Environmental Education
fatemeh Razzaghi Borkhani; Mahdiye Sadat Mirtorabi
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychological factors affecting the Intention of conservation agricultural behavior of farmers in Sari County based on the Theory of planned behavior model. This research was a descriptive-correlational study (analysis of covariance matrix to test ...
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychological factors affecting the Intention of conservation agricultural behavior of farmers in Sari County based on the Theory of planned behavior model. This research was a descriptive-correlational study (analysis of covariance matrix to test the research model) with the aim of showing the relationship between variables. The population of the study consisted of 30788 farmers in Sari County that 220 were selected through multistage random sampling. Validity of questionnaire was determined through sustainable agricultural experts of Mazandaran County and some faculty members at University of Sari Agricultural and Natural Resources. The reliability was acceptable. Diagnostic validity with using an average variance extracted (AVE) and reliability with using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR) were confirmed. To explain the Effectiveness of psychological factors and the tendency to conservation agricultural behavior from each other, the method of structural equation modeling with LISREL software, version 8.80 has been used. According to the results, psychological factors generally explained 96% of the variance Intention conservation agricultural behavior.When the effects of the three variables of psychological factors were assessed separately on intention of use; the results showed that three variables of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control could explain 66% of the variance in intention of use. In this study, in both models, among the psychological variables, subjective norms were the most effective predictor: in the first model with 74% factor load and in the second model with 39% factor load. In other words, reference groups and their support and agreement were found to be the most effective factors in the intention to conservation agriculture behavior among farmers of Sari. Therefore, the application of participatory education and extension methods and the impact of community opinion leaders on the credibility of local and technical leaders and sample farmers with farmers on the adoption of conservation agricultural technologies are undeniable.
