Educational Need of Farmers of Dashti Township in Production of Organic Tomato

The purpose of this study was to determine the educational needs of farmers in different stages of planting, holding and harvesting organic tomatoes. This research was applied and a quantitative descriptive research method was used. The statistical population of this research included 31 experts and all tomato growers in Dashti Township (N=550). Using proportionate stratified random sampling method and based on Cochran formula, 226 of them were selected as the sample. Research instrument to collect data was questionnaire that its content validity confirmed by an expert panel and convergent validity confirmed by calculating CR= 0.81 and AVE=0.73. Ordinal theta (using R software), was calculated to measure reliability of the questionnaire (Θ =0.75 - 0.82). Educational needs were analyzed based on the Bourich model and the most important needs in organic production were identified. So proper soil management and land preparation under cultivation, identify and eliminate pest breeding areas, and planting new cultivars that are resistant to pests and diseases, were identified as the most important educational needs in two groups of farmers and experts. An agreement was reached between these two groups using the Mann-Whitney test and the results showed that these two groups had the same view on most of the educational need items. Based on the findings of ordinal regression, three variables of education, crop yield and area under cultivation had significant effect on the probability of indicating tomato growers' educational needs. Thus, the more educated and productive farmers are, the higher their sense of need.