Factor Analyses the Management Skills in Development of Organic Agriculture in West Azerbaijan Province Farms, Iran

Organic agriculture, sometimes called biological or ecological agriculture, combines traditional conservation-minded farming methods with modern farming technologies. The purpose of this research was to identify management skills in development of organic agriculture in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. The target population of this research included all agricultural experts who work in West Azerbaijan Province. By using a Cochran formula a number of 200 agricultural experts selected as statistical sample. The research instrument was a structural questionnaire including close-ended questions which its validity was confirmed by using expert panel and reliability by Cranach’s alpha test (α= 0.89). According to the results of the factor analysis, finding shows that five factors included the the skills of using methods and technologies of organic agriculture, the informing skills, the farming skills, the educational skills, the reduction of obstacles in cultivation involved 51.46 % of the total variance and played crucial roles in development of organic agriculture in the West Azerbaijan Province farms. Among these factors, the factor of using methods and technologies of organic agriculture involved 12.44% of the total variance and played a more important role in using the management skills in development of organic agriculture in West Azerbaijan province farms.