Study of Effective Factors on Farmer's Participation of Shahroud Watershed (Qazvin Province) in applying Soil and Water Conservation Practices using Multinomial Logit Model

In this study, the influencing factors on farmer's participation in use of soil and water conservation practices were investigated using the farmer's experiences in Shahroud river basin. For achieving this goal was used from multinomial logit model. The required dates are related to year 2011-2012 that by completing the questionnaire from 138 sample farmers were collected. To select the sample farmers were used of stratified random sampling method and Cochrane formula. The results showed that only 42/7 percent of farmers in Shahroud river basin employ conservation practices moderately. Logit regression model results showed that education, slope of lands, knowledge of conservation practices, the annual gross income, receiving of grants, participation in promotional classes have positive and significant effects and age and employment in non-agricultural sector have negative and meaningful effects on the probability of farmer's participation in use of soil and water conservation practices. Multinomial logit model in high confidence level by likelihood ratio test statistics with 30/57 for mechanical practices, 19/68 for non-mechanical practices and 24/32 for management practices was significant. The maximum probability value is equal to 0/065 and for non-mechanical practices was obtained.