International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Mar 2011

Aresearch can also reveal the cooperative effectiveness of agencies such as evaluation will lead to discover the weakness and strengths for further improvement of this program. The present study was designed in 2009 especially to see the effectiveness of the working of agricultural extension staff as perceived by farmers in district Okara-Pakistan. The data were collected with the help of a specifically designed and pre-tested interview schedule and total sample was 300 respondents. The results showed that most 45.0% of the respondents belonged to the old age (31-40 years) category and most 30% of the respondents were above illiterate. An overwhelming majority 77.33% of the respondents was in fall radio category. Whereas, only 29.33% of the respondents reported that they had contact with Extension Field Staff. An overwhelming majority 74.33% of the respondents indicated lack of mobility as the major constraints in approaching agricultural extension education services. It was concluded that different mass media were not fully utilized in the area which hindered not only awareness level of the respondents but also adversely effect the adoption level regarding the latest production technology related agriculture sector. On the basis of conclusions it was recommended that for first of all the educational level of the study area should be increased and Government should ensure adequate availability of rural infrastructure facilities to enable more of the dwellers cultivate the habit of utilizing medias channels as source of information in agriculture production.

This study aimed to examine key factors affecting rural female facilitators’ role in participatory rural development in Tehran Province. Since the researchers intended to have a better insight into the facilitators’ role and employ inquiry as a learning forum for bringing about changes for all participants, they preferred to use a case study based upon an appreciative inquiry method. The study divided the factors affecting the facilitators’ role into two main categories: driving factors and preventing factors. The former are: two-way communication, election of rural eligible facilitators, participation, sense of responsibility, and the latter are: cultural and tribal fanaticism, lack of permanent female extension workers and frequent management changes. Appreciative inquiry as a positive mode of action research could facilitate the process of education and communication for all stakeholders. We suggested that there should be a shift from the extension as a knowledge transfer to facilitation as people’s own knowledge creation. This study showed that appreciative inquiry could facilitate the process of change and gender-awareness. This research method could also facilitate mutual communication between the rural facilitators and extension workers.

The main objective in this causal-correlation field research was to identify effective factors on rural youth's attitude towards agricultural occupation, in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran. Rural youth 15-25 years old in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer- Ahmad province were the population of this study. The technique of sampling was cluster sampling. The technique of data collection is questionnaire. The panel of experts was used to validity of the questionnaire. Corenbach Alpha was used to gain assurance of the reliability of the questionnaire (α=0.79). The results of multivariate regression indicate the variables of type of farming system, rate of relation to organizations, participation in extension and education courses, insurance, age and income have the main role in showing the variations of attitude to agricultural occupation.

Using Telser and Kataoka models of probabilistic-risky mathematical programming, the present research is to determine the optimized pattern of cultivating the agricultural products of Shoshtar region under risky conditions. In order to consider the risk in the mentioned models, time period of agricultural years 1996-1997 till 2004-2005 was taken into account. Results from Telser and Kataoka models showed that due to accepting the risk amounts, most of the optimized amounts suggest the tomato cultivation during the cultivation period of fall, and watermelon cultivation during the cultivation period of spring. On the basis of results, due to allocation of agricultural lands of Shoshtar to tomato and watermelon cultivation and specializing the farming activity in this province, gross profit of agricultural production system can be increased to 6116047000 and 727782272 thousand Rials, respectively. The results of understudy models were investigated under different income scenarios and probabilistic levels of risk acceptance. Correct policy making in order to offer the suitable equipments for adjusting the effects of lack of certainty and risks due to the climatic unwanted conditions in production process of agricultural products of Shoshtar region improve the life situation of farmers of the mentioned region.

The study was designed to investigate the income distribution among rice-based farming households in Okigwe Agricultural Zone of Imo State, Nigeria. A sample of 120 rice-based farmers was selected by multistage sampling technique. Data were collected with a well structured questionnaire administered to 120 randomly selected rice farmers. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Gini-coefficient model was also employed. The socio-economic characteristic of the farmers revealed that majority of the farmers were educated. Besides, majority of them also had appreciable experience in rice farming which makes them better rice farmers. It was revealed that income share percentage of the richest households was 17.65% followed by the second richest group with income share percentage of 13.27%. Those in the twelfth decile represented the poorest group with a cumulative share percentage 2.82%. The Gini-coefficient of distribution of 0.32 showed that incomes were not highly concentrated but varied around the low per capita of N1442,859 per household. It becomes imperative therefore to enhance farmers’ income through a sustainable improved technology in rice farming.

In the present study Iran's rice imports trend is forecasted, using artificial neural networks and econometric methods, during 2009 to 2013, and their results are compared. The results showed that feet forward neural network leading with less forecast error and had better performance in comparison to econometric techniques and also, other methods of neural networks, such as Recurrent networks and Multilayer perceptron networks. Moreover, the results showed that the amount of rice import has ascending growth rate in 2009-2013 and maximum growth occurs in 2009-2010 years, which was equal to 25.72 percent. Increasing rice import caused a lot of exchange to exit out of the country and also, irreparable damage in domestic production, both in terms of price and quantity. Considering mentioned conditions, economic policy makers should seek ways to reduce increasing trend of rice import; and more investment and planning for domestic rice producers.

As cost of living rises and people’s wages / salaries do not cover their basic food and dietary needs, interest in parttime farming has risen. Part-time farming activities are being practiced by different people as a food security strategy from vulnerable households. But these part-time farms have had limited success in providing food/nutrition security, increasing incomes and improving well-being. Understanding the factors underlying their persistent deprivation is imperative when designing policies and programmes to meet their needs and improve their welfare. Farm level survey data collected from 60 households with the aid of questionnaire were used to estimate the determinants of deprivation by Tobit regression model. Using the maximum likelihood approach, asymptotic parameters estimates were evaluated to describe determinants of deprivation. Sex, marital status, household size, education, farm income and labour were significant determinants of deprivation