Abstract:
The primary purpose of this study was to assess farmers' Sustainable Agricultural
Practice Needs (SAPN) as determined conversely by their level of technical knowledge
and understanding of sustainable corn farming practices. The population of this study
consisted of all corn growers in Fars, a southern province of Iran. A questionnaire was
developed to gather the information required from 159 randomly selected farmers.
Farmer’s demographic and professional characteristics, including their level of technical
knowledge, access to information sources, and level of mechanization were considered to
be independent variables of the study. The SAPN was the dependent variable of the study.
The result showed that a considerable numbers of farmers (46%) have a "high" level of
needs concerning sustainable agricultural practice. The farmers' level of technical
knowledge showed to have a substantial (r= -0.64) and negative association with their
SAPNs. Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that 49.3% (R2=0.493) of the
variance in SAPNs could be explained by the farmers' age, their access to information
sources, and their level of technical knowledge. This implied that a substantial amount of
variability (about 51%) in SAPNs are explained by other variables that were not studied
in this research. Further study is needed to determine factors affecting SAPNs and extend
of the impact.
