Abstract :
This research was carried out to investigate the role of legal, philosophical, economic, environmental, educational attitudes and some personal characteristics in farmers' professionalism in the production of optimal wheat in the north of Khuzestan Province, Iran. The methodological approach in this research was casual relative and applied survey. The data were collected by a survey and a questionnaire as the main research instruments. The samples comprised all wheat growers in Northern Khuzestan. Three hundred and ten farmers were selected by using a Cochran's formula through random sampling out of 23,485 wheat farmers of Northern Khuzestan. Finally, 302 questionnaires were analyzed. The questionnaire was developed from a review of the related literature. The content and face validity of the instruments were established after several times of review and correction by the faculty members of Azad University of Garmsar. The questionnaire and data were analyzed by the help of SPSS v21 software package. The reliability was reported to be 0.81 using a Cronbach's alpha. Stepwise regression analysis indicated the most important variable that accounted for 77.2% of the variance of the dependent variable was the economic variable. The next variables (environmental, legal components, and educational attitudes processes) captured 86.5% of the variance of optimal wheat production.
References:
Allahyari, M.S. (2009). Reorganization of agricultural extension toward green agricultural. American Journal of Agricultural Biological Science, 4(2), 105-109.
Bartlett, M. E., & Bartlett, J. E. (17 January, 2007). Using the theory of planned behavior to predict research productivity. College Teaching and Learning Conference, 17 -19 January. (pp, 33-40). Honolulu: North Carolina State University.
Berry, P. (2008). The impacts on knowledge management, information systems and sustainable development. A Survey World Development, 24 (1), 76-83.
Birjandi, A., & Farajollah Hosseini, S.J. (2009). Knowledge of engineers supervised the production of lesions in various stages of Qazvin Province. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Education, 2(4), 2-13.
Biswas, A. (2010). Integrated water management: Is it working. Water Resources Development Journal, 24 (1), 5-22.
Bizer, G. Y., Barden, J. C., & Petty, R. E. (2003). Attitudes. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of cognitive science .London: Macmillan.
Cai, X., Ringlar, J., & Yun, N. (2009). Substitution between water and other agricultural inputs: Implications for water conservation in a river basin context. Ecological Economics, 31(2), 38-50.
Cakmak, E. (2010). Agricultural water pricing: Turkey. OECD consultant report.41. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/water/UNworld
Carrete, M., Grande, J. M., Tella, J. L., Sanchez-Zapata, J. A., Donazar, J. A., Diaz-Delgado, R., & Romo, A. (2007). Habitat, human pressure, and social behavior: Partial ling out factors affecting large- scale territory extinction in an endangered vulture. Biological Conservation, 136(1), 143-154.
Clearfield, F., & Osgood, B.T. (1987). Sociological aspects of the adoption of conservation practices. [On line]. Retrieved from WWW: URL: http:// www.people.nrcs. wisc.edu/Soc Scilnstitute/ Adoption1Main. Htm.
FAO (2006). Land degradation in the Turkey. Rome, Italy.
FAO (2011). The state of food and agriculture. Retrieved from www.fao.org/catalog/inter-e.htm
Feres, E., & Soriano, M. A. (2010). Deficit irrigation for reducing agricultural water use. Journal of Experimental Botany, 58 (2), 147-159.
Fischer, A., & Wall, R. V. D. (2007). Invasive plant suppresses charismatic seabird –the construction of attitudes towards biodiversity management options. Biological Conservation, 135 (2), 256-267.
Freeman, H. A., & Omiti, J. M. (2003). Fertilizer use in semi-arid areas of Kenya: Analysis of smallholder farmers’ adoption behavior under liberalized market. Nutrient Cycling in Agro ecosystems, 66 (2), 23-31.
Frick, J., Kaiser, F. G., & Wilson, M. (2004). Environmental knowledge and conservation behavior: Exploring prevalence and structure in a representative sample. Journal of Environmental Education, 22 (1), 26-32.
Goldhamar, D. (2009). Regulated deficit irrigation in trees and vines: Agricultural water management. Proceeding of a workshop in a Tunisia. Washington D. C., the National Academic Press, Pp. 11-15.
Holland, R. W., Werplandken, B., & Knippenberg, A. V. (2002). On the nature of attitude-behavior relations: the strong guide, the weeks follow. European Journal of Social Psychology, 32 (6), 869-876.
Ikerd, J. (2009). Sustainable agriculture: It’s about people. Journal of Agricultural Sustainable Development, 6 (1), 34-39.
Imani Ghashlaqchai, F. (2005). Effectiveness of short-term extension training held in rural districts of Ardebil Province in 2001-2002. Unpublished thesis for educational management, Faculty of Humanities,Tarbiat Moallem University, Tehran,Iran.
Mathieu, A. (2004). The meaning of practices: Farmers conceptions in agricultural development strategies. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 10(3), 101 – 109.
Mirdamadi, S.A. M., & Bagheri varkane, A.S. (2008). Survey of high school students’ interest to protect environment in Tehran. Academic Journal of the Environment. 46 (2), 39-21.
Musselwhite, G., & Herath, G. (2006).Chaos theory and assessment of forest stakeholder attitudes towards Australian forest policy. Forest Policy and Economics, 14 (2),65-74.
Nkembi, L. N. (1998). Participatory forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods: Banyang-Mbo wildlife sanctuary. Retrieved from http:// www. fao. Org / DOCREP/ ARTICLE/WFC/ XII/0630- C1. HTM.
Perkins, H. M., Crown, E. M., Rigakis, K. B., & Eggertson, B. S. (1992). Attitudes and behavioral intentions of agricultural workers toward disposable protective coveralls. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 11(1), 67-73.
Rougoor, C. W., Trip, G., Huirne, R. B. M., &Renkema, J. A. (1998) How to define and study farmers’management capacity: theory and use in agricultural economics. Agricultural Economics, 18 (1), 261-272.
Soleimani, N., & Khodaverdian, M. (2007). Study of teaching methods in unofficial technical training courses in livestock affairs. Jihad Magazine, 278, 68-50.
Swanson .E. B. (2006). Extension strategies for poverty alleviation: Lessons from China and India. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 12(4), 285-299.
Waithaka, M.M., Thornton, P.K., Shepherd, K.D., & Ndiwa, N.N. (2007). Factors affecting the use of fertilizers and manure by smallholders: The case of Vihiga, western Kenya. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 78 (3), 211-224.
Winter, K., Randa, J. A., & Holtum, J. A. M. (2005). Carbon isotope composition and water-use efficiency in plants with crassulacean acid metabolism. Functional Plant Biology 32 (1), 381–388.
Wood, R. T. A., & Griffiths, M. D. (2004). Adolescent lottery and scratch card players: Do their attitudes influence their gambling behavior? Journal of Adolescence, 27, 467-475.
