The purpose of this research is qualitative analysis and prioritize the challenges of organic farming development in Lorestan province, Iran. This research has been conducted from February to December 2022 to provide a comprehensive, and practical model to understand the challenges through grounded theory and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Lorestan province. The data were collected by performing in-depth semi-structured interviews with the 32 agricultural experts in this field. To measure the validity of this qualitative study, a strategy of triangulation was used and to measure the reliability, constant testing and comparison methods of data and use of tables to record data were used. Data analysis was done by using MAXQDA12 in three steps: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The results of this study by grounded theory identified 29 initial codes and seven main following challenges were categorized and by AHP prioritized: lack of technical knowledge, skills and motivation in the field of organic production, weakness in the information and advertising network in the field of organic consumption, weakness in management and human resources of organic training courses, lack of financial resources and credits for organic training courses, structural and content weakness of organic training courses, weakness of modern research regarding organic agriculture and lack of awareness of the relative advantage of organic agriculture. Manuscript profile

The purpose of the research was identifying and analyzing of indicators and sub-indicators of innovation management in agricultural cooperatives of Khuzestan province, Iran. Causal-comparative research has been used to achieve the research objectives. In this study, the Ex-Post Facto or causal-comparative research method was used to compare the current and favorable situation of agricultural production cooperatives in accordance with the indicators of innovation management in Khuzestan province, Iran. Members of agricultural cooperatives with farming branch in Khuzestan province were 3823 people. the sample size was determined by using Krejcie and Morgan table, (n=349). The sampling method was stratified random sampling method. Statistical analysis of the research was performed using SPSS software version 22. To compare the current and favorable situation of innovation management indicators in agricultural cooperatives, Wilcoxon test was used. Based on the results, all indicators of innovation management, ie innovation creation, innovation organization, innovation planning, financing and creation of innovation facilitation infrastructure, attention to innovation application strategies, innovation research and development, innovative human resource development Dissemination of innovation, organizational developments in the direction of innovation, application of innovation and marketing of new products in the current and favorable situation with a 99% probability had significant difference. Manuscript profile