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Considering the increasing importance of sustainable operations in the agricultural sector and the relationship between producers and consumers, the current study was to determine customers' attitudes on participation in community-supported aquaculture programs in Kurdistan province (in the west of Iran). The present study was a survey, non-experimental, applied, and descriptive-correlational research. Using a literature review and field studies, factors affecting consumers' attitudes have been extracted. Then, to determine validity, the questionnaire was given to a panel of subject matter experts. Furthermore, to assess the reliability of the research instrument, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated. The results showed the good validity and reliability of the research tool. Moreover, structural equation modeling was used to confirm the proposed model. The results showed that among the factors affecting the attitude of consumers, the price of aquatic products had the first place, which has been neglected in the previous studies. In this regard, it was suggested that by creating support funds and facilities for the participation of consumers in community-supported aquaculture programs, setting standards for healthy aquatic products, and producing programs related to the introduction of community-supported aquaculture programs on the radio and television, the attitude of the consumers can be improved.

Given the importance of measuring QOL and the need for sound and efficient planning to improve and enhance the well-being of citizens, the objective of this study was to investigate QOL in rural areas of Tehran province, Iran. To this end, the relevant literature and secondary sources were used to develop a questionnaire whose validity was determined by a panel of experts. To the best knowledge of the authors, no similar study has assessed QOL in rural areas of Tehran province and none of them has compared objective and subjective QOL in rural areas. The findings showed that in terms of objective QOL, which indicates the minimum living standards, the villagers in Tehran province were in a moderate to high status, but in the subjective QOL, about 20% of the villagers were rated as poor. According to the findings, there was a significant difference between the residents of different rural areas of Tehran in terms of objective and subjective QOL at the 99% level, but the differences were not the same. This calls for policymakers’ attention. In this regard, policies should be put on the planning agenda to reduce rural migration by adopting a coordinated approach to rural and urban development and improving the physical and environmental conditions of rural communities to provide welfare services and reduce the disparity between urban and rural areas.

This research has been an attempt to study the Quality of Life (QoL) in rural regions of Tehran, which is one of the metropolises of Iran. This survey study applied a non-experimental method in rural regions of Tehran, i.e., the causal-correlational approach, which has studied the status of QoL and its relationship with general health and life satisfaction. The statistical population of the study included 61402 households. A multi-stage random sampling method was used for sampling (n=382). The findings revealed that among the four aspects of QoL, physical health (with an average of 3.62) had the highest rank. Furthermore, the psychological health, social relations, and environmental situation were in the second to fourth ranks, respectively, with an average of 3.37, 3.17, and 3.15. The results revealed that the total score of QoL in the range of 4-20 was equal to 13.31, and in the range of 0-100, it was 58.18. Therefore, the QoL in rural areas of the metropolis of Tehran is not desirable and needs urgent care. The results of this research can be used to prioritize policy-making and planning for rural development and the achievement of millennial goals.

Ensuring food security is one of the Millennium development goals, with most developing countries endeavouring to alleviate hunger levels. Indeed, 923 million individuals are undernourished in the ...

The current study was carried out with the purpose of discriminant analysis of participated farmers’ characteristics in CA project based on learning transfer system in Iran. The study was a quantitative research that was conducted by a survey technique. The study population was consisted of all farmers who participated in extension training programs of CA in three provinces (Golestan, Fars and Khouzestan) of Iran (N = 1204). The sample study was selected by Krejcie and Morgan’s sampling table through stratified random sampling method (n = 384). Data were collected through a questionnaire. Discriminant analysis was used to investigate farmers’ characteristics among three levels of weak, moderate and strong learning transfer. The findings illustrated that nine variables of learning transfer system (personal capacity for transfer, supervisor support, opportunity to use, positive personal outcomes, performance coaching, motivation to transfer, perceived content validity, transfer design and transfer effort–performance expectations) had significant effects on the level of farmers’ learning transfer. It can be concluded that the learning transfer system is an applicable tool to investigate farmers’ learning transfer in the agriculture sector. Accordingly, it recommends that follow-up plans must be designed to achieve both the CA aims and optimization of farmers’ learning transfer.

The present research aimed to identify and analyze the factors influencing water conservation behaviors (WCBs) and determine the most important ones. The research adopted a causal-relational method with a questionnaire compiled for data collection. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire based on the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha for different sections were between 0.71 and 0.95. The statistical population included 5473 wheat farmers in Bukan Township, Iran. Krejcie and Morgan tables were used to calculate the sample size of 357 people. All these farmers have key information about the effects of climate change (e.g., drought) and are pioneers in using adaptation and water conservation strategies in wheat production. In this study, the sample size was determined using stratified sampling method with proportional assignment. The questionnaire validity was approved by the validity expert board. According to the findings of the exploratory factor analysis, the most important factors influencing WCBs of wheat producers included “institutional”, “economic”, “natural”, “extensional”, “social”, “attitudinal”, and “self-identity” ones. These seven factors together accounted for 47.498% of the variance in WCBs of wheat producers. The relationship between independent variables and wheat growers’ WCBs was determined by Pearson correlation coefficients. According to the results, economic, institutional, natural, attitudinal, social, and self-identity factors had a significant relationship with WBC at 1% error level. The regression results also showed that among the studied variables, economic and extensional factors had the greatest impact on wheat growers’ WCBs. The results can help managers and planners determine policies that focus more on economic and extensional factors that have been neglected in previous studies.

Conservation agriculture (CA) is a tool of sustainable agriculture utilized in many countries. Sustainable agriculture has different dimensions among which the most important ones are environmental, social, economic, and institutional. Educational and extension programs of CA are in accordance with the principles of sustainable agriculture. Accordingly, educational and extension contents prepared for farmers should include the four dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, economic, and institutional). The main objective of the present study was to examine the sustainability dimensions in the contents of CA training programs using an in-depth content analysis technique. Educational contents considered here included brochures, extension publications, regulations, and training slides. Based on the literature, themes and sub-themes for each of the four sustainability dimensions were extracted. Then, the frequency of each sub-theme in the CA training contents was counted. The findings showed differing emphasis on the sub-themes of sustainability dimensions in the contents of CA training programs so that the environmental and social dimensions had the highest and lowest frequencies, respectively. As the main principles of CA, no tillage/low tillage, crop rotation, and maintenance of crop residues constituted the sub-themes of the environmental dimension, and the emphasis was placed on this dimension reasonably and expectedly.

Simultaneous achievement of sustainability, profitability, and productivity in the agricultural sector requires the development and utilization of appropriate technologies derived from agricultural research and extension of technological innovations in this sector. One of the most important issues in this respect is nuclear technology. Accordingly, the present study aims to carry out a causal analysis of the adoption behavior towards the use of nuclear technology in agriculture. The research method was descriptive-correlational and causal-relationship and a survey was used to collect the required data. The statistical population of this study consists of agricultural activists including faculty members of state departments of agriculture and research centers in Tehran and Alborz Provinces, Iran (N = 275); out of which, 160 individuals were selected through Krejcie and Morgan Table using stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment. The research instrument was a questionnaire, the validity of which was approved by a number of specialists in the field of agricultural education and extension as well as agricultural nuclear technology. The reliability of the whole items of the questionnaire was also obtained through a pilot study using Cronbach's alpha test (0.62≤α ≤ 0.82). The results of correlational tests showed that the variables of triability, compatibility, relative advantage, usefulness, attitude, social norms, and improved conditions (including social, cultural, political, and health-related items) have a positive and significant correlation with the behavior of adopting nuclear technology in agricultural sector. Moreover, the results of statistical tests of comparison of means (Kruskal-Wallis) revealed that the attitudes of faculty members in Agricultural Research Institute of Atomic Energy Organization in terms of views, knowledge, behavior, and tendency to nuclear technology adoption in agricultural sector were significantly different from those of other respondents. The causal analysis results showed that the component of improved conditions (social, cultural, political, and health-related items) had the greatest impact on the behavior of adopting nuclear technology in agriculture (β = 0.464).

Environmental attitude is a crucial component in environmental psychology. It is a psychological tendency expressed by evaluating the natural environment with some degree of favor or disfavor. The main aim of this study was to determine the environmental attitude levels of the employees of the agricultural knowledge-based companies based on sociocultural variables by binomial logistic regression in an inferential design. The research population was composed of the employees of the agricultural knowledge-based companies (N = 175). In this study, a census method was used. The research instrument was a self-designed questionnaire which composed of three sections. The first section was related to employees’ demographic and sociocultural characteristics. The second and third sections were to measure employees’ environmental knowledge and attitude. NEP scale was used to measure environmental attitude. The SPSS20 and R software packages were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that governmental policies, mass media, membership in the NGOs, educational level and training have significant effect on employees’ attitudes to the environment protection. Therefore, it is concluded that environmental attitude of agricultural knowledge-based companies’ employees is influenced by a set of factors. These factors alone cannot change employees’ attitude toward sustainability and environment. Accordingly, necessary and appropriate conditions should be provided to change the environmental attitude of agricultural knowledge-based companies’ employees. These conditions will be provided by government policies, types of mass media, various training and employee participation in NGOs.

Many environmental problems are rooted in human behavior. This study aimed to explore the causal effect of cultural environmental bias on ‘sustainable behavior’ among agricultural groundwater users in Fars province, Iran, according to Klockner’s comprehensive model. A survey-based research project was conducted to gathering data on the paradigm of environmental psychology. The sample included agricultural groundwater users (n = 296) who were selected at random within a structured sampling regime involving study areas that represent three (higher, medium and lower) bounds of the agricultural-groundwater-vulnerability spectrum. Results showed that the “environment as ductile (EnAD)” variable was a strong determinant of sustainable behavior as it related to groundwater use, and that EnAE had the highest causal effect on the behavior of agricultural groundwater users. The adjusted model explained 41% variance of “groundwater sustainable behavior”. Based on the results, the groundwater sustainable behaviors of agricultural groundwater users were found to be affected by personal and subjective norm variables and that they are influenced by casual effects of the “environment as ductile (EnAD)” variable. The conclusions reflect the Fars agricultural groundwater users’ attitude or worldview on groundwater as an unrecoverable resource; thus, it is necessary that scientific disciplines like hydrogeology and psycho-sociology be considered together in a comprehensive approach for every groundwater study.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of farmer-oriented policies as regards the Iranian agricultural extension system. Methodology: To fulfill this objective, a Delphi technique was utilized. The study used a series of three steps, engaging a panel of experts on farmer-oriented policies of agricultural extension system. Finding: The characteristics of farmer-oriented policies in agricultural extension system were classified into six categories including: need-based programs, proper interaction among stakeholders, decentralization and higher stakeholders’ participation, enabling stakeholders with emphasis on smallholder farmers, market-oriented programs and integrated policies. The findings indicated that ‘enabling farmers to solve their technical problems’ and ‘engaging farmers in planning, executing and evaluating of the programs’ had the highest percentage of agreement. Theoretical implication: From a theoretical point of view, the finding of this research...

The main purpose of this study was to assess the extension workers’ attitude toward Participatory Technology Development (PTD). The population of this study consisted of all 282 professional staffs from provincial extension organization in the province of West Azarbiajan, Iran. A three parts questionnaire was developed to collect needed data for the study. The result showed that the majority of extension workers’ attitude toward PTD was classified as “positive”. This indicates that the professional staffs have a great potential to succeed in fulfilling the goals of PTD. However, the majority of the professional staffs’ involvement with PTD has been characterized as “week”. The result of the linear multivariate regression indicated that 7.6% (R 2 =0.076) of the variance in the staffs’ attitude toward PTD could be explained by their level of individual involvement in participatory approach. This indicated that there are other variables that affect the variance in staffs’ attitude toward PTD.