Attitudes of Farmers towards Collective Farm Management in Some Villages of El-Beheira Governorate

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Economics and Agribusiness Management - Faculty of Agriculture - University of Alexandria

2 Agricultural Extension Research Institute and Rural Development - Agricultural Research Center

Abstract

The fragmentation of agricultural holdings in Egyptian agriculture is a general problem facing farmers, especially when using agricultural machinery in their farms. Therefore, it was necessary to move towards collective farm management methods. From this standpoint, this research aimed mainly studying the attitudes of farmers towards the application of collective farm management methods in their fields, and determining the relative importance of some independent variables related to the correlation explaining the total variation of the attitudes of respondents farmers to apply collective farm management methods in their fields, in addition to deformation. The most important obstacles that the respondents face in relation to the application of collective farm management methods in their fields, and that approach is the most appropriate solution to overcome these obstacles, which leads to raising the level of productive efficiency and the level of farms income.
This research was conducted in three villages of El-Beheira Governorate, and the research sample reached 120 farmers, who were chosen in a simple random way. Data were collected through a personal interview of the respondents using a questionnaire that included a scale to measure the attitudes of the respondents farmers towards the application of collective farm management methods in their fields. It should be available in the measurement tool in terms of validity and reliability. It also included the questions and measures used in measuring the independent variables studied.
In order to analyze the data of this research statistically, the simple correlation coefficient with Pearson, the multi-stage regression analysis linear model, the tabular display with frequency and percentages, as well as the arithmetic mean and the standard deviation were used.
The most prominent results are as follows:
1-    It was found that 16.7% of the respondent's farmers had positive attitudes towards the application of collective farm management methods in their fields, and that 30.0% had neutral attitudes, and these attitudes were negative for 53.3% of the respondents.
2-    According to the results of the multi-stage regression analysis linear, it was found that only four variables among the studied variables contributed to the total variance explaining the attitudes of farmers towards the application of collective farm management methods in their fields, and these four variables together contributed to the predictive ability of attitudes by 61.7%, and these variables are: the degree of participation in agricultural extension activities 40,5%, the degree of contact with the agricultural extension apparatus 11,6%, the readiness of agricultural regeneration 6,7%, and the degree of exposure to sources of agricultural information 2,9%.
3-    It was found that the three most important obstacles facing the respondents’ farmers regarding the application of collective farm management methods in their fields are: the smallness and fragmentation of agricultural holdings pushing the farmers towards negativity and shortcomings with regard to the agricultural management of their fields, the violation of most of the farmers to the agricultural cycle system, the irregularity of the irrigation shifts and the short duration.
4-    In light of the results of this research, it was possible to reach several recommendations that can be used in increasing the attitudes of farmers towards applying collective farm management methods in their fields, which leads to improving farm productivity and increasing farm income.
 

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