Factors Affecting on Development of Processing and Complementary Industries of Date Palm in Khouzestan Province

The purpose of this research was identifying factors affecting the development of processing and complementary industries of date palm in Khouzestan province. The method of research was causal comparative. The population of this research was managers in processing and complementary industries of date palm products of Khouzestan province (N=100). The return rate was 94% (N=94). By census method all of managers were selected for participation in the study. A questionnaire was developed to gather information regarding factors affecting on development of processing and complementary industries of date palm products. The questionnaire was pilot tested and reliability was estimated by calculating Cronbach’s alpha. Reliability was favorable (Cronbach's alpha=0.85). Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Based on the results most important items for human development of processing and complementary industries of date palm farms were: development of information management (M= 3.45, SD= 1.18), knowledge and information up-to-date (M= 2.92, SD= 1.09), scientific behavior development (M= 2.92, SD= 1.24), social participation development (M= 2.69, SD= 1.22). Also to categorize factors affecting development in processing and complementary industries of date palm products, and to determine the variance explained by each factor, an exploratory factor analysis approach was followed. These factors include: economic characters, managerial skills, infrastructure, expansion of monitoring and eliminating the inflexible procedures and customer oriented. Based on the results, it is recommended that these factors should be considered.