Identification Barriers of Agricultural Development from Farmers Perspective of the Qaratureh District

The agriculture sector though is one of the most important economic sectors in the country, but is faced with major limitations. The purpose of this research is to study the barriers of agricultural development from farmers perspectives in the Qaratureh district. The statistical population of the study consisted of 2800 farmers from 27 villages of the Qaratureh district. The statistical population mentioned included, a number 338 farmers who were selected by using stratified random sampling method and based on Krejcie and Morgan tables. Instrument for compilation of data was a questionnaire. To ensure the validity of the questionnaire expert panels were used and for the reliability Cronbach's alpha was used and its amount was obtained to be 0.84. Based on the results obtained in communication with barriers of agricultural development in the studied case region, 30 variables, with using factor analysis technique were summarized into five factors infrastructural, economic-managerial, natural, cultural and educational. The results showed that based on farmers perspectives, the infrastructural factor was the first barrier of region agricultural development. This factor explain about 24/40% of the total variance of the research variables. One of the major problems in the Qaratureh District is the lack of water. Part of this problem is lack of infrastructure and it is related in part to lack of financial resources and lack of farm capital. Therefore, it is suggested that the government supports farmers in order to establish agricultural development infrastructure such as Land Consolidation, water canalization, Sprinkler irrigation systems development, leveling and drainage lands and Granting of bank facilities.