Need Assessment of the Skill Training Sessions of Organic Farming for the Farmers of Bushehr Province

farming is a kind of sustainable agriculture aimed to provide integrated, systematic and human agricultural production system without any conflicts with economic and environmental benefits. Therefore, it is effective to implement educational classes and workshops in related with different techniques of organic farming in order to facilate the adoption process of this innovative method in agriculture. Need assessment is the first step of each program. So, the main objective of this research is assessing of the educational need of bushehr province farmers for adopting and developing organic farming. The statistical population of this research consists of three groups including farmers (24345 individuals), agricultural experts and managers of Jihad agriculture organization of Bushehr province (350 individuals) as well as the lecturers and faculties of agriculture college and research and education center for agricultural and natural resources of bushehr province (120 individuals). Based on statistical population and referring to Morgan table, 200 farmers, 90 agricultural experts and executive managers and 30 faulties were selected, randomly. Quantitative phase of the research was accomplished based on survey using questionnaires and the qualitative phase was conducted based on designing focus groups and content analysis. The face validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by a panel of agricultural specialists as well as conduction a pilot study, respectively. According to the findings of qualitative phase, 32 educational needs were extracted and ranked regarding organic farming. “Subjects importance”, “farmers’ Knowledge about the subjects” and “application of the subjects by farmers” were assessed in quantitative phase.