JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

---

Sustainability has become a part of the language of almost all development projects. Although, in many instances it has been overused and misused, attaining sustainability in agricultural development is always one of our concerns. This paper aims (1) to clarify and describe the core beliefs and values underlying the two opposing world views of agriculture, i.e., “conventional agricultural paradigm” and “sustainable agricultural paradigm” (2) to describe an instrument developed to measure the basic beliefs and values assumed to constitute the two competing paradigms (3) to measure the adherence of extensionists and researchers of the Ministry of Agriculture towards sustainable agriculture and (4) to compare the adherence to alternative paradigms against conventional agricultural paradigms of Iranian groups with permaculture groups and agricultural chemical dealers of USA. The instrument was used in a nation wide survey. A two-stage random sample was used. In the first stage, 11 provinces were randomly selected and then in each of the selected provinces a simple random sample of extension agents, extension experts and agricultural researchers were selected for the study. The findings indicated that there is no significant difference among agricultural researchers, extension agents and extension experts in their mean endorsement score of sustainable agriculture. Data from a similar study in the USA were used to provide a means of comparison. Two extreme groups were selected, permaculture group with strong sustainable agricultural score and agricultural chemical dealers with lowest mean scores of sustainable agriculture. The mean scores of sustainable agriculture adherence of three Iranian groups were considerably lower than that of the USA permaculture group. However, there was no significant difference between three Iranian groups and USA agricultural chemical dealers which indicates low adherence of Iranian sample to sustainable agriculture. Considering the challenges Iranian farmers face for food production in the next decade and the role of the Ministry of Agriculture personnel, recommendations are put forth for changing knowledge, attitudes and skills of agricultural researchers and extensionists.

---

The main objective of the present study is to analyze the effects of agricultural crop insurance on farmers’ technical efficiency and risk attitude. Required data came from questionnaires that were completed by the Institute for Planning and Agricultural Economics of the Ministry of Agriculture. Farmers’ technical efficiency and attitude toward risk were estimated using stochastic frontier production function and equally likely certainty equivalent method for both insured and non-insured groups. Results revealed that effects of agricultural insurance on farmers’ technical efficiency were significantly positive in the three study regions.

Results of estimating risk aversion coefficients of study farmers showed a positive effect of insurance on risk aversion coefficients. However, this effect was significant only in two of the climatic regions under study.

---

Today, privatization of agricultural extension services is recognized as an appropriate approach to compensate for any weakness that the traditional extension system might have. The primary objective of this research was to study the attitude of the national top managers (including general managers, their deputies, and extension managers) of Jihad-e Keshavarzi Organizations (JKO), toward privatization of agricultural extension. Twenty JKOs from 20 provinces were randomly selected for study. A questionnaire was developed to the gather information needed and 107 general managers, deputies, and extension managers were randomly selected for this purpose. A pilot test was conducted on a similar population and reliability coefficients of (A Cronbach Alpha) 81%, and 89% were obtained for the attitude and managerial characteristics of the questionnaire respectively. The results showed that 93.83% of the subjects had either “positive” or “relatively positive” attitude toward privatization of agricultural extension. The majority of the subjects indicated that privatization of extension could provide a “supplementary means to complement the existing public extension services”. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the independent variables collectively are responsible for 17.4% (R² =0.174) of the variation in dependent variables. This indicates that a considerable amount of variances in dependent variables are yet unaccounted for that could be explained by variables that were not investigated in this study (requiring further study).

---

Changing agricultural experts' attitude toward sustainability principles and perceptions is essential to create sustainable agriculture. Various studies had shown that permanent changes are not easily accessible to maintain ecological values. Therefore preparing effective information channels and precautions leading to communication system firmness are important challenges ahead. The purpose of the present research was the evaluation of caricature effects on attitude change of Jihad Agriculture Organization experts concerning sustainable agriculture in Shiraz. A Quasi-experimental research method was devised for three groups consisting of two experimental and one control group. A Pre- and a Post-test were also administered. Eighty experts from Jihad Agriculture Organization were selected in a simple randomized sampling manner. Based on research theories, questions were devised and data were collected through a questionnaire. Its validity and reliability were determined by specialists and Cronbach's Alpha, respectively. The results indicated that workshops had changed experts' attitude toward sustainability principles and perceptions and workshops with caricature had the most influences on the change of attitudes. Thus the use of caricature is significant to establish sustainable agricultural principles and perceptions in experts at local level conditions.

---

  The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the factors affecting farmers’ attitudinal dimensions toward participation in Water Users’ Association (WUA) by comparing two groups of farmers in irrigation networks with WUA and without it. The methodological approach was a descriptive-correlational and causal-comparative study of the survey type. The target population in the study consisted of 2551 farmers of irrigation networks in Khorasan-e-Razavi Province, Iran. Using stratified random sampling technique, 335 participants were chosen. Data were collected through a questionnaire, and analyzed using SPSS, V.13. Content and face validity of the instrument were obtained by the faculty members of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agronomy and Irrigation Departments at Tarbiat Modarres University and also specialists board of Agricultural Jihad Organization and Regional Water Joint-stock Company in Khorasan-e-Razavi Province. The reliability analysis was conducted and cronbach’s alpha values for the various sections of instrument were estimated between 0.73 and 0.86. The descriptive findings of the study showed that the majority of farmers’ overall attitude with respect to participation in WUA was at a good level. The results obtained from Pearson correlation analysis indicated that there are significant and positive relationships between such variables as education level, size of irrigated cultivated landholding, annual income, extension contacts, social capital components, water users’ perceptions regarding irrigation networks status and farmers’ participation status concerning irrigation networks management with the farmers’ overall attitude toward participation in WUA. The result of stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicated that 61.1% (R² = 0.611) of the variance in farmers’ attitudes with respect to participation in WUA could be explained by farmers’ behaviour regarding optimum farm water management, social participation, social confidence, water users’ perceptions regarding irrigation networks status, farmers’ participation status concerning irrigation networks management. Also, significant differences were found between the two respondent groups in irrigation networks with WUA and without it in relation to farmers’ attitudinal dimensions.

---

The continuous rapid development of telecommunications and computer-based information technology (IT) is probably one of the biggest factors of change in agricultural extension, which will facilitate and reinforce other changes. There are many possibilities for the potential applications of the technology in agricultural extension, about which attitudes of extension professionals is highly important. The present study was conducted to assess the attitude of extension professionals which can affect the adoption of IT by extension system. The population of the study consisted of 1145 extension professionals working throughout the country in different provinces. Using a stratified random sampling technique, 241 extension experts were selected as the sample for the study. The reliability and validity of the tools of study were confirmed by a pilot study and expert judgment. The results of the study indicated that the respondents had higher knowledge on word processing softwares, windows and file management in the area of computer application. In contrast, in the area of internet application they were mainly interested in getting information from specialized sites, searching by search engines of Yahoo and Google and exchanging e-mails. Correlation analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between the attitude of extension professionals and their age, educational attainments, knowledge of IT, its application and English language proficiency. Meanwhile, there was a significant difference between attitudes of male and female extension experts towards IT.

---

The purpose of this study was to investigate dairy farmers' attitudes regarding the quality of milk and role of training in improving the quality of milk. The study was implemented in two parts. The first part was survey research and 6200 dairy farmers were the target population for this study in Golpayegan Township, Iran. Dairy farmers were selected using stratified randomization sampling method (n= 130). In the second part, 12 dairy farmers were selected. Plate count and lipid percentage of milk in 12 dairy farms were determined in a completely randomized block design with 2 treatments and 3 replications. The results of the study showed positive and statistically significant relationship between independent variables (sex, educational level, membership in dairy :::union:::s, knowledge and participation in educational programs) and dependent variable (attitude). Results of analysis of variances showed that plate count and lipid percentage in the two treatments were significantly different.

---

Variable rate technology-spraying technologies are new aspect of sustainable agriculture. In these technologies, the chemical is applied in the needed level of farm where there is a high intensity of pests and weeds. The purpose of this paper was to study the agricultural specialists' attitude toward and intention to use variable rate technology-spraying technologies in Jihad-e-Keshavarzi organization of Fars and Khuzestan provinces. A survey was conducted using a stratified random sampling to collect data from 249 agricultural specialists. The results showed that the specialists of Fars and Khuzestan provinces have intentions to use the variable rate technology-spraying technologies. The variables including attitude toward application, trialing, perceived usefulness, compatibility, and attitude of confidence all influence the intentions to use the variable rate technology-spraying technologies. Based on high positive intention of agricultural specialists, we recommend the use of these technologies in agricultural practices of the two provinces.