factors affecting scientific production in agriculture and natural resources sciences; challenges and recommendations

this research project aimed to investigate the scientific performance motivators in agriculture and natural resources by means of measuring attitude approach. the population consisted of 300 agriculture and natural resources faculty members from agricultural and natural resources colleges as well as from the academy of sciences of islamic republic of iran who were selected through purposive sampling methodology. the data collection was done using a questionnaire which was validated by a group of experts. its reliability as measured by cronbach’s alpha was 0.87. findings revealed that, graduate students’ proposals; scientists’ curiosity and interests; scientific journals’ trends; society needs; and public organizations’ grants got the first to last ranking orders in selecting research topics. esteem needs were the most important determinant of scientists’ motivation in agriculture and natural resources researches. scientists’ satisfaction played a great role in national agricultural development. also, availability of “research grants and budgets and research materials and tools” recognized to be the most important challenge of agriculture and natural resources researches.