A Study of the Affecting Factors in Adoption of Laser Leveling by Farmers in Fars Province

Many new technologies have been employed to improve welfare conditions and to provide an optimum utilization of the existing resources in agriculture sector. Laser leveling technology is one of the most progressed in maintenance of soil and water resources which itself has an important role in sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to realize the specifications of adopters vs. non-adpters and also to present an adoption model for laser applied land leveling in Fars province. A survey method along with questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed were employed. The population of the study included all the farmers in 17 Shahrestans (counties) of the Fars province. Stratified Random Sampling was employed to collect data from 100 adopters and 240 non-adopters. Results obtained from the study show that the main difference between adopters and non-adopters of laser land leveling is participation such that the interpersonal communication among adopters is more than that among non-adopters. So a creation of motivation of participation among farmers as well as communication is important factors in a spread of land laser leveling among farmers. There is a significant relationship observed between the tow groups regarding economic variables. The results also indicated that composed model would desirably classify the adopters from non-adopters of laser leveling technology. Main variables in classification of adopters vs. non-adopters in this model are communication variables (change agent actively attending) and farmer's social participation.