The Factors Influencing the Application of Organic Farming Operations by Farmers in Iran

Abstract

The overall aim of this study is to study the factors influencing the application of organic farming operations by farmers. The research‘s statistical population would consist of all the farmers in Divandarreh city (N=7931). Using the Cochran‘s sampling formula, 98 individuals were selected as the sample. In order to enhance the validity of findings, a total of 120 questionnaires were distributed using stratified random sampling, with proportionate and finally, 115 ones were completed and analyzed. The research’s main instrument was a questionnaire whose viability by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach‘s alpha coefficient (α>0.7). Data analysis was carried out by the software SPSSwin18. The results showed that the study farmers apply organic farming operations at a low and moderate level. Additionally, the results indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between the application of organic farming operations with the variables of farming-work experience, literacy, use of communicative media, attitude to organic farming, knowledge and awareness of organic farming, participation in educational courses of extension, and use of educational publications. Moreover, the results of regression analysis showed that the three variables of use of information and communicative resources and channels, attitude to organic farming, and use of educational and extensional publications explained 61.2 percent of the changes related to the variance of the study‘s dependent variable (application of organic farming operations).