Factors Affecting the Tendency of the Cooperative Member's Greenhouse Owners toward using Pesticides in Bandar Abbas Township

The chemical inputs such as chemical pesticides has harmful effects on the environment and human health but unfortunately, still widely used in developing countries. The purpose of this research was to investigate the factors affecting the tendency of the cooperative member's greenhouse owners in the Bandar Abbas Township toward pesticide use. For this purpose, this paper used the Health Belief Model as the theoretical research, to investigate willingness of greenhouse owners to pesticide use in the Hormozgan province. Sample of the research was selected based on simple random sampling (n = 110). Data collection in this study was conducted using a researcher-made questionnaire. After preparing the questionnaire and confirming its validity by experts, to determine the reliability of the various sections of the questionnaire, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was used (α= %63- %88).To examine the factors affecting the willingness of the cooperative member's greenhouse owners, the regression analysis using stepwise method was run. The findings revealed that three variables including perceived benefits, perceived barriers and perceived severity are able to predict a significant proportion of the variation in the willingness of the cooperative members greenhouse owners to pesticide use (R2= 0.44). Further, among variables in the model, perceived benefits variable is the most important variable. This variable is able to predict a significant proportion of the variation in willingness of the cooperative members greenhouse owners to pesticide use (R2= 0.37). Finally, based on the research results, provided suggestions to decrease willingness of the cooperative member's greenhouse owners to pesticide use.