Original Article
Education and training
Mohsen Mohammadi; Mohammad Sadegh Sabouri; Seyed Sadjad Seyed Sabouri
Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 01 January 2017
Abstract
This paper aims at studying the role of agricultural education and extension methods on the use of renewable energy by farmers in Semnan Province. The research was a practical study in terms of goal and was a descriptive-correlation study in terms of methodology. The population of the study was composed ...
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This paper aims at studying the role of agricultural education and extension methods on the use of renewable energy by farmers in Semnan Province. The research was a practical study in terms of goal and was a descriptive-correlation study in terms of methodology. The population of the study was composed of Semnan Province poultry farmers that used any type of renewable energy. In total, 89 people were analyzed. Data collection tool was questionnaire (composed of 29 main questions and 108 minor questions in a Likert scale). The questionnaire was designed after consultations with university professors and research literature. The validity of the questionnaire was measured in terms of the form and content and its reliability was tested with Cronbach's alpha which ranged from 0.801 to 0.925. It was found that there was a strong significant relationship (r = 0.773) between education and extension methods (participation in the extension and educational courses, visits to farms using solar power, holding workshops on agricultural extension centers, experts’ visiting of poultry, watching videos of farms that use solar energy, production and distribution of educational brochures among farmers, designing related programs at universities, watching videos of the construction of solar power farms, broadcasting radio programs and educational broadcasting from local TV channels) and the use of solar energy by farmers. Based on the farmer’s view, participation in the extension and educational courses was the main source for obtaining the needed information. Also according to stepwise regression, 78.5% of the change in the dependent variable was explained by the variables of “visiting farms using solar power”, “participation in the extension and educational courses”, “production and distribution of educational brochures among farmers”, “holding workshops on agricultural extension centers” and “experts’ visiting of poultry”.
Original Article
Decision-making
mohammad ali dadashi; Vahid Khasheii
Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 21 September 2017
Abstract
The purpose of the present research is to examine the effect of coating the tertiary irrigation canals on farmers’ satisfaction in Sowme’eh Sara, Guilan. The study was conducted using a survey research methodology. The statistical population included 14 tertiary canalized schemes in Sowme’eh ...
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The purpose of the present research is to examine the effect of coating the tertiary irrigation canals on farmers’ satisfaction in Sowme’eh Sara, Guilan. The study was conducted using a survey research methodology. The statistical population included 14 tertiary canalized schemes in Sowme’eh Sara up to the end of 2013, Including totally 2434 hectares .The share of each beneficiary was 0.7 hectare according to the extant statistics and documents in water and soil management of Agricultural Jihad Organization of Guilan. Based on Morgan and Krejcie’s Table, 340 beneficiaries were chosen by stratified random sampling. The main data collection tool was a self-made questionnaire whose face and content validity was improved and finally accepted by water and soil experts and professors. In order to determine the reliability of the research, the questionnaires were answered by 30 members of the statistical population. Afterwards, using SPSS software and Cronbach’s alpha test, the questionnaire’s sustainability was assessed and 78% was computed and confirmed. The independent variables under study were age, literacy, the number of individuals under guardianship, workload, product performance, costs, securing agricultural goals etc. and the dependent variable was farmers’ satisfaction of coating the streams. Each of the variables was categorized and assessed based on Likert Scale. The effect of each independent variable on farmers’ satisfaction was evaluated through SPSS software and Spearman’s rank correlation. The results showed that there is a semantic relationship between literacy, workload, product performance, costs and securing agricultural goals variables and farmers’ satisfaction.
Original Article
Environmental policy and management
ali Sardar Shahraki; Somayeh Emami
Articles in Press, In Progress, Available Online from 11 August 2019
Abstract
Water scarcity, especially in Iran and during the recent droughts, emphasizes the importance of achieving an optimal operation policy for large dam reservoirs. In the last two decades, the annual optimization of dam reservoirs under the controlled conditions, as well as climatic and real conditions has ...
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Water scarcity, especially in Iran and during the recent droughts, emphasizes the importance of achieving an optimal operation policy for large dam reservoirs. In the last two decades, the annual optimization of dam reservoirs under the controlled conditions, as well as climatic and real conditions has attracted many researchers and engineers. In this paper, a new approach is proposed to predict the reservoir dam storage. The imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is a new approach in the field of evolutionary computation which calculates the optimal solution in different optimization problems. This algorithm, by mathematical modeling of the social-psychological evolution process, provides a new approach for solving mathematical optimization problems, and in comparison with other algorithms, has appropriate speed and high convergence rate in finding an optimal response. In this research, the imperialist competitive algorithm was used for annual optimization of the Kahir reservoir to derive the optimal policies. Objective function downstream water issue needs to establish relationships based on continuity were selected. Comparison of ICA model in population 100 showed that the ICA algorithm with average best objective function value of 125, 114.6 and 85.60 with a number of further evaluations of the objective function to achieve higher capacity is the optimum answer. The results showed a 6.1% error in the implementation of the ICA algorithm between the observed and predicted storages. The results of applying the imperialist competitive algorithm to the annual optimization problem indicate the capability of the proposed method.
