Agricultural Researchers' Attitudes toward Sustainable Agriculture and its Determinants in ILAM Province, Iran

Abstract

The accurate planning and management for sustainable agriculture results in appropriate behaviors of<br />individuals towards sustainability through changes happened in individuals' knowledge and attitudes<br />of sustainability. A survey of natural resources and agricultural researchers (N = 85) was conducted in<br />Iranian Province of ILAM to explore their attitudes of sustainable agriculture and to identify factors<br />that influence these attitudes. Results showed that the attitude of the majority (63.2%) of researchers<br />toward sustainable agriculture was moderate and negative. Also, there were significant differences<br />among the researcher's attitudes towards sustainable agriculture on field of study and level of<br />education. Based on correlation coefficients, positive and significant relationships were found between<br />researchers' work experience, the number of refereed papers published, the number of extension<br />papers published, the number of papers presented at national and international conferences, the<br />number of books published , and the number of translated books and attitude towards sustainable<br />agriculture. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that three variables including the number<br />of books published, the number of refereed papers published, and the number of books translated<br />account for explaining 36 percent of variances of the dependent variable (attitude towards sustainable<br />agriculture).