Designing a Process Model for Conservative Agriculture Development in Iran: Using Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach

Conservative agriculture (CA) development is a new paradigm to achieve sustainable agricultural production, needs process model to explain the development phases step by setp. The aim of this study was to design a process model for CA development in Iran by using interpretive structural modeling. The statistical population of the study was the members of technical committees and research institutes and extension and education of conservation agriculture in nine leader provinces in conservative agriculture. 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted with CA experts. The main steps of CA development were identified by using content analysis with the help of ATLAS.ti software. Then, the interrelationships among the identified steps have been investigated by using the interpretive structural modeling technique and a process model of steps to CA development at national and local level. The analysis revealed that CA development process at national level should start with the analysis of current CA situation, and end with mobilizing and allocating of resources and budget and designing of institutional structure. Process model at the national level creats an appropriate institutional and policy environment to manage CA development at the local level to achieve the ultimate goal of the wide scale adoption and dissemination of CA technology.