Farmers’ Attitude toward the Soil Conservation Practices in the Kushk-Abad Catchment Basins in the Province of Khorasan Razavi, Iran

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess Farmers' attitude toward the soil conservation practices in the Kushk-Abad catchment basins in the province of Khorasan Razavi. A sample of 200 farmers was randomly selected from 1200 farmers living in Kardeh catchment basin. Data collection was done through a questionnaire that was administered in 2014. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. To assess the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha was used. This coefficient for adoption level of sustainble soil conservation practices was 0.84. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as extent of mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, correlation analysis. The results showed a medium level of soil conservation use by most farmers. It was also found that there is a significant positive correlation between the amount of communication channels, information resources, and access to the IT infrastructures use with our dependent variable i.e. soil conservation implementation. The hierarchical regression analysis was applied in two steps to determine the predictive variables of soil conservation practices which, at the first step, the variables pertaining to the amount of communication channels and information resources were entered followed by variables of access to the ICT infrastructures on the second step as the independent variable.