International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development: 500 (1)

Open Access Article

1 - The impacts of educational and extensional methods on using renewable energy by Semnan poultry farmers
Mohsen Mohammadi Mohammad Sabouri Seyed Sadjad Seyed Sabouri

This paper aims at studying the role of agricultural education and extension methods on the use of renewable energy by farmers in Semnan Province. The research was a practical study in terms of goal and was a descriptive-correlation study in terms of methodology. The po More

This paper aims at studying the role of agricultural education and extension methods on the use of renewable energy by farmers in Semnan Province. The research was a practical study in terms of goal and was a descriptive-correlation study in terms of methodology. The population of the study was composed of Semnan Province poultry farmers that used any type of renewable energy. In total, 89 people were analyzed. Data collection tool was questionnaire (composed of 29 main questions and 108 minor questions in a Likert scale). The questionnaire was designed after consultations with university professors and research literature. The validity of the questionnaire was measured in terms of the form and content and its reliability was tested with Cronbach's alpha which ranged from 0.801 to 0.925. It was found that there was a strong significant relationship (r = 0.773) between education and extension methods (participation in the extension and educational courses, visits to farms using solar power, holding workshops on agricultural extension centers, experts’ visiting of poultry, watching videos of farms that use solar energy, production and distribution of educational brochures among farmers, designing related programs at universities, watching videos of the construction of solar power farms, broadcasting radio programs and educational broadcasting from local TV channels) and the use of solar energy by farmers. Based on the farmer’s view, participation in the extension and educational courses was the main source for obtaining the needed information. Also according to stepwise regression, 78.5% of the change in the dependent variable was explained by the variables of “visiting farms using solar power”, “participation in the extension and educational courses”, “production and distribution of educational brochures among farmers”, “holding workshops on agricultural extension centers” and “experts’ visiting of poultry”. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

2 - Exploring the strategy of Reducing Water Consumption Expenditure and its Role in Farmers' Satisfaction
mohammad ali dadashi Vahid Khasheii

The purpose of the present research is to examine the effect of coating the tertiary irrigation canals on farmers’ satisfaction in Sowme’eh Sara, Guilan. The study was conducted using a survey research methodology. The statistical population included 14 tert More

The purpose of the present research is to examine the effect of coating the tertiary irrigation canals on farmers’ satisfaction in Sowme’eh Sara, Guilan. The study was conducted using a survey research methodology. The statistical population included 14 tertiary canalized schemes in Sowme’eh Sara up to the end of 2013, Including totally 2434 hectares .The share of each beneficiary was 0.7 hectare according to the extant statistics and documents in water and soil management of Agricultural Jihad Organization of Guilan. Based on Morgan and Krejcie’s Table, 340 beneficiaries were chosen by stratified random sampling. The main data collection tool was a self-made questionnaire whose face and content validity was improved and finally accepted by water and soil experts and professors. In order to determine the reliability of the research, the questionnaires were answered by 30 members of the statistical population. Afterwards, using SPSS software and Cronbach’s alpha test, the questionnaire’s sustainability was assessed and 78% was computed and confirmed. The independent variables under study were age, literacy, the number of individuals under guardianship, workload, product performance, costs, securing agricultural goals etc. and the dependent variable was farmers’ satisfaction of coating the streams. Each of the variables was categorized and assessed based on Likert Scale. The effect of each independent variable on farmers’ satisfaction was evaluated through SPSS software and Spearman’s rank correlation. The results showed that there is a semantic relationship between literacy, workload, product performance, costs and securing agricultural goals variables and farmers’ satisfaction. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - Comparison of healthy crop cultivation behavior based on demographic variables (Case study: rural beneficiaries Kermanshah province in Iran)
مرضیه معرف alireza poursaeed roya eshraghi hamed chaharsoghi amin

20.1001.1.21595852.2023.13.3.4.4

As the world's increasing population grows, providing the food needed by the human community is facing serious constraints, which has cused farmers to use pesticides and chemical pesticides for two reason: first increase their production and second fight against plant p More

As the world's increasing population grows, providing the food needed by the human community is facing serious constraints, which has cused farmers to use pesticides and chemical pesticides for two reason: first increase their production and second fight against plant pests. Use of toxins and chemical fertilizers has put people at greater risk. Safe crop cultivation is a way to combat this problem. In the present study, researcher compare the cultivation behavior of healthy crop based on demographic variables. This research is a quantitative, ex-post facto (Causal-comparative research), non-experimental study. The statistical population of the study consisted of 80304 rural beneficaries in Kermanshah province that 385 people selected as sample size. Because of the dispersion of the statistical population, 400 questionnaires were distributed through multi-stage cluster sampling among the users. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of beneficiary's behaviors regarding the cultivation of healthy products in Kermanshah province based on the variables of participation in educational-extension classes, role model, age, work experience, educational level and monthly income. Only marital and gender variables were not significantly different. Success can be achieved by holding extension classes in this field and introducing exemplary and successful farmers as a role model and giving financial rewards to them. The government and the Agricultural Extension and Education Organization have a significant role to achieving this success. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

4 - Designing Marketing Strategies for Kiwifruit Export to International Markets Based on Grounded Theory and SWOT Method (A Case Study of Amin Caspian Shomal co.)
مهدیه مددخواه ابراهیم چیرانی مریم اوشک سرایی

20.1001.1.21595852.2021.11.4.6.4

Considering the government’s advocacy of and support for non-oil exports and the importance of cultivation and job creation opportunities relating to the kiwifruit product in the northern provinces, and taking into account the limitations of the mode of distributi More

Considering the government’s advocacy of and support for non-oil exports and the importance of cultivation and job creation opportunities relating to the kiwifruit product in the northern provinces, and taking into account the limitations of the mode of distribution and competition of producing countries in the global markets, it is imperative that the preparedness of Amin Caspian Shomal company in exporting kiwifruit in order to enter the global markets and the factors influencing it are investigated. for this descriptive research, which was conducted on the basis of strategic studies process, and is applied in terms of objective and takes on a qualitative approach, the Grounded Theory method and SWOT matrix for the purpose of strategic planning have been used. on the basis of the findings of the research, and after the analysis of the information, the result of the Internal Factors Evaluation matrix was calculated at 2.08 and the External Factors Evaluation matrix was calculated at 2.24, and the strategic position of the Amin Caspian Shomal company was set in a defensive mode. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - The Role of Production Factors in the Growth of Iranian Economy, with Emphasis on Natural Resources and Labor and Environmental Degradation
صمد زارعی سید نعمت اله موسوی

20.1001.1.21595852.2022.12.3.2.5

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of environmental quality and social capital on economic growth in Iran. So, this study, based on theoretical foundations, in addition to these variables, investigated the effects of various human capital ind More

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of environmental quality and social capital on economic growth in Iran. So, this study, based on theoretical foundations, in addition to these variables, investigated the effects of various human capital indicators on Iran's economic growth during the period of 1973-92. The variables representing social capital included access to the Internet and telephone communication services. For human capital, literacy rate, enrollment rate in elementary school, as well as the number of students were used. It was also assumed that technology, in addition to workforce, would appear in the form of physical capital. The findings showed that physical capital was the most important factor in the growth of Iran's economy and its yield was 0.3-0.4. But a very small role was played by the variables of human capital and environmental capital. The role of social capital was also relatively acceptable and positive.Keywords: Growth Model, Social Capital, Environmental Capital, IranJEL Classification: O13, O47, R1 Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - business opportunities for rural areas in Ilam province
همایون مرادنژادی مرجان واحدی

The rural areas of Ilam province are facing many problems in the field of employment and production, and the development of entrepreneurial activities in these areas is very necessary. Opportunity identification has a very fundamental role in entrepreneurial activities. More

The rural areas of Ilam province are facing many problems in the field of employment and production, and the development of entrepreneurial activities in these areas is very necessary. Opportunity identification has a very fundamental role in entrepreneurial activities.The study was carried out to home business opportunities for rural areas in Ilam province. The research used a combined qualitative and quantitative methodology. The methodology was qualitative in the first phase using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The second phase was run by a descriptive-survey methodology. Participants were purposefully selected from village administrators, experts of the Coordination Office of Economic Affairs Governor, experts of the Jahad-e Agriculture organization, experts of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, and experts of the Industry, Mining and Trade Organization. Data were collected from 72 participants in nine sessions as focus group discussion attended by 6-11 people. They were qualitatively analyzed by Strauss and Corbin’s constant comparison method in three coding phases. They were quantitatively analyzed with SPSS Software Package. In the end, the home businesses in priority in each Township were introduced for agricultural sector, processing industries, and handicraft industries. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

7 - Designing a Model for Intelligent Management of Agri-Businesses Supply Chain
سحر اسدزاده منجیلی فیروزه حاجی علی اکبری نبی اله محمدی

Ensuring food safety, preventing market imbalance of supply and demand and market inflammation as well as improving production efficiency and productivity, transparency, traceability of distribution networks and supply chains of active agri-businesses in the field of ba More

Ensuring food safety, preventing market imbalance of supply and demand and market inflammation as well as improving production efficiency and productivity, transparency, traceability of distribution networks and supply chains of active agri-businesses in the field of basic and strategic products such as rice, tea, olives and citrus and the realization of many positive micro and macro consequences depend on intelligent supply chain management. Therefore, the purpose of this applied research was to present a model based on the effective factors of intelligent SCM of agri-businesses and to present SC strategies and effective actions. In this regard, in addition to library studies, field studies were conducted through in-depth interviews with 33 public and private sector experts from Guilan, Mazandaran and Zanjan provinces who were selected by theoretical and non-probabilistic sampling. In order to analyze the data, qualitative data-based and coding methods were used. The validity and reliability of the data collection tool were confirmed. Based on the research findings, 1556 open codes, 75 axial codes and 9 selective codes including economic and financial factors, marketing and sales, production and operational, institutional, infrastructure and logistics, communication and information, technological and innovative, climatic, environmental, biological and political were identified and the initial model designed based on effective factors by qualitative analysis method and using Maxqda2020 software. After removing 29 sub-factors with a repetition rate of less than 7, the final model was presented based on 46 sub-factors. In final, 8 SC strategies and 34 effective actions in order to succesfull intelligent SCM proposed. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

8 - Life cycle of energy-economic analysis for different cultivation scenarios of paddy production (Case study: Khuzestan Province)
محمد غلامی پرشکوهی Heidar Molaee Jafrodi Hamed Afshari Davood Mohammad Zamani

In this study, energy and economic analysis of paddy production in Khuzestan province of Iran were studied. Paddy production in this province was analyzed under three scenarios of multiple cultivation system including (Paddy-Transplanting System) PTS, (Paddy Direct Seed More

In this study, energy and economic analysis of paddy production in Khuzestan province of Iran were studied. Paddy production in this province was analyzed under three scenarios of multiple cultivation system including (Paddy-Transplanting System) PTS, (Paddy Direct Seeding Flooding System) PDSFS and (Paddy-Upland Cultivation System) PUCS. The highest total input (87993.14 MJ ha-1) and output (105400 MJ ha-1) energies were related to PTS. Diesel fuel and nitrogen fertilizer had the uppermost energy use shares. Depending on the type of cultivation in PUCS, human labor has a large share of energy. Estimation of the energy ratio of PUCS method (1.34) indicates that the amount of output energy is much higher than the input energy. Productivity energy index also showed that there is no significant difference between the three methods in terms of amount of paddy relative to input energy. The specific energy of PTS method (14.19 MJ kg-1) indicates large amounts of input energy relative to the amount of paddy produced. Based on the high revenue and low cost, the benefit to cost ratio at the expense of PTS method is significant. The productivity of the PUCS method was reported to be 212.65 kg $−1 due to the high production of paddy compared to the lowest costs. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

9 - Modeling energy use and economic productivity of different fish production systems using artificial neural networks
محمد غلامی پرشکوهی محسن رسولی بابک بهشتی محمد قهدریجانی

This study aimed to use artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict output energy and economic indicators. So, data on two fish breeding sites were collected with a questionnaire, directly from the site owners and administrators, and from the records. Then, the input a More

This study aimed to use artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict output energy and economic indicators. So, data on two fish breeding sites were collected with a questionnaire, directly from the site owners and administrators, and from the records. Then, the input and output energy of cold-water and hot-water fish were calculated. The cold-water fish were found to have a more favorable energy ratio (ER) (2.24), energy productivity (EP) (0.04 kg MJ−1), specific energy (SE) (26.83 MJ kg-1), and net energy gain (NEG) (33222.16 MJ kg-1). According to the results, fish feed and electricity are two factors among energy consumption inputs whose proper management will increase energy efficiency. The benefit-to-cost ratio was positive for cold-water fish (1.54) and hot-water fish (2.45). The productivity of cold-water and hot-water fish was 0.58 kg $-1 and 0.52 kg $-1, respectively. The results of ANNs showed that R2 varied from 0.947 to 0.993 overall, from 0.912 to 0.964 for the training stage, and from 0.978 to 0.980 for the testing stage in the case of cold-water fish. Regarding hot-water fish, these values were 0.885-0.998, 0.923-0.952, and 0.952-0.995, respectively. So, ANNs can be used to predict output energy and economic productivity. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

10 - The comparison of algae production systems based on energy consumption and economic analysis: The application of data envelopment analysis
ناصر کاظمی محمد غلامی پرشکوهی احمد محمدی داود محمد زمانی

This paper aims to examine energy use efficiency and economic analysis in different microalgae production systems (open space and greenhouse method) using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The data gathered from the laboratory of Islamic Azad University, Arak bran More

This paper aims to examine energy use efficiency and economic analysis in different microalgae production systems (open space and greenhouse method) using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The data gathered from the laboratory of Islamic Azad University, Arak branch was a place to conduct microalgae production experiments in different systems. The number of samples in each system production of microalgae was estimated to equal 20. The energy result showed that the average total input energy was 15920.40 and 17691.60 MJ kg-1 in the open space and greenhouse conditions, respectively. Also, the energy ratio for the open space and greenhouse conditions was estimated at 0.89 and 0.80, and the energy productivity index at 0.06 and 0.02 kg MJ−1, respectively. According to the economic analysis, the net return of the open space and greenhouse methods were 204376.59 and 269276.06 $ kg-1, respectively. The economic productivity of the open space and greenhouse cultivation methods were determined to be 0.17 and 0.16 kg $−1, respectively. The result of DEA demonstrated that the total optimized consumption of energy in the open space method was 14476.93 MJ kg-1. About 16355.21 MJ kg-1 was saved in the greenhouse method (7.55%) compared to the current cultivation conditions by converting inefficient to efficient cultivation. According to the investigations, it was found that open space cultivation consumes less energy and is more economical than greenhouse cultivation. As a result, promoting microalgae cultivation outdoors is preferable to greenhouse cultivation. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

11 - Qualitative analysis and Prioritize the Challenges of Sustainable Agricultural Development through Grounded Theory and AHP in Iran
Keivan Torfi Ahmadreza Ommani Azadeh Noorollah Noorivandi mohammad sadegh sabouri

20.1001.1.21595852.2023.13.2.9.7

The purpose of this research is qualitative analysis and prioritize the challenges of sustainable agricultural development in Iran. In this research, using a qualitative method, an attempt has been made to identify the challenges of sustainable agricultural development More

The purpose of this research is qualitative analysis and prioritize the challenges of sustainable agricultural development in Iran. In this research, using a qualitative method, an attempt has been made to identify the challenges of sustainable agricultural development in Khuzestan province. Qualitative research involves in-depth evaluation, collection, and analysis of non-numerical data to identify and understand phenomena, concepts, ideas, or experiences. This research has been conducted from January to September 2021 to provide a comprehensive, and practical model to understand the challenges through grounded theory and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Khuzestan province. This research is an applied type of research, and (systematic) grounded theory is used. The data were collected by performing in-depth semi-structured interviews with the 30 agricultural experts in this field. Data analysis was done by using MAX qualitative data analysis version 12 software (maxqda12) in three steps: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The results of this study by grounded theory identified 29 initial codes and six main following challenges were categorized and by AHP prioritized: weakness in management and planning, weakness in human resources, shortage of attention to environmental studies, shortage of infrastructure facilities, shortage of credit and financial capital and weakness in legislation and sustainability policy. A model was finally designed based on the results of the study. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

12 - Educational Program Based on the Health Action Process Approach and Its Effect on Integrated Pest Management Adoption in Greenhouse Farmers
رضا پورنارانی Mohammad Ali Morowatisharif Farzan Madadizadeh

This study aimed to investigate the effect of an educational program based on the health action process approach (HAPA) on integrated pest management (IPM) adoption among greenhouse farmers in Jiroft, southern Iran. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 300 gre More

This study aimed to investigate the effect of an educational program based on the health action process approach (HAPA) on integrated pest management (IPM) adoption among greenhouse farmers in Jiroft, southern Iran. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 300 greenhouse farmers in Jiroft, in 2021. Multistage sampling and random allocation were performed to select two groups of participants, control (n=150) and intervention (n=150). No intervention was performed on the control group. In the intervention we used a researcher-made questionnaire based on the HAPA constructs and IPM scores were registered. In the intervention group, the mean scores of all the constructs, except for recovery self-efficacy, increased after intervention. In addition, the IPM adoption in the medium IPM group increased [from 28 (18.66%) farmers to 119 (79.03%) farmers] significantly but no significant difference and/or increase was observed in the all of these variables in the control group after intervention. The HAPA-based educational program contributes positively to IPM adoption among greenhouse farmers Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

13 - Investigating Challenges of agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS) in Iran with Delphi technique
سیده مرضیه رازقی Hasan Sadighi Mohammad Chizari

Sustainable agricultural and rural development requires knowledge and information, skills, attitudes and technologies, which run through a network of actors to produce, distribute and use it in a particular place. The model of the Agriculture Knowledge and Information S More

Sustainable agricultural and rural development requires knowledge and information, skills, attitudes and technologies, which run through a network of actors to produce, distribute and use it in a particular place. The model of the Agriculture Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS) is designed based on this recognition. In Iran, There are about decades of experience in the development of this system. The purpose of this Delphi study was to develop a listing of those challenges facing Iran's Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS). Panel of experts consisted of extension offices, natural-level researchers, faculty members of Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), and university faculty in agricultural extension and education. The panel identified 86 challenges of AKIS in Iran that were classified into 8 categories consisting of Participatory-institutional, Policy-legal, Information broadcasting-communicational, Monitoring and evaluation, Actors competency, supportive-motivational, management-structural and infrastructure-environmental. Manuscript profile

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