International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:12 Issue: 1, Mar 2022

This study examined the participation of rural youth in mushroom production in the Umuahia Agricultural zone of Abia State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and examined their level of participation in mushroom production technology in the study area. Purposive and multi-stage sampling procedures were used in the selection of 60 youths who participated in Mushroom Production Technology Training in Umuahia Agricultural Zone. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire and analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics, while ordinary least square regression analysis was employed to test the hypothesis. The findings show that 58.3% of the respondents were males, 65.0% had tertiary education and 63.3% had 1-4 years experience in mushroom production. Participation in mushroom production was high (mean=3.17). The regression analysis shows that the level of education, household size, years of experience, and level of income of the respondents significantly influenced the level of participation of youth in mushroom production technology in the study area. From the result, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate hypothesis was accepted given that the computed F-statistic of 72.136 was significantly higher than the critical F-statistic at 1% level. Based on the results of the study, it could be inferred that the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents influenced their level of participation in mushroom production. The study recommended that government should encourage youths to get involved in mushroom production by relating the production technology information in such a way that they can understand and practice.

Energy demand and the factors affecting it have been growing in importance due to population growth, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and limited energy resources. The study of energy consumption in the agricultural sector of Iran shows an increase in the consumption of various energy carriers in this sector in recent years to increase production, employment, and food security. Given the significance of energy resources and environmental protection, the present study aims to investigate the impact of economic and non-economic factors on energy demand in Iran's agricultural sector over the period 1970-2017 using Markov switching-error correction model. The results indicate that the variable of agricultural production in both Markov regimes has a positive and significant effect on energy demand in this sector. The variable of the diversity of agricultural activities affects energy consumption in the agricultural sector positively. Also, the impact of human capital and trade liberalization in the agricultural sector on energy consumption in this sector is positive and significant. It is therefore suggested that to manage and optimize energy consumption, appropriate policies should be implemented in this sector to reduce environmental pollution and prevent the reduction of agricultural production

The emergence of agricultural e‐commerce can solve the challenges of agricultural marketing especially in developing countries such as Iran. The aim of this study was to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) through adding the variables social influence and facilitating conditions to understand farmers’ behavioral intention towards using agricultural e-commerce. This descriptive-correlational research was conducted through a cross-sectional survey. The statistical population of the study was Jahrom citrus growers, Iran, (N=3566). The stratified random sampling method was used and 360 respondents selected in the survey. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire, who’s the research instrument was a structured questionnaire, whose face, convergent, and discriminant validity of the questionnaire were confirmed. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were obtained using SPSS24 and AMOS24 software, respectively to examine the reliability of research tool (0.75< α< 0.85). The results showed that the extended form of TAM constructs was significant in explaining farmers’ behavioral intention. This means that attitude, perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions, social influence and perceived ease of use explained 50.3% of the variance in behavioral intention. The hypotheses of the extended TAM constructs showed that social influence and facilitating conditions have a positive and significant effect on intention towards using agricultural e-commerce. In this context, the government and agricultural e-commerce planners need to raise the awareness of all social influence groups about the benefits of using agricultural e-commerce through all media. In addition, providing technical and educational e-commerce facilities for farmers is recommended.

This research was conducted aimed at investigating the impacts of tourism on residents' subjective quality of life in tourism target villages of Marvdasht county. The statistical population of this study included 170 heads of households living in the tourism target villages of Marvdasht County, who were selected by simple random sampling method and based on Cochran’s formula. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire which its validity and reliability were confirmed. In order to analyze the data, exploratory factor analysis and Morris model were used. The finding of factor analysis showed that the components including cost, local livelihood and asset explain 61.27%, 58.77%, and 58.06 % of total variance of economic dimension of subjective quality of life, respectively. Also social dimension components (including local community and nutrition and health) explain 66.17% and 60.48% respectively; and environmental dimension components (including environmental sustainability and physical) explain 61.28% and 67.87% of total variance of residents' subjective quality of life, respectively. According to the findings, the level of subjective quality of life was medium (with the coefficient of 0.55) based on the Morris method. While the economic (with a coefficient of 0.53) and environmental (with a coefficient of 0.54) dimensions of subjective quality of life were at the medium level; the social dimensions of subjective quality of life (with a coefficient of 0.6) was at favorable level. Therefore, the highest score of the subjective quality of life in the tourism target villages was related to the social index.

The main purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the challenges of resistive economics in Iran's agricultural sector. The study used a survey method with a pairwise comparisons questionnaire as the main instrument. Because this study is based on the opinion of experts, 40 experts and senior managers of the Jihad Agricultural Organization of Khouzestan province were studied. The analysis process in this research was a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). By exploratory method, the most important criteria and sub-criteria and challenges of resistive economics were identified. The weight of the each criterion was calculated after performing pairwise comparisons in fuzzy hierarchical analysis software and was determined in the following order: Economic flexibility (N) with a weight of 0.558, productivity promotion (T) with a weight of 0.320 and realize dynamic growth (S) with a weight of 0.122. After pairwise comparison of all challenges of implementing resistive economics based on sub-criteria, the results were combined and the final weight and priority of each challenges was identified. In order of priority, the challenges were: insecure economic environment to attract domestic and foreign investment (weight=0.265), low productivity of manpower and capital in agriculture with a weight of 0.198, lack of a coherent marketing and marketing system (weight= 0.132), extensive import versus limited export of products with a (weight= 0.132), low efficiency of agricultural production units (weight= 0.116), high waste of agricultural products (weight= 0.093) and land use change related to agriculture (weight= 0.064).

Changes in competition and environmental uncertainty in recent decades, has led to large and small organizations distancing themselves from traditional marketing practices and turning to entrepreneurial marketing. With its great importance in the industry, marketing and entrepreneurial marketing, inspires the entrepreneur to highlight the importance of entrepreneurial process in creating markets; in this way, entrepreneur identifies, explores, and exploits opportunities and finds markets, and implements subsequent operational strategies as well as strategic decisions (about the methods for serving customer) for market dynamics. On the other hand, as an effective factor in the economic growth of the country, the service and processing industries attract many resources through the provision of services and its optimization to customers. Given the importance of the industry and increasing competitiveness, entrepreneurial marketing plays a very important role in achieving organizational goals and making the most profit in the industry. Entrepreneurial marketing leads to creativity and innovation in the service and processing industries. The present study seeks to develop a comprehensive model of entrepreneurial marketing in service and processing industry and in line with this goal, the meta-synthesis method has been used to analyze the research literature. Then, the experts’ and entrepreneurs’ opinions in the studied industry were classified according to categories and concepts using the Delphi method in two stages. According to the obtained results, the entrepreneurial marketing model consists of three categories of factors (contextual, causal and environmental factors), dimensions (customer-centric perspectives, creativity, risk-taking, innovation, market-oriented and creating opportunities) and consequences.