Professionals’ Attitudes Towards Organic Farming: The Case of Iran | ||
| Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology | ||
| Article 4, Volume 14, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 51-64 PDF (617.59 K) | ||
| Authors | ||
| H. Malek-Saeidi1; K. Rezaei-Moghaddam* 1; A. Ajili2 | ||
| 1Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. | ||
| 2Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Ramin University, Ahvaz, Islamic Republic of Iran. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Organic farming as an approach to sustainable agriculture tries to decrease environmental problems and possible health hazards caused by the residues from pesticides. Since the agricultural professionals are responsible to inform the farmers and the public by education and extension efforts, it is necessary to understand their attitudes. The main purpose of this research was to investigate factors influencing agricultural professionals’ attitudes towards organic farming. We used a survey research by questionnaire in Fars province (a southern province in Iran) to collect data from 138 agricultural professionals in autumn 2007. Major independent variables in the study were knowledge of organic farming, general attitude towards the environment, social norm about organic farming, moral norm about organic farming, nutrient attitude, health attitude, perceived transitional difficulty and negative attitude towards conventional agriculture. The findings showed that negative attitude towards conventional agriculture, general attitude towards the environment, perceived transitional difficulty and moral norm had significant and direct effects on attitude towards organic farming. Negative attitude towards conventional agriculture had the most direct effect. As it was expected, the perceived transitional difficulty had a negative effect on attitude towards organic farming. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Agricultural professionals; Attitude towards organic farming; environment; Knowledge; Moral norm; Social norm | ||
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