Abstract: This study integrates the motivating and challenging elements impacting on the implementation of organic farming practice in Iran. Analysis was based on the results of two surveys; one from organic farmers to determine motivating factors and the other from experts in organic farming to identify challenging factors. These surveys incorporated a gender perspective to enable gender comparison and analysis of the results presents a practical model to support program developers in Iranian organic agriculture. Gender comparison indicated that attitudes among farmers to organic agriculture were slightly variable according to gender; while experts' attitudes to organic agriculture remained constant and were not influenced by gender. The practical model ranked motivating factors as husbandry, financial, health-quality of life, general and personal; and challenging factors as financial, legal, educational, and technical. Finally, several suggestions are made according to these findings.
Reference: Najafabadi, M.O. (2014). A Gender Sensitive Analysis Towards Organic Agriculture: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27(2): 225-240. Available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10806-013-9461-z