Perceptions and Vulnerability to Environmental Changes Among the Farmers Najaf Abad County

Agricultural sector is inherently sensitive to climate change conditions and this has made it one of the most vulnerable sectors to the risks and effects of environmental change. The purpose of this study is perceptions and vulnerability of environmental changes in the agricultural sector of rural areas Najafabad County. The present research is descriptive-analytical and the data are prepared by survey method. The statistical population study is farmers Najafabad County. The sample size using the table of Bartlett et al. 209 farmers was determined. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the validity of the measuring instrument that in this way, the questionnaire was approved with a 0.735 credit coefficient. One-sample t-test, exploratory factor analysis and variance-based structural equation modeling approach and PLS software were used to data analysis. The results show that low education of farmers in addition to increasing their vulnerability to environmental changes such as drought and water scarcity also affects their characteristics and production and agricultural behaviors. Conclusions of One-sample t-test indicate that the impacts of environmental changes on indices of cultivated lands, crop yield, growth period, crop quality, quantity and amount of water, farmers income reduction, unemployment and finally rural migration is above average.  Also, the research in factor analysis model demonstrates that there are 5 underlying factors among which economic and livelihood have the highest percentage of explanation of variance of research variables. In general, it can be acknowledged that the agricultural sectors of the Najafabad have been seriously damaged and the economic foundation of rural households has been severely weakened due to this issue.