Abstract:
Canola production is an important alternative for agricultural policy
-
makers in Iran to
reduce dependency on the imported vegetable oils. Nevertheless, the canola planted area
is only increasing at a slow pace, indicating a low willingness
-
to
-
accept of far
mers. The
general aim of this study was to determine the factors influencing the canola adoption in
the Kermanshah Province in Western Iran. Employing stratified random sampling
method, 106 farmers from each adopter and non
-
adopter group were selected. Hel
ping to
reach a suitable extensional program, two main categories of variables were defined; i.e.
“farmers’ personal characteristics” and “extension parameters”. The analysis of farmers’
personal characteristics variables revealed that the adopters had lar
ger farms and were
younger. The results also show that 80% of the adopters were “highly” to “very highly”
willing to cultivate canola. Furthermore, a logistic regression model estimated the
influence of extensional parameters variables on the canola adopti
on. According to the
regression model, the most effective factors are “contact with extension agents” and
“participating in extension classes”. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the focus of
extension services should be to reduce the distance to agricu
ltural service centers in
combination with more contact with extension agents and classes.
Keywords:
Extension services, Human Factor, Kermanshah, Logistic regression model.
