Publication Details
Abstract
The study was aimed at determining the knowledge needs of vegetable farmers in Rabia area of Nineveh Governorate, Iraq about seedling production of selected vegetable crops. To achieve this, a proportional random sample was taken with 10% of the selected villages with a sample size of 100 farmers. A two-part questionnaire was created to gather data. The first one involved measuring the independent variables whereas the second one included a four-item scale with 27 items to measure the knowledge requirement of vegetable farmers in Rabia area about preparation of seedlings of specific vegetable crops. The face validity and content validity of the questionnaire were checked and the reliability coefficient was obtained through Cronbach's alpha and was 0.86, which is an acceptable reliability coefficient. The data was analysed using SPSS statistical software and other statistical tools like frequencies, Pearson's correlation coefficient and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The results revealed that the knowledge needs were moderately high and high in the area of vegetable seedling preparation for about 88% of the respondents, while there was also significant correlation between knowledge needs and the following variables (Gender, Educational level, Number of years in work in vegetable seedling preparation and sources of agricultural information). The study also included a number of conclusions and recommendations.