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Sustainable agriculture has defined and described in many ways. Despite the diversity in conceptualizing sustainable agriculture, there is a consensus on three basic dimensions of the concept, namely, ecological soundness economically viable and socially acceptable. The dimensions of ecological soundness refers to the preservation and improvement of the natural environment. Environmental issues emerge from the human use of natural resources. Farmers' decisions to adopt a new agricultural technology depend on complex factors. One of the factors is farmers' perception. The objective of this study was to investigate perceptions of paddy farmers towards applying sustainable agricultural technologies and to identify factors influencing their perceptions. The results of the study show that farmers had good perception about sustainable technologies such as diversification and rotation, application of manure but in general, they preferred modern technologies to local ones. They perceived agrochemicals as the best means to combat against pests and to increase rice production. Their perception of intangible impacts of modern technologies was weak. It was found that there should be a relationship between a numbers of socio-economic factors, such as human capital factors, information sources use, extension participation and landholding size and the perception towards selected sustainable agricultural technologies. Also, educational level, contact with agricultural experts and extension participation were best predictors of their perceptions.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This study seeks to build a conceptual model of agricultural extension intrapreneurship that discusses the concept and phenomenon of intrapreneurship as well as its prerequisites and outcomes. The proposed model is intended to depict the main factors that affect the phenomena of intrapreneurship within the agricultural extension organizations and the impact of intrapreneurship on agricultural extension organizational outcomes, as well as factors influencing its continuous outcomes. Design/methodology/approach -The paper identifies and describes the existence and past literature on prerequisites, phenomena and outcomes of intrapreneurship in organizations as a basis for analysis and developing an appropriate model of agricultural extension intrapreneurship. This is a conceptual paper selecting targeted scholarly works that provide support for the proposed model. Findings -The paper presents a model of Iranian agricultural extension in which the organizational, behavioral and environmental factors influence intrapreneurship and the construct of intrapreneurship influences organizational outcomes. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis that develops an existing model for a systematic approach to the agricultural extension intrapreneurial process. The proposed model of agricultural extension intrapreneurship joins a growing number of works that explore how intrapreneurship contributes to organizational outcomes in an Iranian agricultural extension organization. It is suggested that the framework may help scholars identify potential strategies of intrapreneurial activity that could help extension organization position intrapreneurship as a vehicle for improving organizational outcomes. Originality/value -Based on this exploration, new insights about agricultural extension intrapreneurship are developed, practical implications for agricultural extension intrapreneurs on how to approach agricultural extension entrepreneurship more systematically and effectively are presented and opportunities for further research are identified.

Abstract:The main purpose of this study was to investigate the links between forest dwellers' participation in reforestation and development of forest areas in west Mazandaran of Iran and a set of socio-economic variables. The statistical population includes all forest dwellers living in villages, which locate in the west Mazandaran in Iran and had been covered by local forestry cooperative. A sample of 110 forest dwellers were selected by the use of proportional random sampling method. A questionnaire was used to collect data. For determining the validity of questionnaire, the content validity was used. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure reliability of the index measuring level of participation in reforestation and development of forest areas that its extent was 0.86 and showed that mentioned variable had high reliability. The data were analyzed by the use of descriptive and inferential statistics such as extent of mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The findings revealed that age, level of literacy, level of participation in extension-education courses, using level of communication channels and information resources, level of forest dependency, social participation, social solidarity, economic and social motivations are positively and significantly (p<0.01) correlated with level of forest dwellers' participation in reforestation and development of forest areas. Household size is positively and significantly (p<0.05) correlated with level of forest dwellers' participation in reforestation and development of forest areas. The result of multiple regression showed that variables of level of participation in extension-education courses, age, household size, level of economic motivation, social solidarity and level of literacy could explain 51.4% of the variation in the level of forest dwellers' participation in reforestation and development of forest areas.