Agricultural Knowledge Management Component Stance Analysis in Mazandaran Agricultural Organization, Iran

To work efficiently, organizations should act around the axis of science and knowledge. Knowledge is considered as a source of organizations’ survival and new knowledge is prerequisite for organization’s success at all levels. The current research aims to examine the status of agricultural knowledge management process and to prioritize its elements (Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Storage, Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Application) in the Agricultural Organization of Mazandaran province. Statistical population consisted of all managers and experts of Agricultural Organization of Mazandarn (65) in subsectors of agriculture including “agronomy and horticulture”, “livestock, poultry, sericulture and apiculture”, “fisheries and aquaculture” and “forest and grassland” . First, statistics related to agricultural knowledge management elements were gathered using a likert 5 scale questionnaire and then, the state of these elements in different subsectors was analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test. The results show that there is a significant difference in agricultural knowledge management process between the subsectors of “agronomy and horticulture”, “livestock, poultry, sericulture and apiculture” and “forest and grassland”. However, there is no significant difference in agricultural knowledge management process between “Fisheries and aquaculture” and other subsectors. Finally, TOPSIS technique was used in order to prioritize the components of knowledge management. The results showed that knowledge management process gets weaker as the Agricultural Organization moves from knowledge creation towards knowledge application. So, making policies seems necessary to internalize the benefits of knowledge creation within the Agricultural Organization and agricultural sector in Mazandaran province.