Presenting Agricultural Marketing Model with Emphasis on Medicinal Herbs in Iran

Nowadays, in most developed countries, marketing of agricultural products is one of the major sectors of the economy. Therefore, the marketing of agricultural products is an important necessity and to solve the problems of rural areas and farmers, it is necessary to professionally market agricultural products into the agricultural development system of these areas. Accordingly, choosing the right marketing strategy is effective in selling more products and services and the success of organizations in the competition.

This research was conducted with the aim of providing an agricultural marketing model with an emphasis on medicinal herbs in Iran.

Qualitative and exploratory interpretive research method was conducted with grounded theory technique. The data collection of this research was done using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The statistical population includes elites, professors, and senior managers in the fields of agriculture and marketing of medicinal herbs, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 people through targeted sampling, and the theory building process reached theoretical saturation with 15 interviews. Data analysis has been done using Strauss and Corbin coding. The following methods have been used to validate the model and results consensus of data: in this research, various experts were interviewed, consensus of researchers: at different stages of this research, the research findings have been revised by other expert researchers. Member control: In this research, research findings have been reviewed with knowledgeable people and experts at different stages of the research. Validity and Reliability: In this research, to ensure the validity of the instrument, the participant control method was used, and to ensure the reliability, the retest method and intra-subject agreement method were used.

The qualitative research results were obtained based on three stages of coding with more than 108 meaningful propositions, 211 corresponding concepts, 23 subcategories, 9 main categories, and one core category, and based on the results, a qualitative research paradigm model was drawn. that the components of the paradigm model include 9 main categories obtained including; Skill development, market understanding, managers' commitment and orientation to marketing, commercial liberalization, synergy in marketing, market orientation, sustainable development of agriculture, globalization of markets and agricultural promotion, which by further abstracting these categories in the selective coding stage, a core category called "development" "Agricultural marketing" has led, which is related to all other categories.