Abstract

Mohammad Karim Motamed*, Farisa Irannejad, M. Rezaei and Kurosh Rousta

Agriculture has various roles on the development of Iran in different aspects. The most obvious roles are: food preparation, rural's migration prevention to urban areas, preservation of economical and political independence and material preparation for many industries. Tea is one of the crops among agricultural productions which it is still confronted with a series of poor natural and managerial barriers and lack of modern technology as well because of its key role including the most popular drink among Iranians, job creation, currency loss prevention and so on. This research was conducted with the goal of investigation of educational needs of Guilanian tea-planters in 2006 in Guilan province, Iran. 80% of domestic tea in Iran is produced in Guilan province. Statistical population of this research is farmers who are known as tea-planter according to the local norms. Among 67681 Guilanian tea-planters, 280 ones were selected randomly using Cochran's cluster test (formula) to represent the whole population. Independent variables of this research are: age, educational level, range of income, under-cultivation level, social participation, sex (gender), participation in educational and extensional activities, and the use of communicative channels and their relationship were also considered and contrasted with educational needs of tea-planters. The major device for data collection was questionnaire, which was determined after its validity and reliability. For data analysis and interactions existed among variables, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, variance…) and inferencing statistics were used. The results obtained through the test of theories cleared that there was a meaningful and negative relationship among educational level, economical situation, undercultivation level, connection of tea-planters with the extension agents of Agricultural Jihad with their educational need. There was also a meaningful and positive relationship between the contact of tea-planters studied and other tea-planters in the area and their educational needs. There was no meaningful relationship among age, use of communicative channels, use of educational and extensional classes, connection of tea-planters with local leaders and factory owners, tea-planter's use of radio and TV and studying of extensional periodicals with the range of educational need. Educational needs of the tea-planters who participated in educational-extensional activities or those who participated in cooperations and unions were less than that of tea-planters who didn't participate in such activities, cooperatives, and unions.