Factors influencing the effectiveness of rice supervisor's technical advice: The case of Mazandaran Province, Iran

The current research involves the factors influencing the effectiveness of rice supervisor's technical advice (RSTA) in Mazandaran province from the farmers' point of view. The method used in this research is descriptive-correlation and comparative, which has been done by survey. A quantitative approach is applied to identify the most important factors. In this regard, the research population included rice producers (N = 2856). Using the Krejcie and Morgan's sampling Table and random cluster sampling technique, 340 farmers were surveyed. A questionnaire was developed and distributed among the subject and the collected data analyzed through SPSS software. The finding showed that, there was a positive and significant relationship between independent variables of the distance from supervisor's office to farmers' farm, the average performance of low yielding crop (Tarom) and high yielding crop (Neda), reducing costs, the on time offering of services and inputs, and supervisor's on time presence on farms with effectiveness of RSTA. The result obtained through the application of t-test formula confirms that there was a significant difference between the presence and absence of rice supervisors on farm in the amount of technical advices used by farmers. The results of multiple linear regression showed the independent variables of supervisor's on time presence on farm, on-time offering of services and inputs, and the distance between rice supervisor's office and farmers' farm have 72% of the ability in determining the effectiveness of RSTA. The empirical result of this research revealed that rice supervisors' project has a positive effect on increasing agricultural knowledge and product of rice producers. These result calls for more investment in agricultural advisory services.