritourism Development Capabilities and Determinationof of Its Adoption in the Target Population (Farmers and Tourists) in Lenjan

Rural devel opment and the acute problems of rural areas are increasing day by day and even moving to the city. Other agricultural activities and traditional activities can not meet the needs of rural communities. Nevertheless, the agricultural sector has a multi-functional character, and it can not be evaluated solely on the basis of production, income and employment. But agriculture, in addition to product production, should be evaluated on the basis of concepts such as conservation, recreational activities and leisure.
In this regard, agricultural tourism is one of the strategies that has been proposed in the last few decades to diversify the rural economy and sustainable rural development. Lenjan is one of the most prone and active sectors of immigration and other socio-economic problems. Therefore, this research intends to identify some of the existing capabilities in the agricultural tourism sector and to analyze the level of attitude and acceptance of farmers and tourists towards the development of agricultural tourism, provide solutions for the development of agricultural tourism, in accordance with the conditions agriculture in Isfahan province, which, having the potential, resources and attractions of agricultural tourism, with due attention and planning, has the capacity to expand agricultural tourism and use its benefits to promote the economic level of farmers and villagers.
Methods and material: The present research from the view point of objective is an applied one and in terms of type, is descriptive-analytical one. The statistical population includes farmers and tourists in Lenjan. Sample size was selected based on the number of employed in the agricultural sector and tourists entering in to the city. The sample number is based on the Cochran formula, 192 farmers and 192 tourists. Cluster random sampling method and two types of completed questionnaires have been used by field study. Chi-square and Friedman tests were used to examine the significance, comparison and response leveling from the viewpoints of the two groups of participants. Also, to investigate the correlation between the acceptance of respondents and agricultural tourism capabilities of the region, Spearman's correlation coefficient has been used.

The results of this study indicated that from the perspective of farmer respondents, 41.7% of farmers selected the agricultural sector to develop as "very high", 29.7% as "high" and 29.7% as "middle" agriculture tourism. From the perspective of 53.1% of tourist respondents, Lenjan has the "very high" capability, 21.9% as "high" and 20.8% as "middle" to develop the agritourism. Friedman’s test for ranking the attitude and acceptance of the farmers indicated that the ranking 1 was related to set up recreational services like horse riding for tourists and rank 5 was equivalent to the lowest one related to the allocation of part of the house of farmers and additional rooms for accommodating the tourists "among the items in general. Among the exclusive items the ranking 1 was related to "farmers” training and exchange of experiences in the field of farming and gardening activities to tourists and the grading 18 which was equivalent to the lowest rank among the specific items was related to "entering the tourists into the livestock of the farmers participate in keeping the various activities of livestock".
It was observed that in the tourism group, the ranking 1 was related to "Harvest Festival" which was equivalent to the lowest ranking 5 as overall rating among the items on the "accepting the farmers to rent a part of house or room for accommodation". Among the exclusive items the ranking 1 was related to "the tourists pay to buy the farm and garden crops" and the ranking 15 which was equivalent to the lowest rank in the specific items related to "the tourists enter in to the location and admission dairy cattle breeding, and participated in various activities".
The calculation of Spearman Coefficient also represented the correlation between the performance of the agricultural sector and the acceptance of both agriculture and tourism at the significance level of 0.000. (Sig=0.000)

The basis of statistical results taken from surveying the tourist and farmer respondents in the studied area indicated the "medium to high" capabilities for developing the agritourism. Also, from the viewpoints of agriculture and tourism, the relationship between the agricultural sector and the adoption of agriculture and tourism for agritourism development it can be said that Lenjan has the capability of developing tourism agriculture. Based on the results, the high attitude and acceptance of farmers and tourists are positive for developing agritourism in Lenjan.