Assessment the Factors Affecting the Participation of Rural Communities in Implementation of Desertification Plan in Iran's Desert Climates

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effective factors on farmers' participation in combating desertification plans in Iran. Thus, a number of farmers as a sample population were selected using Cochran’s formula and multi-stages sampling for selecting samples was done. A questionnaire was used to collect data whose validity was confirmed by advisor and supervisor professors and some experts of desert organization. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by computing Cronbach's alpha that was more than 0.75. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Expert choice 11 software and results showed that the population of the study had low literacy and income. They also had participated very few in education courses, whereas it was observed a significant positive relationship between variables such as literacy, income, and participation in education courses with the participation variable. Also, the correlation relationship between independent factors such as psychological, cultural, economic, education/extension and institution factors with the dependent variable of participation variable showed that except psychological factor, all of those factors had a significant relationship (sig level of 0.01) with participation variable. The results of the regression analysis also revealed that social/cultural and economic factors were the most important factors on the participation variable and explained 66% of participation changes. The model output indicated that rural communities showed significant interest in the city.