Abstract The rangelands of Iran with an area of 86 million hectares cover more than 53% of its area. The economy of a significant part of households depends on rangelands and the essential role of rangelands in the development and sustainability of production goes beyond the direct production of fodder and meeting the nutritional needs of livestock. The aim of this study was to eva‎luate the status of farmers' participation in rangeland projects in Baft region. This research is of applied and descriptive-survey type. The statistical population in this study is all ranchers and villagers in the pastures of Baft city, whose number is about 4498 people. The sample size was determined based on Cochran's formula equal to 390 people and individuals were selected by random sampling method. Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson correlation tests with SPSS statistical software and Logit test with Shazam software were used to analyze the findings. The results showed that in the study area, there is a significant difference in the level of participation of respondents in different age groups. There is a significant difference in the participation rate in different educational groups and the highest level of participation is related to the diploma group and higher and the lowest level of participation is related to the illiterate group. Regarding the main job variable, the results of Kruskal-Wallis test indicate that there is a significant difference in the level of participation in different job groups. The results also showed that there is no significant difference between the two groups of income from non-agricultural occupations in terms of participation. Also, the results of Kruskal-Wallis test indicate that there is no significant difference in the level of participation in groups with different numbers of members. The results of Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference in the level of participation in different lifestyles, based on which the group with a resident lifestyle had more participation in rangeland projects. There is a significant difference in the participation rate between the groups of the rangelands used and the group related to 20 hectares and above had the highest participation rate and the group of 5-10 hectares had the lowest participation rate. Based on the results, licensed people had more participation than unlicensed people, and the significance of these results was also confirmed. According to the results of Kruskal-Wallis test, people with a history of herding 20 years and above have the most participation in rangeland projects and the lowest level of participation is related to people with a history of less than 5 years. The differences observed in the mentioned groups are also significant. The results show that the highest participation rate is related to the group of 1000 heads and above and the lowest participation rate is related to the group of less than 200 heads. In terms of credits received, those who received more than 150 million credits had the highest participation and those who received less than 50 million loans had the lowest participation. Regarding the main variables of the research, the results of Pearson correlation coefficient showed that the correlation coefficient between the level of participation with physical assets is 0.438, support, credit and extension services is 0.311, social trust is 0.274, economic and infrastructure is 0.288, awareness level is equal. 0.475 And social norms are equal to 0.300. Accordingly, there is the highest level of correlation between the level of awareness and participation and the lowest level of correlation between the variables of social trust and level of participation. The results of the logit test in relation to estimating the factors affecting participation in rangeland projects show that the main job variable is 99% confident and has a positive sign. That is, with the increase in income from other jobs, the probability of participation also increases by 0.877. Also, the variables of rangeland area and sales of medicinal plants are 99% significant and also have a positive sign.

10/21/2021 12:00:00 AM

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