A Study and Analysis of the Educational Needs of Range Owners in the County of Zanjan (Case Study: Ortabolagh Village)

Natural resources available in each and every country are considered as vital bases for the growth and development indifferent aspects of that country, including agricultural production and improvement of urban welfare, therefore, a suitable utilization and conservation of these resources in indispensable. Range owners as the most important and effective element in sustainable utilization and conservation of rangelands, bear the direct management responsibility of rangelands, so in this area, it is essentail to provide them with the nessecesary information and knowledge. As an instance in the case, the main purpose followed in this research was to study and analyze the educational needs of range owners in the county of Zanjan. The research method of the study was an analytical- explanatory one. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the range owners of Ortabolagh village in the county of Zanjan (N= 142). According to Morgan& Krejcie table, a number of 105 range owners were selected through Simple Random Sampling for the study. A questionnaire was used to collect the data.  The validity of the questionnaire was established by a panel of experts. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the main scales of the questionnaire were calculated as more than 0.75, which indicates the appropriate reliability of the questionnaire. Factor analysis of educational needs of range owners showed that four factors namely: Technical, Conservative, Legal, and Cognitive explained 67.05% of the total variances.