Studying of the Effective Factors on Farmers’ Satisfaction with Agricultural Consulting, Technical and Engineering Services Ventures in Zanjan County

REZAEI, ROHOLLAH; GHOLIFAR, EHSAN; GHOLAMI, HESSAMADDINE

doi:10.22059/ijaedr.2013.36720

Studying of the Effective Factors on Farmers’ Satisfaction with Agricultural Consulting, Technical and Engineering Services Ventures in Zanjan County

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

ROHOLLAH REZAEI ¹

EHSAN GHOLIFAR ²

HESSAMADDINE GHOLAMI ³

¹ Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

² MSc. Student of Agricultural Education, Agricultural Extension, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

³ PhD. Student, Agricultural Extension, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/ijaedr.2013.36720

Abstract

Regarding the importance of Agricultural Consulting, Technical and Engineering Service Ventures (ACTESVs) in developing agricultural sector and relative low level of farmers’ satisfaction with these ventures, the main objective of this research was to study the effective factors on farmers’ satisfaction with ACTESVs in Zanjan County. Research method of the study was descriptive- correlative. The statistical population of the study consisted of all farmers who have benefited at least once or more from the different services of ACTESVs in Zanjan County during two years ago (N= 2550). Using Cochran's formula, sample size was obtained 262 farmers. The stratified random sampling method was used to access the samples. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The validity of the questionnaire was established by faculty members of agricultural extension and education in universities of Tehran and Zanjan. A pilot study was conducted to establish reliability of the instrument. Cronbach alpha's coefficients for the main scales of the questionnaire calculated more than 0.75. The descriptive results revealed that about 0.8%, 23.7%, 64.4%, 8% and 3% of farmers’ satisfaction with ACTESVs were very low, low, average, high and very high, respectively. The results of regression analysis showed that 58.8% variances of farmers’ satisfaction with ACTESVs were explained by the three variables including: respondents’ attitudes towards ACTESVs, level of respondents’ familiarity with ACTESVs and respondents’ literacy level.

Keywords

Agricultural consulting

contract extension

farmers

Satisfaction

technical and engineering services ventures