عوامل موثر بر دانش كشاورزان ذرت كار در زمينه كشاورزي پايدار در منطقه شمال غرب خوزستان

Factors Affecting Corn Producer Farmersʹ Knowledge Toward Sustainable Agriculture in Northenwest Khuzestan

Sustainable agriculture seeks successful management to use resources for human food needs, to conserve environmental quality and to increase natural resources. The purpose of this study was to investigate personal, social, economical and technical factors affecting the knowledge of sustainable agriculture among corn producer farmers.A survey methodology was applied in this research project. A stratified random sampling was used to collect data from 370 corn producer in northenwest Khuzestan. The findings showed that education, use of manure, access to communication channels, contact with extension and agricultural services centers and productivity had positive and significant correlation with knowledge of sustainable agriculture. Also, the variables of age, total farm size, number of children, number of family members, distance from service centers, amount of pesticide and herbicide use, experience in agriculture, corn farm size and income had negative and significant correlation with knowledge of sustainable agriculture. The regression statistics showed that total farm size, contact with extension centers, amount of pesticide and number of children could explain %33 of variation of dependent variable, the knowledge of sustainable agriculture. The paper presents recommendations to improve sustainable agriculture and knowledge of farmers.