Farmers’ Professional Satisfaction with the Rural Production Cooperative Approach

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the professional satisfaction of Rural Production Cooperative (RPC) members. The secondary purpose was to investigate the professional characteristics of RPCs’ farmers, and determine the RPC members’ atti-tudes toward cooperative farming. The population of this study consisted of all ۲۰۰۰ rice-growing members of four RPCs in rural Mazandaran, a northern province of Iran. Using a complete randomized sampling technique, ۳۲۰ members of the population were selected for the study. A questionnaire consisting of three parts was designed to collect the data needed for the study. The results showed that cooperative farming substantially increased farmers’ crop yields and lowered their farm operational and maintenance costs. Members reported particular savings in the area of farm labor expenses. More than ۹۰% of the farmers indicated that cooperatives enabled them to have more access to agricultural ma-chinery, which resulted in the efficient use of farm resources. About ۶۴% of the farmers were considered to be practicing a “high” level of mechanization on their rice fields. The members generally had a positive and favorable attitude towards the cooperative and its activities. The mean score on staff professional satisfaction was ۲.۴ (۲= Somewhat satis-fied; ۳=Satisfied), with a standard deviation of ۱.۶. There was a statistically significant re-lationship between members’ professional satisfaction and their attitude towards the co-operative (r=۰.۶۴۵). This is considered as a “substantial association”. A Multivariate Linear Regression indicated that among the independent variables, the farmers’ level of participation in the cooperative’s activities, their attitude towards the cooperative, and the amount of land owned by farmers could together explain ۶۸.۸% of the variability in members’ professional satisfaction. This implied that there are other factors that may have contributed substantially to the variations in farmers’ professional satisfaction that were not investigated in this study.