Factors affecting farmers’ decline to convert sloping agricultural lands to orchards The Study Case of Galikesh County, Golestan Province

It is the main objective of the present study to identify the factors affecting farmers’ unwillingness to convert their sloping agricultural lands into orchards. The study is a descriptive and survey one using a statistical population of 250 farmers in Galikesh County, Golestan Province, who rejected the idea of changing their sloping crop lands to orchards. For this purpose, 150 farmers were selected using the multi-stage random sampling method and the Krejcie and Morgan Table and a questionnaire was used to collect data in 2021. The content and face validities of the questionnaire were confirmed using the opinions of extension, soil protection, and horticulture experts at Golestan Agricultural Jihad Organization. The validity of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach's alpha method to obtain a coefficient of 0.85 and data analysis was performed using SPSS19. Based on the results obtained, the following 12 factors affected farmer unwillingness listed in a descending order of significance: non-availability of production tools, farmers’ subculture, complex cultivation operations, lack of government support, investment cost, lack of confidence in experts, lack of knowledge, non-compliance behavior, non-observable operation results, sparsely distributed agricultural lands, uneconomical results, and lack of confidence in responsible government agencies. These parameters explained about 75.189% of the total variance among the factors involved. Also, the results indicated that extending low-interest loans, high-quality and high-yield seedlings, water availability, and tools and implements to farmers as well as communication with influential local leaders and trustees to solicit their opinions during the various stages of protection operations may be suggested as helpful in convincing farmers to accept the conversion.