The effect of paddy farmers' participation in rice integrated pest management projects with an emphasis on environmental protection indicators (Case study: Fooman County, Guilan Province)

2022. The effect of paddy farmers' participation in rice integrated pest management projects with an emphasis on environmental protection indicators (Case study: Fooman County, Province). 20(1): was conducted in two stages. In the qualitative stage, a group of 30 experts and farmers (experts in sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management) were selected with snowball sampling and were then interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis using Maxqda software and the validity of the findings was confirmed using the triangulation method. In a quantitative stage, from 16 cities of Guilan Province, Fooman County was randomly selected. The researcher-made questionnaire was then distributed among 323 farmers participating in the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project. The participation rate was assessed in the form of five items with a Likert scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Frequency and percentage were used in the descriptive part and Spearman correlation coefficient was used in the inferential part. Results and discussion: The results showed that the level of rice farmers' participation in the project was moderate to good from their point of view. As a result, most participants had a moderate level of participation (58.82%). The participation of paddy farmers in integrated pest management projects has a significant correlation at the level of one percent except for a few cases with other effects presented by the interviewees (IPM team of experts and informants). But in terms of economic effects, paddy farmers had different views from the experts. According to the rice farmers of Fooman, their participation did not show a significant relationship with economic effects such as reducing rice production costs, increasing rice production and increasing income, as well as increasing the possibility of co-cultivation with the environmental effect. Conclusion: Complex IPM projects require the full involvement of farmers in order to be implemented. This study showed the role of the participation of paddy farmers in Fooman in the implementation of such projects and the evaluation of their positive effects by farmers on the continuity and strengthening of these projects with adequate funding and appropriate training by farmers and city officials.