Analysis of Rice Producers’ Perceptions of Participatory Communication in Use of Integrated Pest Management (Case Study: West of Mazandaran Province)

The aim of the research was analysis of rice producers’ perceptions of participatory communication in the use of integrated pest management (IPM). Research population was consisted of rice producers in the west of Mazandaran province (N=16126), whose 187 ones were selected using Cochran’s formula. Data were gathered by systematic random sampling method. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. Its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Results of descriptive statistics showed that the rice producers are in the good status in terms of use of integrated pest management’s technologies. The results of ANOVA showed that there are significant differences among rice producers based on their perceptions of participatory communication and use of integrated pest management. Rice producers with higher perception use integrated pest management’s technologies more than others. The results of the correlation coefficient also showed that there is significant positive relationship among all factors related to perceptions of participatory communication (individual effect, contextual education, information receiving and Agricultural Jihad’s flexibility) and the use of integrated pest management, except to the information sending one. Stepwise regression analysis showed that two factors including Agricultural Jihad’s flexibility and contextual education can explain 70/02% of the changes in the dependent variable (use of IPM)