Determinants of Farmers’ Participation in Horticulturebased Extension Programs in Iran: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

This paper aims to discover the determinants of farmers’ participationin horticulture-based education programs in thewestern azerbaijan province, iran. using the theory of plannedbehavior (tpb), the study also tries to make a comparisonbetween participants and non-participants, who have achievedin this program. a sample of 231 farmers (137 participants and94 non-participants) was selected based on a stratified randomsampling method. data gathering instrument was a questionnairethat its validity was approved by a group of experts and itsreliability was confirmed by calculating cronbach's alpha(?=0.71). the results showed that, there were significantdifferences between participants and non-participants in agriculturaleducation programs in terms of all the tpb contexts. additionally,the results of the regression analysis showed that attitude to howthinking and decision and subjective norms were the best determinantsof farmers’ participation.