Agricultural Extension and Education Research: 28 (28)

Open Access Article

1 - The Challenges in Application of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) by Gardeners in Karaj County

The main purpose of this research was to identify the major challenges in applying the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices from the view of Karaj county gardeners. It was an applied type research and the main instrument to collect the information was questionnair More

The main purpose of this research was to identify the major challenges in applying the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices from the view of Karaj county gardeners. It was an applied type research and the main instrument to collect the information was questionnaire. The population of the study consisted of 75 gardeners (N=75) in 3 district of Karaj county in Alborz province (Asara, Eshtehard and Markazi), because of small population a census was conducted and finally 68 questionnaires were analyzed. Validity of the instrument was established by panel of experts consisting of faculty members in agricultural Extension and Education Department, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University and some specialists in the Ministry of Agriculture. A pretest was conducted with 20 farmers of Savojbolagh County to determine the Reliability of the questionnaire for the study. Computed Cronbach’s Alpha score was acceptable for different parts of questionnaire (0.86-0.94), which indicated that the instrument was reliable. Factor analysis showed that five latent factors Economic; Individual Tendencies; Method-Tool; Service; and Educational-skills, explained 67.028 percent of variance Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

2 - Assessing Extension Advisory Services Experts' Capabilities toward Education and Development of Precision Agriculture

Precision agriculture technology is a way to create a balance between increasing population, shortage of resources and the environmental protection. Therefore, enhancing experts' education in precision agriculture can be accelerated adoption of this technology by farmer More

Precision agriculture technology is a way to create a balance between increasing population, shortage of resources and the environmental protection. Therefore, enhancing experts' education in precision agriculture can be accelerated adoption of this technology by farmers. The main objective of this study was assessing extension advisory services experts' capabilities required in order to education and development of precision agriculture. The population of this study was all extension advisory services experts (142 people) in Shiraz country. 110 of this population were selected by using a simple random sampling. Questionnaire was used to collect data that its face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and pilot test was performed to evaluate its reliability by Cronbach's Alpha test. Alpha coefficient was about 0.83. The results revealed that required capabilities of precision agriculture trainers were categorized in three groups: applied capabilities, cognitive capabilities and explanation of consequences. At the end, according to the results, applicable recommendations were presented Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - Relationship Between Job Characteristics and Job Burnout among Jihad-e Keshavarzi Organization Specialists in Kurdistan Province

The purpose of this descriptive – correlation research was to study the relationship between job characteristics and Job burnout among Jihad-e Keshavarzi Organization Specialists in Kurdistan Province. The statistical population of the study consisted of all Jihad More

The purpose of this descriptive – correlation research was to study the relationship between job characteristics and Job burnout among Jihad-e Keshavarzi Organization Specialists in Kurdistan Province. The statistical population of the study consisted of all Jihad-e Keshavarzi organization specialists (N=449). Using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table and proportional stratified random sampling technique, 220 specialists selected as research sample. Instruments used were Maslach’s Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Job Characteristics. The validity of the instrument was confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.81 to 0.84). Data was analyzed using SPSS win20 software. Based on the results, among job characteristics, work over load and work under load had positive and significant correlation with Job burnout (P001) and Job control had negative and significant correlation with Job burnout (P001). However, there were no correlation between role ambiguity and role conflict with Job burnout Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

4 - Evaluating Financial Performance of Agricultural Insurance Fund in Hamadan Province

Considering the importance of insurance in encouraging agricultural investments, this study try to evaluates the financial performance of agricultural insurance by using subjective and objective approaches in Hamadan province. The data collected by interviewing 381 farm More

Considering the importance of insurance in encouraging agricultural investments, this study try to evaluates the financial performance of agricultural insurance by using subjective and objective approaches in Hamadan province. The data collected by interviewing 381 farmers through two-stage cluster sampling and from the annual performance reports of Agricultural Insurance Fund (AIF) for 2003-2010. The results of objective assessment show that crop insurance coverage has many variations and the farmers have weak tendency for taking out the horticulture insurance. Analyzing the farmer's share of the premium paid for the different products show no clear pattern of the governmental funds for supporting farmers.  Furthermore, on the indemnity payment, AIF is dependent on governmental subsides, on average pays 4 Rials indemnity per 1 Rials premium. Evaluation of the AIF's portfolio with respect to government's share of the premium shows the profitability of irrigated wheat, irrigated barely, canola, grapes, apricot and almond and no profitability of any crops with no government aids. On the other hand, the findings of subjective evaluation show that the insured and uninsured farmers respectively have positive and negative attitudes toward the financial performance of AIF.   Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - Identifying Factors of Villagers’ Satisfaction from Agricultural Consulting, Technical and Engineering Services Companies in Zanjan County

The main objective of this descriptive- survey study was to identify explanation factors of villagers’ satisfaction from agricultural consulting, technical and engineering services companies in Zanjan County. The statistical population of the study consisted of al More

The main objective of this descriptive- survey study was to identify explanation factors of villagers’ satisfaction from agricultural consulting, technical and engineering services companies in Zanjan County. The statistical population of the study consisted of all villagers who have benefited at least once or more from the services of the companies in Zanjan County during past two years (N= 2550). According to the Cochran's formula, a sample size of 262 was selected using a stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The validity of the questionnaire was established by a panel of experts related to research field. A pilot study was conducted to establish reliability of the instrument. Cronbach alpha's coefficient for the scale of villagers’ satisfaction from the companies was equal to 0.85. The results revealed that explaining factors of villagers’ satisfaction from the companies in Zanjan County reduced to five factors named as technical and engineering services, extension- education services, executive and administrative activities, communication skills and marketing services. In total, five factors covered 60.1% of variances Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - The Effect of Knowledge Management on Organizational Performance of Jihad-e- Agriculture Organization in Alborz Province

The purpose of this descriptive- correlative research was to study effect of knowledge management on organizational performance of Jihad-e- Agriculture organization in Alborz province. The statistical population of the research consisted of 272 experts of Jihad-e- Agric More

The purpose of this descriptive- correlative research was to study effect of knowledge management on organizational performance of Jihad-e- Agriculture organization in Alborz province. The statistical population of the research consisted of 272 experts of Jihad-e- Agriculture organization in Alborz province. According to the Krejcie and Morgan table, a sample size of 213 was selected using a stratified random sampling method. The standard questionnaires were used to collect the data. The results showed that the knowledge management and its components including, creation, acquisition, recording, transfer and using of knowledge had a positive and significant effect (p < 0.01) on the dependent variable. The knowledge management totally explained 54 percent of variances of the organizational performance of Jihad-e- Agriculture organization in Alborz province. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that reinforcing the knowledge management and its components directly results in improvement of organizational performance of the Jihad-e- Agriculture organization Manuscript profile

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