International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:2 Issue: 4, Dec 2012

Asurvey study was conducted to assess the knowledge/awareness level in IPM technology among farmers. Four villages were randomly selected from Sargodha district for data collection. Thirteen farmers from each village were selected randomly and sample size was 52 respondents. More than 92% of respondents have no advisory services either from public or private sector. The findings imply that respondents need knowledge for all levels of competence in IPM technology. They need to get high-level of competence for application of this technology in the field. In addition, they have little exposure to long-term training opportunities due to low education level for applications of this technology. More than 77% of respondents think that government agricultural policies and no access to information sources regarding integrated pest management at grass-root level are main constraints. The findings from correlation and regression analyses indicate that age and knowledge/awareness level are negatively correlated. It may be concluded that elder respondents have less adaptability to new ideas and techniques as compared to young respondents. However, training and information, education, and experience play a significant role in enhancing the knowledge/awareness level of respondents in IPM technology.

Health and safety are important factors in today’s life. Most of studies show that consuming the chicken that has anti biotic caused different diseases like digestive vessel cancer. Attention to controlled use of antibiotics can play a key role in society health which considered in the production of green chicken. Planning for increasing the production of mentioned chicken needs the investigation of consumers’ WTP. So, using double bound contingent valuation method and logit model, present study estimates consumers’ WTP for green chicken in Rasht city. Among the explanatory variables applied in logit model, income and education level had positive and significant effects on WTP for green chicken. Results revealed that average WTP for a kg of green chicken equals to 37279 Rials, and because this WTP does not compensate the production costs, government protection such as Green subsidy should be considered in order to expand green products consumption in Iran.

Over the past three decades vertical price transmission analysis has been the subject of considerable attention in applied agricultural conomics. It has been argued that the existence of asymmetric price transmission generates rents for marketing and processing agents. Retail prices allegedly move faster upwards than downwards in response to farm level pricemovements. This is an important issue for many agricultural markets, including the Iranian chicken market. Chicken is an important source of nutrition in Iranian society and many rural households depend on this commodity market as a source of in-come. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent, if any, of symmetric price transmission in Iran chicken market using the Houck, Error Correction and Threshold models. The analysis is based on weekly chicken price data at farm and retail levels over the period October 2002 to March 2006. The results of tests on all three models show that price transmission in Iranian chicken market is long-run symmetric, but short-run asymmetric. Increases in the farm price transmit mmediately to the retail level, while decreases in farm price transmit relatively more slowly to the retail level. We conjecture the asymmetric price transmission in this market is the result of high inflation rates that lead the consumers to expect continual price increases and a different adjustment costs in the upwards direction compared to the downwards direction for the marketing agents and a non- competitive laughtering industry and that looking for ways to make this sector of the chicken supply chain more competitive will foster greater price ransmission symmetry and lead to welfare gains for both consumers and agricultural producers.

This study was a qualitative research which was done by a case study approach. The samples were chosen from rural development experts of Hamedan Province during a snowball sampling process. The data were collected by the semistructured interviews. The data collection was done by faceto- face interviews, after the interview questions guide was determined. The theoretical saturation was attained by interviewing 25 respondents and at this point the interview process was laid off. The qualitative analysis of interviews was done by a content analysis method. The results showed that in order to develop and promote the rural women enterprises not only financial, domestic, managerial, educational and cultural supports are needed but some approaches like culturalization and educational programs are vital too.

The project was undertaken to study the evaluation of effectiveness of crop advisory services and suggested measures for filling the gap in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra in India. The survey was carried out in 2010. The data was collected with the help of a specifically designed and pre-tested questionnaire. The project carried out in catchment area of advisory services has given substantial insight on the current status of different dimensions of advisory services running in Aurangabad and also recommends strategies to make advisory services accessible to all. The farmer’s willingness to pay assumes a key role in determining the success of a cost-recovery strategy. During the study it was interesting to note that of all the 115 respondents 46.67% agreed that their critical need was supply of inputs followed by credit purchase on which the advisory services provider should focus. The dissemination channels were not utilized properly. The results of correlation study indicate that the recommendations by the advisory services and the results after advise have a positive correlation with increase in yield showing the effectiveness of these crop advisory services. The results of multivariate regression indicated that the cropping and harvesting method, credit access, input supply linkage, insurance, age, education and interaction with other farmers have the main role in showing the variations of attitude to adoption of the advisory services.

Environmental stresses specially drought, play an important role in decreasing plant growth, particularly during germination in dry and semi dry area. To considering the effect of drought stress caused by polyethylene glycol on germination and characteristics of 2 spices of Sesamum indicum, we had done factorial and complete accidental plot with 4 treatments and 3 times repetition. Experimental treatments included osmotic potential in 4 levels (0, -4, -6, -10 bar) which was produced by polyethylene glycol 6000 and 2 sesame species (Safi Abadi and Dezfol). All data had been analyzed by SAS software and comparison of means had been done by Duncan test at 5% probable level. The results showed that, percentage and speed of all spices’ germination decline by osmotic potential enhancement. Other measured parameters such as radicle and coleoptile length, dry and wet weight declined by increasing osmotic potential as well.

This descriptive cross sectional census study identified the perceptions of Extension and Outreach employees of Iowa State University in the United States about job autonomy and control after two years of a major restructuring. Employees perceived autonomy and control over expressing views and ideas about their work and spending time on the job but perceived little influence over budget allocations and shaping organizational strategies. They felt administrators and external funding sources influenced programming. They perceived contributing most to program implementation and marketing. The findings from this study have implications for operations and programming in Extension and other organizational settings.

This study was conducted to determine the potential evapotranspiration (PET) of maize, the crop coefficient (Kc) under full water requirement as well as the cause of decrease in maize yield. It was determined that the seasonal PET of maize is about 486.6 mm. The Kc under full water supply was found to be: 0.11, 0.35, 1.51 and 0.34 for initial, development, midseason and the late season stages respectively. The study also revealed that maintenance of sufficient moisture need of maize has a significant effect on growth, development and fruiting of the crop.