International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Mar 2016

Advertising is not only as a tool to increase company sales. Fast development of mass communication tools and added new mediums to advertising media have been introduced the advertising as a key element in the success or failure of a company. Due to the intense competition between companies and the fast growth of markets and changes in consumer behavior, advertising is taken into consideration as a major tool to create consumer awareness of products and services. Thus, in order to choose the best advertising method for meat products (sausages and salami), comments of 500 Shiraz citizens are collected by Cochran sampling and used in data analysis by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). After gathering the data, by synthesis the comments of respondents through arithmetic mean, the pairwise comparison matrix of criteria and priorities was formed to estimate the relative weights of them to achieve the goals of "the best method of advertising". The results indicated with respect to citizen viewpoints, the media advertisement, the street billboards, the advertising brochures, the advertising kiosks, and the purchase awards have the highest degree of importance with weight 0.430, 0.238, 0.139, 0.098 and 0.096, respectively. Due to the competition of different meat products factories, to make interest and encourage for purchasing a goods toward the competitor goods, it is necessary to use the persuasive advertisement.

Water shortage crisis is an issue that has led to drastic changes in different agricultural policies, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Uncertainty in the amount of resources, e.g. water, used for agricultural production entails risk for farmer's income and cropping pattern changes. In the present study, the robust optimization model was used for optimal allocation of arable lands of Khorasan Razavi Province under uncertainty. During the allocation, the effect of water input price variations on total gross margin and cropping pattern was considered. It was found that under certain data, both parameters of total gross margin and total acreage are more than uncertain data. Given that water price variations resulted in tangible changes in wheat acreage, it is recommended to adopt appropriate policies to reduce its production risk.

The production of public goods like amenity value of the landscape, food security, preservation of rural communities and rural lifestyle, by agricultural sector is a subject that has been widely accepted by experts. However, in many policies and political analyses carried out, solely the production of private goods by the agricultural sector is paid attention and the important function of public goods production is ignored. Given the importance of multifunctional debate of agriculture in policies analysis, this study examined the effect of agricultural multifunctionality in the simulation of the agricultural production subsidies reduction effects using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. Simulation results of the effects of agricultural production subsidies reduction in terms of the multifunctionality showed that current practices to support the agricultural sector is non-optimal according to agricultural production and welfare reduction and the optimal level of supports with and without multifunctional agriculture is different. The simulation results showed that the welfare effects of economic reforms in Iran in the agricultural sector in terms of the multifunctionality will be positive. This is on condition that the welfare effects of agricultural reform in terms of the multifunctionality of agriculture are negative.

The survival of the firms depends on the adoption of techniques and methods for encouraging learning among people. On other hand, it is necessary to have an attitude for interaction and endeavour in order for the learning to be built and conserved. Therefore, committed people in organizations have always been emphasized as a driving force of the extension and creation of learning. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of strategic learning practices on employees’ commitment in small and medium-sized sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in agriculture and protein food production sectors in Guilan Province. The statistical society was composed of 650 key people of SMEs in agriculture and food sector in Guilan Province. Stratified sampling method was applied. Tseng’s standard questionnaire was used as main tool for data collection. The research is a practical study in terms of objective and a correlation-based descriptive studied in terms of data collection methodology. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and stepwise regression was used for inferential statistics. In inferential section, Pearson’s coefficient of correlation was used to examine the relationships between strategic learning methods and people’s commitment. Furthermore, stepwise regression was used to examine the impact of various aspects of strategic learning methods on people’s commitment. SPSS Software Package was applied for statistical analyses. It was found that strategic learning practices were significantly correlated with employees commitment. Based on the regression results, create system, strategic leadership and empower people were ranked as the first, second and third strongest factors influencing employees’ commitment, respectively.

The growing population and increasing socio-economic necessities creates a pressure on land use/land cover. Nowadays, land use change detection using remote sensing data provides quantitative and timely information for management and evaluation of natural resources. This study investigates the land use changes in part of Hableh Rood Watershed of Iran using Landsat 7 and 8 (Sensor ETM and OLI) images between 2001 and 2013. Supervised classification was used for classification of Landsat images. Four land use classes were delineated including rangeland, irrigated farming and plantations land, and dry farming lands,urban. Visual interpretation, expert knowledge of the study area and ground truth information accumulated with field works to assess the accuracy of the classification results. Overall accuracy of 2001 and 2013 image classification was 81.48 (Kappa coefficient: 0.7340) and 87.04 (Kappa coefficient: 0.7841), respectively. The results showed considerable land cover changes for the given study area. Land cover change detection showed that in a period of 12 years, 277.57 hectares of dry farming lands and 340 hectares of dense range have been lost. But, 341 hectares for low dense range, 280 hectares for semi dense range and 1.4 hectares for urban areas, have been added in area.

In spite of the development of various improved cultivars of maize, yield in Nigeria has continued to be hampered by the over cropped nature of most farmlands as well as a wide range of pests and diseases. This study therefore carried out an analysis of agro-chemical inputs’ use in maize production among small scale farmers in Iwo Local Government Area of Osun State. Specifically, the study investigated the relationship between agro-chemical inputs’ use and maize yield in the study area. It determined the factors affecting agro-chemical inputs’ use and the major constraints to its usage. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from 105 respondents obtained through a two stage random sampling procedure. Analytical tools employed for the study included Pearson Moment correlation and linear regression analysis. The study revealed a 78.5% positive and significant relationship between agro-chemical inputs’ use and maize yield (p

Farmers’ participation in the maintenance and operation of water facilities has a positive impact on their attitude and internal trends and incentives to have closer cooperation with Regional Water Organization. The transfer of irrigation management to farmers enhances the productivity of water facilities and ultimately, results in efficient water use in agriculture. In order to evaluate the effect of participation and transfer of irrigation management to farmers, four hypotheses have been proposed. The study was an applied research according to the goal and was a descriptive survey as data collection method. Judgmental sampling was used to take samples from the population. A researcher-made questionnaire was employed for data collection. It was conducted among 120 people in Guilan Regional Water Organization engaged in agricultural sections. The questionnaire's validity was confirmed by content validity and its total reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha as to be 0.86 using SPSS software. The effects of participation on farmers’ commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction and the legitimacy of Regional Water Organization of Guilan province were evaluated at 0.01 level, and no evidence was found to reject the hypotheses.

The aim of this research was to investigate this research was to investigate the relationship between Agricultural Information System (AIS) member's viewpoint towards organic products and their environmental in central District of Boyer- Ahmad County. The research population included researchers, extension agents and contact farmers of the study area and based on this population numbers, the sample sizes were determined 62, 55 and 60 persons respectively using Krejcie and Morgan sampling table. The main tool for collecting data about the respondent’s viewpoints towards organic products was a pre-designed questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by rural development experts and its reliability also confirmed by using Cronbach-Alpha coefficient (0.76-0.94).Moreover, the environmental attitude of the respondents was measured using Dunlap & Van Liere's New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. The results showed that researchers, extension agents and farmers had a moderate environmental attitude. Furthermore, researchers and extension agents had above average viewpoint towards organic products. However, farmers had a fairly favorable viewpoint. In addition, the relationship between Agricultural Information System Member's viewpoint towards organic products and their environmental attitude was positive and significant which indicated that the more favorable environmental attitude they have, the more tendencies towards organic products they have. As a result, improving environmental attitude should be given priority in order to produce healthy products and preserve the environment.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Knowledge Management (KM) in Organizational Entrepreneurship (OE) among agriculture extension workers at Kermanshah Township, Iran. The statistical population in this study consisted of all agriculture extension workers of Jihad-e-Agriculture management and centers of agricultural services at Kermanshah Township (N=143), of whom 129 were available and provided data for this study. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by the panel of experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (α>0.70). Data was analyzed by SPSSwin21 software in two parts of descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (correlation and regression analysis) statistics. Based on the results of enter multiple regression, KM components were the main predictors of OE among agriculture extension workers. The findings of this study have applications for Jihad-e-Agriculture management and centers of agricultural services in order to promoting OE among agriculture extension workers in Iran.

One of the central duties of rural production cooperatives is to promote the adoption and application of sustainable agricultural practices by farmers, which hinges on several factors. Therefore, the study intends to evaluate the factors influencing the application of sustainable agricultural practices by paddy farmers. The research population included from all includes all paddy farmers as members of the production cooperatives in rural areas of Sari County, Iran (N=4160). A total of 162 farmers were selected through stratified sampling technique. The data was gathered through questionnaires, that its face validity was verified by a panel of experts, and its reliability was obtained through a pilot test (Alpha Cronbach coefficient, 0.93). The results showed that the application of sustainable agricultural practices was generally good. Moreover, the findings showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between the age, using information sources, family members, cultivating area, production amount, social status, access to inputs, participating in extension training courses and economic factors with the application of sustainable agricultural practices. The stepwise linear regression analysis results showed that the variables of cultivating area/hectare, economic facilities, participating in extension training courses and age can determine 61.8% variation of the application of sustainable agricultural practices by paddy farmers as members of rural production cooperatives.

Sistan region is one of the most important agricultural areas in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan. Therefore, given the heterogeneity in agriculture and recognizing these differences, the aim of this study was to obtain the level of development of agriculture in the Sistan region. To obtain this purpose two Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and the numerical taxonomy was used in a view of 20 indicators in the agricultural sector in the region. The required data was achieved by filling out the questionnaire certified experts and statistical yearbooks in the agricultural sector. Data analysis was used by Matlab and SPSS software. Results of numerical taxonomy showed that Markazi, Shibab and Poshteab sectors component parts were less developed. Also, Jazinak and Miyankangi are in the category sections were undeveloped. The results of Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) model indicated that Markazi, Shibab and Poshteab sectors are in the first rank of development, in terms of agricultural indices in the region. Jazinak and Miyankangi are in the fourth and fifth ranking. Therefore, in general, it is clear that the level of development of agricultural in Sistan region isn’t in good condition. In this regard itis suggested that appropriate planning to promote agricultural development is on the agenda should be applied.

This study were examined relationship between bank credits and investment growth of agricultural sector in Iran during the period of 1982-2011 by auto regressive distribution lag bounds test approach. Basically, the growth investing of the agricultural sector in Iran is related to oil revenues, bank credits, value added of agriculture sector and capital stock. The results confirm the existence of a long-run relationship between variables in model. In addition, according to the results, bank credit is the most significant variable in explaining the growth investing, so that increases access to it will encourage growth investment of the agricultural sector in Iran. The estimations show that elasticity of bank credits, oil revenues, stock investment and value added are 0.103, 0.015, 0.049 and -0.058 in the agricultural sector respectively.

Sustainability concept in agriculture is becoming widespread throughout industries in many fields even in crop production, livestock production and etc. Sustainable in agriculture is believed can give present and future good benefit to the farmers and society. However, in dairy sector in Malaysia, the sustainability concepts and practices seems not fully aware by the farmers which result in low self- sufficiency level in milk production. The self-sufficiency level in Malaysia is merely 6% and this lead to the urgency of importing more milk from other countries such as Australia, Holland and others. This study attempts to describe the descriptive thoughts on sustainability among Malaysian dairy farmers as well as describing the socio economic characteristics of the dairy farmers which will be the indicator of adoption of sustainability practices among dairy farmers. The preliminary data was collected using questionnaires through conducting face to face interviews with 50 dairy farmers from Johor. The Likert-type scale was employed to determine the practices that adopted by the dairy farmers. The gathered data was analysed using SPSS. The findings indicated that the dairy farmers had a higher understanding about the farm sustainability aspect which gives the highest mean score of 4.41. The second highest mean score is the ecological aspect which is about 4.13. The mean score for economic aspect shows the mean score about 4.00. The social aspect of sustainability revealed the lowest mean score which was about 3.46. The results indicated that the farmers favour sustainable practice is farm sustainability system. Sustainability in dairy farming sector in Malaysia can be achieved if the three element of sustainability which is environmental, economic and social aspect were implemented and adopted in this sector.

In this study, qualitative land suitability evaluation was made for research station of East Azarbaijan, for tomato, potato, onion and bean. The study was done using Simple Limitation Method (SLM), Limitation Method regarding Number and Intensity (LMNI) and Parametric Methods (PM) such as the square root and the Storie methods. The results from different methods indicated that the most important limiting factors are Organic Matter (OM), salinity and sodicity and calcium carbonates, either alone or in combination. Evaluation indicated that the (SLM) and (LMNI) mainly show similar suitability classes, but Parametric methods especially square root method which it's results revealed to be more realistic show different suitability classes in many cases. According to the square root method, the area can be recommended as marginally suitable for cultivation of tomato and potato and expected to yield about 40-65% of optimal production.