Agricultural Extension and Education
Mehdi Charmchian Langerodi
Abstract
The development of the use of natural and biological inputs to achieve sustainable rice cultivation seems to be essential, and rice farmers must be prepared to accept sustainable and organic rice. Creating a positive attitude among rice growers about the biological inputs of rice is of paramount importance. ...
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The development of the use of natural and biological inputs to achieve sustainable rice cultivation seems to be essential, and rice farmers must be prepared to accept sustainable and organic rice. Creating a positive attitude among rice growers about the biological inputs of rice is of paramount importance. The purpose of this study was structural equation modeling of biological inputs acceptance by sari rice farmers. All rice farmers in Sari County (24502 individuals) were selected as the statistical population of the study, and 336 of them were selected as the study sample based on Cochran's formula and with random sampling method. Data collection was performed using a researcher-made questionnaire. Also, based on the average variance extracted (0.692 >AVE< 0.91) and composite reliability (0.969 >CR < 0.993), the questionnaire had a convergent validity and appropriate reliability. SPSS16 and Smart PLS2 software were used to analyze the data. The results showed that educational characteristics (with path coefficient 0.453), information characteristics (with path coefficient 0.355), social characteristics (with path coefficient 0.117), and attitude towards biological inputs (with path coefficient 0.084) had a significant positive effect on acceptance of biological inputs (p < 0.01) and 99 percent of the variance of biological input acceptance was determined by these variables. It is suggested that due to the unfavorable attitude of rice farmers towards biological inputs, rice farmers should be informed about the role of biological inputs in crop, water, soil and human health. It is better to use knowledgeable rice farmers in this regard to train other rice farmers.
