The Relationship between Extension Educational and Psychological Factors and Participation of Agricultural Co-operatives' Members (Case of Shirvan Chardavol County, Ilam, Iran)

The forty-year history of agricultural production co-operatives in Iran shows that this type of exploitation system has faced with many challenges during this period. First, despite the help and support by the government, the co-operative sector has not been able to play a major role in the development of the country, and its share has not exceeded 3% of the development program. The Purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between extension educational, psychological factors and the participation of members of agricultural co-operative in the Ilam Province. A researcher made a questionnaire that was used as the main tool for gathering data. The face and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by a group of university professors as well as several experts of the co-operatives. In addition, the reliability of the questionnaire was ensured through calculating a Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α = 0.80).  The statistical population of the study comprised 751 active members of Shirvan-Chardavol township’s agricultural cooperatives, from among whom 260 particionats were selected for the study using the stratified proportional random sampling method and with the aid of Morgan table. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS software. The correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant relationship between the extension educational, psychological features and level of participation of members of agricultural co-operative.