The knowledge assessment of greenhouse owners in Yazd City about control management, standardization, and crop improvement

Investigating the knowledge of greenhouse owners about the different aspects of the management of greenhouse systems makes a base through which it is possible to discern the existing knowledge gaps together with implementing the respective educational measures to provide the desirable quantitative and qualitative levels of production. Due to this, the present study was aimed at investigating the existing and desirable knowledge of greenhouse owners in Yazd City in reference to the management of control and prevention, standardization and crop improvement. Using the proportional stratified sampling, 322 greenhouse units were selected and surveyed in light of a self-implemented questionnaire (N = 2073). In order to confirm the face validity of the questionnaire, two faculty members of the Agricultural Extension and Education Department and the Department of Sociology and Planning of Shiraz University reviewed, thus according to their comments, the necessary amendments were achievable. The reliability of the research indices was also measured by a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient test (θ = 0.74-0.87). The results of Wilcoxon signed-rank test (a non-parametric statistical hypothesis test) show that there is a significant difference between the mean rank of the existing and the desired knowledge of greenhouse owners, the effect size of 0.87 also confirms the considerable impact. In conclusion, practical suggestions for planning and implementing executive decisions in the field of greenhouse owners education were delivered to fill the knowledge gap.