Factors Influencing Attitudes of Rural Cattle Breeders towards Participation in the Establishment and Administration of the Farmer's Organizations (FO)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the attitudes of the rural cattle breeders towards their participation in the establishment and administration of the farmer's organization in the Hamadan county of Iran. All the member cattle breeders of the cattle-breeding cooperative in Hamadan county (N= 550) were included in the study. Through use of simple random sampling method, 75 respondents were selected. The study was a descriptive-correlational, survey research. A questionnaire was designed and employed to gather the required data. Cronbach's alpha was computed to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, its rates being determined as: 0.92, 0.81 and 0.79. Face validity of the instrument was determined by faculty members of the department of agricultural extension and education, University of Tehran. The results of the t-Test for a comparison of the farmers with positive vs negative attitudes towards their participation in the activities of the "farmer's organization" showed that there were significant differences observed as related to the variables of: economic situation (cattle number, extent of irrigated and rainfed lands), precedence of membership, level of social participation, and an existence of a positive participation in the farmer's organization. Also the results of the multivariate regression revealed that 77.0% of variance in the level of participation (membership and getting involved in the activities of the farmer's organizations) was determined by the following four variables of: "leadership style", "economic situation”, "farmer's motivation" and an awareness of the advantages of their participation.