نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشجوی دکتری، گروه ترویج و آموزش کشاورزی، دانشکده مهندسی زراعی و عمران روستایی، دانشگاه علوم کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی خوزستان
2 دانشیار گروه ترویج و آموزش کشاورزی، دانشکده مهندسی زراعی و عمران روستایی، دانشگاه علوم کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی خوزستان
3 دانشجوی دکتری، گروه ترویج و آموزش کشاورزی، دانشکده مهندسی زراعی و عمران روستایی، دانشگاه علوم کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی خوزستان و
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
The relationship between human and nature has become one of the most important topics of the world community because it seems that natural resources are consumed and destroyed by humans faster than the time they need to recover, and due to unethical behavior with nature, many environmental problems have been arisen. Agricultural extension experts play a key role in informing and influencing farmers through education and development efforts. Understanding their attitude, behavior and ethics towards the environment can be effective on their practical strategy behaviors to change the attitude and environmental ethics of people including farmers. Considering the importance of the subject, this research aimed to investigate the environmental ethics of agricultural experts. The current research was carried out as a descriptive-cross-sectional census survey. The statistical population of interest included the agricultural experts worked at Dezful’s Agricultural Jihad Administration in 2023 (N=70). . The data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by consulting with a panel of experts and its reliability was approved by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient, composite reliability, homogeneity composite reliability and average variance extracted. Findings showed that the level of environmental ethics of agricultural experts is at an optimal level in termsof Anthropocentrism, Ecocentrism, and Theocentrism dimensions.The results of the Pearson correlation analysis showed that there were significant relationships between different dimensions of environmental ethics and the variables of use of informational resources and satisfaction of working in agricultural jihad extension and services centers. Also, there is a direct relationship between human-centered and eco-centered ethical dimension with the God-centered ethical dimension of experts.Therefore, the main focus of planners and policymakers on the human-centered and ecological-centered dimension improves the God-centered moral dimension of the studied experts in the field of ecology.
Introduction
Environmental issues and problems are one known as one of the most important concerns of humans in the third millennium (Dehghan et al., 2017; Majdi Yazdi et al., 2019; Bondori and Jamshidi, 2014). Many of these issues are caused by the inappropriate environmental behavior of humans (Bondori et al., 2018; Bondori et al., 2019) as it is said that these behaviors play a significant role in global environmental challenges (Klöckner, 2013). Therefore, scholars believe that solving the environmental problems apart from technical matters, requires a new approach including sociological, ethical, and philosophical point of view. (Abedi Sarostani.,2014; Ghasemi and Heydari., 2015; Khosravipour and Sawari Mambani .,2021). Todays, the environmental crisis in the world actually can be meant as moral crisis which requires moral solution; Although the efforts to achieve moral principles that regulate the way humans interfere in the environment is not a new, however, many problems have been associated with this issue (Ghiyashi et al., 2015; Farazi and Farkhian, 2016; Dehghan et al., 2017; Naimi et al., 2017). The importance of environmental ethics in organizations shows that in most organizations, there is a greater tendency to focus on achieving results than improving environmental performance (Schaefer et al., 2015; Quade et al., 2017). It suggests that many organizations and their employees feel that they are not directly responsible for environmental problems (IEA, 2019; Ab Wahab, 2021). Therefore, organizational behaviors, especially among the employees , actually cause in direct environmental problems,however,some organizations and employees are aware of the environment’s value (Ab Wahab, 2021). Employees are known as the key people effective in performance of an organization and, therefore, their behaviors can contribute to improve the environment (Norton et al., 2017). Taking into account the importance of the subject, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the environmental ethics of Agricultural experts in Dezful’s Agricultural Jihad extension and service centers.
Methodology
The current research was carried out as a descriptive-cross-sectional census survey. The statistical population of interest included the agricultural experts worked at Dezful’s Agricultural Jihad extension and services centers in 2023 (N=70). The data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by consulting with a panel of experts and its reliability was approved by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient, Composite Reliability index, homogenous reliability coefficient (Rho) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) Data were analyzed using SPSSV26, Smart PLS3, LISREL 10.20 softwares.
Conclusion
The findings of this research showed that the level of environmental ethics of studied experts in Anthropocentrism, Ecocentrism, and Theocentrism dimensions is at a desired level composing of 35.7%, 48.6%, and 57.1%, respectively. Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between mentioned different dimensions of environmental ethics and the variable of informational sources. There were, also, not significant relationship between other variables of age, and work experience with environmental ethics dimensions. . These findings were in line with the study of Farzi and Farokhian (2018) and Bondori et al., (2018). Moreover, the findings also represented a positive significant association between the variables of Anthropocentrism, and Ecocentrism with Theocentrism dimension of environmental ethics. These findings were in accordance with the study of Abedi Sarvestani et al., (2013), Farzi and Farokhian (2018) and Bondori et al., (2018)..The meaningful and direct relationship between the different dimensions of experts' environmental ethics revealed that simultaneous attention of planners and policymakers on to both dimensions of environmental ethics, i.e. Anthropocentrism and Ecocentrism will lead to the improvement of the Theocentrism dimension among the studied experts working in agricultural fields. . Since different informational sources, which transmit environmental information much faster than personal interactions, play an important role in creating environmental awareness and knowledge of how to protect the environment, therefore, it is recommended to improve the level of environmental ethics among agricultural experts through virtual networks as well as holding educational workshops. On the other hand, considering that agricultural extension experts known as the key contributors in informing and influencing farmers and rural people through educational and developmental efforts, it is recommended to continuously plan for holding educational classes, courses, and workshops on environmental problems issues. These efforts cause to make visible such environmental problems for farmers so that they will more pay attention to the negative impacts of using high external chemical inputs in their conventional farming manner and its associated dangers to destroy the environment.
کلیدواژهها [English]