Investigating Effective Factors in the Formation of Network of Agricultural Production Cooperatives in the Alborz province

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the effective factor in the formation of network agricultural production cooperative in the Alborz Province. The statistical population of the study includes cooperatives which are administrated by the "Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare" and the "Rural Cooperative Organization" of the Alborz Province (N = 540). ). From this target population, 176 cooperatives were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Eventually, 175 questionnaires were collected and analyzed from the sample population. A questionnaire was developed to examine the technical, economical, educational, legal, social, and policy making factors affecting the formation of network among agricultural production cooperatives. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts in the field of Agricultural Extension and Education. To calculate the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which is applied for multi-scale questions, was used. The mean of Cronbach's alpha coefficients in this study was 0.803 which shows that the internal consistency of the questionnaire items is appropriate. The results showed that policy making, economic, legal, and educational factors had the most impact, while technical and social factors had no impact development of networks among agricultural production cooperatives.