An Investigation of Factors Influencing Tendency of Walnut Producers towards Participating in Establishment of Production Cooperatives in Tuyserkan County of Iran

    This study was conducted to investigate effective factors on the tendency of walnut producers towards participating in establishing walnut production cooperatives in Tuyserkan county of Iran. It was a descriptive-correlation research using both descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentage, mean, minimum and maximum) and analytical statistics (correlation and regression analysis, Mann-Whitney test). Calculating correlations between variables showed positive and statistically significant relations between 'tendency to participation' and performance, off-farm income, on-farm income, capital supports of government, social preconditions and producers’ attitude; in addition, there were found negative and statistically significant relations between 'tendency to participation' and work experience and the age, as well. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that walnut producers’ attitude, off-farm income, capital supports of government, work experience and social preconditions explained a statistically significant portion of variance (R2= 42) for the producers’ tendency to participation. Regarding the standardized coefficients, producers’ attitude was considered as the most effective factor in predicting variance of the dependent variable.