factors affecting agricultural sustainable activities among wheat producers

Factors affecting agricultural sustainable activities among wheat producers

Keywords: Sustainable behavior, wheat producer, agricultural activities, farmers.

ABSTRACT: The sustainability of agricultural activities has been emphasized in many studies. The main objective of this study is to determine the major factors affecting the adoption of sustainable activities among wheat producers in Marvdasht county in Iran. The Survey research was used and the sample consists of 178 farmers that selected with simple random sampling technique from 10 villages. Findings showed a positive correlation between educational level, knowledge on sustainability, attending on educational classes, participation in extension activities, social norms and conducting sustainable agricultural activities. The regression findings showed that age, educational level, knowledge on sustainability, agricultural income, total land of family, attending on educational classes, participation in extension activities, social norms, controllability of production factors were major variables to explain variability in adoption of sustainable activities among wheat producers. The study has provided recommendations to improve of adoption rate in sustainable agricultural activities.

093-098 | JRA | 2012 | Vol 1 | No 2

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Journal of Research in

Agriculture An International Scientific

Research Journal

Authors:

Rezaei-Moghaddam K1,

Fatemi M2 and

Monfared N3.

Institution:

1. Associate professor of

Agricultural Extension

and Education, Shiraz

University, Iran.

2. Ph.D Student of

Agricultural Extension

and Education, Shiraz

University, Iran.

3. Associate Professor of Institute of Applied

Scientific Higher Education

Jihad-e-Agriculture, Iran.

Corresponding author: Kurosh Rezaei-Moghaddam.

Email: [email protected].

[email protected].

Phone No:

0098-711-2753366.

0098-9166134617.

Fax:

0098-711-2286072.

Web Address:

http://www.jagri.info

documents/AG0015.pdf.

Dates: Received: 21 Jan 2012 Accepted: 28 Jan 2012 Published: 18 Jun 2012

Article Citation: Rezaei-Moghaddam K, Fatemi M and Monfared N. Factors affecting agricultural sustainable activities among wheat producers. Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1(2): 093-098.

Original Research

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INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is an important economic sector

in developing countries such as Iran. In recent three

decades changes have raised to increase wheat

productivity in Iran such as improvement of water

management, introducing new varieties, laser leveling,

use of modern irrigation methods, chemical fertilizers,

herbicides and non-chemical procedures. The adoption

and impact of these activities is dependent to many

factors (Hezri & Hasan, 2004).

Environmental degradation, whether at the

global, national or local level, is a result of multiple

major human-related factors including human

intervention in natural ecosystems, current patterns of

economic development, and social organization.

Environment is threatened by modern man who has

become detached from nature. There is an urgent

necessity to ask questions related to the environmental

effects of socio-economic and political conditions and

reasons for technological changes.

Prediction and improvement of behaviors related

to environment should be and appears to be evolving as a

universal priority. Therefore, the study of environmental

attitudes and behaviors is a vitally important task for the

scientific community. Fortunately, environmental

research has given increased attention to behaviors to

promote environmental conservation. Contemporary

advances in environmental consciousness provide a

multitude of opportunities for research and new

knowledge generation in topics of interest to

environmental scientists.

One of the important steps to promote

environmental sustainability is identification of

determinant factors related to environmental behaviors

and development of a comprehensive model. Fishbein

and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action (TRA)

maintained that beliefs influence attitude. This theory

emphasized that the performance or nonperformance of a

specific behavior is determined by the intention to

perform that behavior. Consequently, prediction of

behavior from a priori attitude toward that behavior

would be accurate only when the attitude influences the

intention to perform the behavior.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) modifies

the TRA by incorporating the construct of perceived

behavioral control to address situations in which

individuals lack substantive control over a specific

behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Based on TPB, three

determinants explain behavioral intention: The attitude,

the subjective norm, and the perceived behavioral

control. Background variables such as demographical

factors, are supposed to influence the behavior through

the three determinants and the underlying intention.

Based on these theories, knowledge,

controllability of behavior, social norms and attitude are

the major factors to study the behaviors. Agricultural and

environmental knowledge has a direct relationship to

sustainable agricultural development. One important

direction in policy interventions to influence behavior is

diffusion of information and knowledge. Information

could mould or change attitudes. However, although

awareness and knowledge are necessary, they may often

be insufficient to induce behavioral change. It has

already been recognized that knowledge is the crucial

“fourth factor of production” and sustainable farming

practices are more demanding on the skills and

knowledge of farmers (Ingram & Morris, 2007).

The controllability factors of behavior are

contextual attributes and situational conditions that

facilitate proclivity to act and allow new behavior to be

realized. Ajzen and Madden (1985) defined perceived

behavioral control as a person's belief regarding the ease

or difficulty of engaging in a certain behavior. The more

resources and opportunities individuals think they

possess, and the fewer obstacles or impediments they

may anticipate, the greater should be their perceived

control over the considered behavior.

094 Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1(2): 093-098

Moghaddam et al.,2012

Various researchers have proposed moral norm

as an independent predictor of attitude and behavior.

Moral norms are feelings of strong moral obligations that

people experience for engaging in pro-social behavior.

Awareness and knowledge about environmental

problems are considered as important preconditions for

developing moral norms in environmental behavior

(Bamberg & Mosher, 2007).

Attitudes have an important role to accept a new

technology as an alternative form of agriculture

(Rezaei-Moghaddam et al., 2005). The study of attitudes

is a core business of social psychology and more

generally of public opinion research. “An attitude is a

psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a

particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.

In this definition, the term “psychological tendency”

refers to an internal, mental state of a person and

“evaluating” bears reference to different types of

evaluative responding. These evaluative responses may

include overt and covert responses that can be of

cognitive, cognitive or affective nature” (Carrus et al.,

2008). Vincent et al., (2011) indicated that factors

influencing the adaptation behavior and extent of

adaptation to climate variability are not the same for the

wheat farmers, implying the need for targeting them with

different packages of policies (Vincent et al., 2011;

Amakawa and Boateng, 2011).

The main objective of this research is to

determine major factors affecting adoption of sustainable

activities among wheat producers in Marvdasht county in

Iran. The variables such as demographic variables (age,

educational level, knowledge on sustainability),

economic variables (agricultural income, total land of

family), social variables (attending on extension classes,

participation in extension activities, social norms,

controllability of production factors) were studied as

independent variables in this study.

RESEARCH METHOD

A survey was conducted among wheat producers

in Marvdasht county in Iran. Simple random sampling

was used for the selection of 178 farmers from 10

villages. The survey involved face-to-face interviews for

data collection based on a questionnaire. A pilot study

was conducted on 30 farmers out of the studied

region to examine the validity and reliability of the

questionnaire, and Cronbach’s alpha for the items of

Likert type scales were computed at 0.78 to 0.94. A

package of sustainable agricultural activities for wheat

cultivation was investigated in the study. The activities

consists of using rotation, consumption of animal

manure, consumption of green manure, organic farming,

non-chemical pest control, integration pest management

and conservation farming.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Adoption of sustainable activities among wheat

producers

Descriptive statistic regarding sustainable

agricultural activities by farmers is in table1. As it has

shown, about 78 percentage of the farmers fallow

rotations in medium and high level. In consumption of

animal manure, also 75 percentage of the farmers, were

in medium and high level. The consumption of green

manure was low, so that most of the farmers

(90 percentage) did not use or use in low level. In other

sustainable activities such as organic farming,

non- chemical pest control and integration pest control,

most of the farmers, were used in low level (Table 1). In

relation of conservation farming, 54 percentage of the

farmers were used in medium and high level. It could be

concluded from table 1 that the farmers were more

considered to sustainable agricultural activities such as

rotation, consumption of animal manure, conservation

farming, consumption of green manure, organic farming,

non-chemical pest control and integration pest control,

respectively. Rotation and using animal manure were

Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1(2): 093-098 095


used in highest level by farmers but integration and

non-chemical pest control were used in the lowest level.

Factors influencing adoption of sustainable

agricultural activities

There is a significant relationship between

knowledge on sustainability and conducting sustainable

activities among wheat producers (Table 2). The

relationship between educational level of farmers (r=0.4)

and sustainable activities was significant and positive at

0.001 level. There is a positive and significant

correlation between attending on extension classes and

sustainable activities at 0.001 level. This finding lends

support to Liao and lu (2008).

There is positive and significant correlation

between participation in extension activities and

conducting sustainable activities (r=0.4) at 0.001 level.

These are comparable with the findings of Monfared

(2011) and Malek-Saeidi et al., (2011).

The relationship between attending in extension

classes (r=0.34) and conducting sustainable activities is

positive and significant. The findings indicate the

number of higher contacts with extension agent attending

in educational classes; there is a higher rate of

sustainable activities. These are comparable with the

findings of Malek-Saeidi et al., (2011) and Monfared

(2011).

The results of multivariate regression of

independent variables on adoption of sustainable

activities were shown in Table 3. The F-test is significant

(F=57.70, p=0.001). The adjusted R square shows that

the entered variables on model explain 53.3 percent of

the variance in adoption of sustainable activities. The R

square changed of knowledge of sustainability showed

that the variable is the most important factor in

explaining the variability of adoption. Controllability of

production factors is an important variable to predict

sustainable activities. The R square changed of this

variable is 6.5 percent. As we see, educational level of

farmers explain 1.2 percent of variability in the adoption

of sustainable activities. Agricultural income also could

explain a part of percentage of conducting the

sustainable activities. Other results of multivariate

regression of independent variables on adoption of

sustainable activities have been showed in table 3.

Table 4 shows that one standard deviation

change in knowledge on sustainability causes a 0.447

standard deviation change in adoption of sustainable



sustainable activities Low Medium High

frequency percentage frequency percentage frequency percentage

Rotation 42 23.5 68 38.2 68 38.2

Consumption of animal

manure 53 29.7 84 47.1 50 28.08

Consumption of green

manure 90 50.5 60 33.7 28 15.7

Organic farming 103 57.8 60 33.7 15 8.4

Non-chemical pest

control 120 67.4 46 25.8 12 6.7

Integration pest control 162 91.01 9 5.05 7 3.9

Conservation farming 80 44.9 51 28.6 47 26.4

Table 1. Frequencies and percentage of sustainable activities among farmers

Independent variables Correlation

coefficient

Age -0.1

Educational level 0.4**

Knowledge on sustainability 0.45**

Agricultural income 0.14

Total land of family 0.1

Attending on extension classes 034**

Social norms 0.25**

Controllability of production factors 0.1

Table 2. Correlations between independent

variables and sustainable activities

** Significant at 0.001 level

activities. Also, one standard deviation change in

participation in extension activities and educational level

increase 0.217 and 0.192 standard deviation in adoption

of sustainable activities, respectively. As it is clear in

table 4, one standard deviation increase in controllability

of production factors increases the adoption of activities

by 0.145 standard deviations.

CONCLUSIONS

Prediction and improvement of behaviors related

to environment should be and appears to be evolving as a

universal priority. Therefore, the study of environmental

attitudes and behaviors is a vitally important task for the

scientific community. Fortunately, environmental

research has given increased attention to behaviors to

promote environmental conservation. Contemporary

advances in sustainability consciousness provide a

multitude of opportunities for research and new

knowledge generation in topics of interest to

environmental scientists. Thus, a more robust and

systematic study of environmental issues seems to be

universally meritorious and very timely. The application

of modernity has changed the agricultural activities.

Application of modern technologies has caused different

impacts in villages. Diffusion of agricultural activities in

rural areas has different consequences. The study showed

that the variables educational level, knowledge on

sustainability, agricultural income, attending on

extension classes, social norms and controllability of

production factors explained major variance in adoption

of sustainable activities by farmers. Knowledge on

sustainability was the most important factor in explaining

the variability of adoption of sustainable activities. Also,

controllability of production factors and attending on

extension classes explained part of variability in the

adoption of sustainable activities. There was a positive

correlation between educational level, knowledge on

sustainability, attending on educational and extension

classes, social norms and conducting sustainable

agricultural activities. Agricultural policy makers should

prepare a special training about new sustainable

technologies to agriculture.

Deriving from the data set, the findings presented

in this study demonstrates the importance of knowledge

of sustainability on conducting agricultural sustainable

activities. This indicates that access to the agricultural

sustainable information in wheat farming has the strong

influence to conduct sustainable activities. This

emphasizes the important role of educational

organizations and other resources to improve knowledge

about sustainable agricultural systems, to decrease

negative impacts of conventional farming. There is

necessity to provide extension training in the use of

Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1(2): 093-098 097


Independent variables Mult. R R square Adjusted R square R square changed

Knowledge on sustainability 0.570 0.415 0.405 0.405

Controllability of production factors 0.60 0.482 0.470 0.065

Educational level 0.62 0.495 0.482 0.012

Agricultural income 0.640 0.505 0.496 0.014

Attending on extension classes 0.69 0.537 0.518 0.22

Social norms 0.72 0.552 0.533 0.015

Table 3. Multiple regression of independent variables on adoption of sustainable activities

Independent

variables b Std.er Beta Sig

Knowledge on

sustainability 0.232 3.6 0.447 0.001

Controllability of

production factors 0.354 3.3 0.145 0.001

Educational level 0.710 3.17 0.192 0.001

Agricultural in-

come 0.297 3.10 0.113 0.013

Attending on

extension classes 0.096 3.05 0.076 0.041

Social norms 0.270 3.01 0.079 0.031

Table 4 Multiple regression of independent

variables on adoption of sustainable activities

Constant=-3.640, F=57.70, Sig=0.000

sustainable activities to rural areas. Farmers also need

knowledge and information along with other supports to

enable the adoption of sustainable and suitable

agricultural activities, therefore the extension have an

important role in this case.

The controllability of sustainable activities in

wheat production is contextual to attributes and

situational conditions that facilitate proclivity to act and

allow new activities to be realized. The more resources

and facilities that farmers think, they possess, and the

fewer obstacles or impediments they may anticipate, the

greater should be their perceived control over the

considered activities. It is important to implement

policymaking activities.

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