Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 18 ISSUE 3
Written by Hamied VALIZADEH, Soleiman RASOULIAZAR, Loghman RASHIDPOUR

Organic farming is a holistic production management system that enhances agro ecosystem health in terms of biodiversity, the natural cycle of nutrients and microbial and biological activity of soil. Organic farming systems can help to maintain and even improve water quality by reducing the amount of chemicals used in agriculture. In organic farming, chemical fertilizers and pesticides which have chemical compounds are prohibited. The main objective of this study was to investigate and analyse the problems for the development of organic farming and offering effective solutions for its development in West Azerbaijan province in Iran. The population of this research consisted of (N=1171) Farmers who produce organic products in West Azerbaijan province. By using Cochran formula the sample size determined (n=150). This research was carried out using the descriptive-survey research method. The data were collected by questionnaire and processed using factor analysis SPSS21 software. The results showed that the majority of surveyed respondents were older than 50 years, 68 % literate, 47 % of high school, 78% have used of wells and rivers for irrigation. Then the examined items were classified in the form of government support, economy, education and social welfare. The results showed that the factor of government support solutions with eigenvalues of 4.68 was selected as the most important factor from an agricultural perspective. In fact, this factor has explained 25.82 % of the problems of development of organic farming that the sum of these four factors is equal to 65.535 %. According to results in this research the following recommendations have been made: (i)enhancing and establishing the extension-education courses in the field of organic agriculture for farmers and encourage them to participate in these classes; (ii) by using training courses and mass media encouraging farmers to cultivation organic products and;(iii)government support for organic farmers work and for their products insurance; (iv)create and develop local markets for organic products and economic analysis and identification of global markets for export of organic products; (v)create places for the storage of organic products; (vi) provide adequate means of transportation equipped with cold storage facility for organic products and also providing useful information on the management and control of weeds, pests and diseases of agricultural products.

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