Analysis of effective factors to increase the knowledge of agricultural production cooperative members in Semnan Province, Iran

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effective factors to increase the knowledge of agricultural cooperative members in Semnan Province. It is an applied research for which a descriptive-correlation method is chosen. The dependant variable was the effectiveness of extension education activities to promote the knowledge of the members in agriculture and production cooperative. Independent variables were formed in five groups including personal, social and economical, educational activities and farming characteristics. Statistical population of the study consisted of 3357 members of agricultural production cooperative who had participated in the extension education course. Using Cochran formula, 209 persons were selected and at last 209 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The content and face validity of the instrument was specified after several times of review and correction by the faculty members of agricultural extension and education of Islamic Azad University. The reliability was conducted using Cronbach's alpha which estimated 91% using SPSS(16) software. The results gained from Spearman coefficient correlation showed that there is a significant relationship between variables including: main jobs, consulting with agricultural experts, visiting a sample farm and model cooperative company, watching educational videos and films, having communications with extension agents, having scientific trips, participating in educational and training workshops, reading agricultural publications and magazines, taking part in agricultural extension and research programs, envisage educational contents, the abilities and capabilities of constructors, educational technologies, humanistic development and members' participating in planning and implementing programs along with the effectiveness of educational and agricultural extension activities. The result yielded from the collective influence of the independent variables on the effectiveness of the educational and agricultural courses as a dependent variable through a multivariable regression in a step by step way indicated that developmental roles of agriculture, educational resources, educational method, and crop-production stages explained 53.8% of changes on the dependent variable of knowledge.