بررسي ميزان موفقيت شركتهاي تعاوني توليد روستايي استان مازندران

An Assessment of the Success of Rural Production Cooperatives in Mazandaran Province

Rural Production Cooperatives (RPC) play an important role in development of rural areas in Iran. The main purpose of this study was to determine the extent of success in four newly established RPCs in Mazandaran Province from the viewpoint of respective members. The population in the study consisted of all 2000 members of the RPCs. By a complete randomized sampling technique, 320 members of the population were chosen as sample of the study. This was a descriptive-correlational, survey research. A questionnaire was designed to gather data needed for the study. Content validity of the study was achieved by a panel of experts in the field of agricultural extension, education and rural development. A pilot study was conducted to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. A Cronbach Alpha Coefficient of more than 0.85 was achieved for all parts of the questionnaire. Experts believe that for a non-experimental study a reliability coefficient between 0.5 and 0.8 is acceptable. The findings in this study indicated that agronomic activities of the fanners through cooperatives enabled them to have a better access to agricultural machinery, which in turn brought about good economical gains to farmers as a result of better annual crop yields. Agricultural extension and education activities through cooperatives play an important role in the overall success of the RPCs. There was a statistically significant relationship between the extension program evaluation and the success of the RPCs, a very strong correlation existing between these two variables (r=0.75). There existed a statistically significant relationship between the success of RPCs and the professional satisfaction of members. There was a strong correlation found between these two variables (r=0.65). A Multivariate Linear Regression indicated that among the independent variables, professional satisfaction, and quality levels of extension programs could explain 59% of the variability in RPCsʹ success.