Farmersʹʹ Empowerment indicators modeling in Mazandaran province, Iran

ABSTRACT: The overall aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting the farmersʹ empowerment indicators in Mazandaran province, Iran. To achieve this aim, farmers’ empowerment indicators, affecting factors on farmers’ empowerment, solutions and barriers to empowering farmers were identified in Mazandaran province. The statistical population included 1368233 farmers living in the Mazandaran province, Iran. Farmers were selected through stratified random sampling technique. The sample size was determined using Cochran’s formula. As sample of 299 farmers were taken randomly. In order to investigate the reliability of research questionnaire, 30 farmers were randomly selected and they completed the questionnaire. Also cronbach’s alpha and ordinal theta were 0.91 and 0.91 respectively. The mean of farmers’ age and their farming experiences were respectively 49.31 and 25.58 years. Also, 22 percent of farmers’ empowerment variance was determined through four factors of farmers’ loan sources, solutions, training methods and obstacles. The banks were the most important farmers’ loan source. Among the solutions, providing credits and loans to farmers was the most important in the farmers’ empowerment in Mazandaran province. Low literacy level serves as the main obstacle in empowering farmers. The most useful method to empower the farmers was take parting in farmer field school. Empowerment indicators are affected by the different elements of which solutions had effect on empowerment self- determination and communication had effect on empowerment competence. Training methods had the highest effect on the meaning. Solutions were also effective for the empowerment impact and training methods had effect on empowerment confidence.