(Application Level of Unsound Environmental Behaviors among the Rural Women in Al-Alam District, Salah Al-Din Governorate, Iraq)

• Hafsa Fatah Hade

  Author

The incorrect practices carried out by field crop farmers, and their repeated occurrence during their negative handling of agricultural soils, represent a cause of soil degradation, which necessitates intensifying agricultural extension activities to address and reduce them .The purposed of the current study is to accurately determine  the rural women's level  of Unsound Environmental Behaviors among  the Rural Women in Al-Alam District  generally It also involves determining its level in multivariable; water, air, food, and land. In addition to ranking those fields according to their importance. The research also aimed to evaluate the association between the level of application of practices and some personal variables of the female participants included in the study. A random sample of 10% of the total rural women in the district, numbering 1200, was selected, resulting in 120 rural women undergoing the research procedures. A questionnaire list was performed, consisting of two classes: class I included the personal variables, while class II included a scale for the dependent variable. In order to statistically assess the face validity and content validity of it in its initial form, a number of experts and specialists in the field of agriculture. extension, psychology, soil sciences and the environment. A sample of 30 respondents were chased  selected to measure the reliability and validity of the scale. The statistical Alpha Cronbach’s method was dependent to measure the reliability coefficient which reached 0.86 and the validity coefficient 0.92. The research variables were measured using the scales specific to each of them. As for the dependent variable, it was measured using 52 paragraphs distributed over the following research fields: (water, air, food, agricultural land) with a number of (13, 14, 13, 12) respectively. A four-point scale was set for each paragraph that included the alternatives (always, sometimes, rarely, never), to which values were assigned. The current results appeared that the level of rural women's application of unsound environmental behaviors in Al-Alam generally average tends to rise. A significant inverse correlation was found between the level of application and most of the research variables. The research concluded that rural women lack awareness of the seriousness of these practices. The research recommended intensifying extension and training activities directed at women to reduce wrong practices, activate extension services directed at rural women, and increase the number of female agricultural extension work.

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