سنجش نگرش كشاورزان زعفرانكار نسبت به توليد و توسعه كشت زعفران و بررسي مسايل و مشكلات آنان (مطالعه موردي شهرستان گناباد)

Assessing Farmersʹ Attitude Toward Cultivation and Development of Saffron Production and Investigating Their Difficulties and Problems (A Case Study In Gonabad, Khorasan, Iran)

The purpose in this research was to investigate the farmersʹ attitude toward Saffron cultivation and development. The study consisted of all farmers who cultivated Saffron in the region of Gonabad (N=11000), of whom 400 were selected through cluster sampling technique (n=400). The study was a descriptive-correlational, survey research. A questionnaire was designed and employed to gather the required data. A panel of experts verified the content validity. A pilot study was initially conducted to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. Findings in the study indicated that a majority of the farmersʹ attitude toward Saffron cultivation as well as their participation in extension and education activities was considered to be at an "average" level. There was a statistically significant positive relationship between farmersʹ attitude and their level of professional knowledge, farmersʹ agricultural experience and their cropʹs production yields. The result of the multivariate regression revealed that 7.5% of variability in farmersʹ attitude stems from their production yields. Water shortage, lack of price instability and poor economic conditions were the main problems mentioned to be faced by the farmers.