an investigation of information seeking behavior patterns of tomato growers (case study of badouleh district, bousher province)

this research was conducted based on survey strategy with purpose of investigating the information seeking behavior patterns of tomato growers in badouleh district. validity of questionnaire as data gathering instrument, confirmed by selected experts and coronbach alpha coefficient (equal to 0.68 – 0.75 range for deferent parts of questionnaire) used to confirm its reliability. the population of this research included all tomato growers (n=780) in badouleh district (dashty county, bousher proviance) and an appropriate sample selected (n=95) by cochran formula. data analysis accomplished by using spss/win software based on appropriate statistics. in descriptive findings, information seeking items in several categories, information sources, information sources and information appropriateness indicators of tomato growers, prioritized based on mean and coefficient of variation. in addition, information satisfaction, information accessibility, information appropriateness and information seeking developed as combined information index (cii). in analytical findings, calculated pearson coefficients of correlation, indicated that there is a significant relationship between age, experiences, getting loans, membership of local institutions, participation in extension courses, information satisfaction, information accessibility, information appropriateness and information seeking (cii). using stepwise regression led to a linear equation including experiences, getting loans, membership of local institutions, information satisfaction, information accessibility and information appropriateness as independence variables and r2ad coefficient indicated that this linear equation explained about 72% variance of information seeking(cii) as dependence variable.