Nowadays, population growth, unemployment and poverty in the world, prompt agricultural development programs to play a major role in different communities. An F.A.O’s study indicates that: without actual farmers’ participation, Agricultural Extension & Research Systems can’t achieve their sustainable agricultural development goals. So, Participatory Approaches and Decentralized strategies must be applied for reducing the responsibilities of government bodies. In this way, FAO supports programs which encourage farmers’ participation through non-governmental organizations. In this survey, the characteristics of Farmers Organizations as a kind of NGO in agricultural systems in different countries have been taken into account. Also the view points of extension specialists (working in the universities and agricultural ministry) about Iranian F.Os’ characteristics that suitable suit farmers’ cultural and social conditions, were studied. Research population was comprised of 93 extension specialists, working in the agricultural faculties and Ministry of Agriculture Jihad. Nonparametric tests (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney) were used in analyzing data and means’ comparison. Results indicated: extension specialists were in afreement with 40 characteristics out of 52 F.Os’ characteristics that were studied in other countries. The remaining 12 characteristics are of significant differences according to specialists’ attitudes. Factor Analysis of the accepted characteristics identified 6 main factors, these factors being: participation, organization, sources, policy, services, and performance. Nine characteristics with factor loadings of less than 0.5 were omitted. Farmer-selected managerial board of Farmers Organization, Agricultural Marketing and Information Services, Participation in condidating an agent in regional agricultural research and extension policymaking, Free subscription in F.O.s, Participation in candidating an agent in national agricultural research and extension policymaking, Feedback results of agricultural development programs to related research centers and governments agents, were characteristics with a high rate of specialists’ agreement for modeling Farmers’ Organization in Iran.
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