Studying Relationship between Socio-Cultural, Economical and Managerial Factors with the Participation Rate of Agricultural Cooperatives’ Members (Case Study, Shirvan Chardavol Township, Ilam Province, Iran) Mohammad Bagher Arayesh Assistant professor of Agricultural Extension and Education, Department of Agriculture, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran. Email: barayesh@yahoo.com he purpose of this research was studying relationship between socio- cultural, economical and managerial factors with the participation rate of agricultural cooperative's members in the Shirvan Chardavol township in the Ilam province, Iran. The method of this study is descriptive-correlative. A researcher made questionnaire was used as the tool for gathering data. The face and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by university professors and cooperatives experts. Also the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed through calculating the Cornbach’s coefficient (α = 0.80). Population of this study included 751 active members of Shirvan-Chardavol county agricultural cooperatives. 260 people were selected as the sample based on using Morghan table. The classified proportional random sampling method was used in this study. Data processing was performed using SPSS estatistial software, as well as descriptive estatistics (central and inferential indexes) and analytical statistices (correlation coefficients analysis). The correlation coefficient results showed that there was significant relationship between socio- cultural, economical and managerial factors with level of participation of agricultural cooperatives members. . 1. Introduction Agricultural production cooperatives are cooperation based exploitation systems in which the farmers produce agricultural crops through collective farming using integrated cultivation method meanwhile maintaining individual ownership. Nowadays the international community and conventions admit the relationship between the public potential and real stakeholders (Pakniat et al, 2007). Many previous experiences of the governments in different regions, especially in rural areas indicate that the non-involvement of the people in processes of the plans has caused the villagers never feel they belong to the projects implemented. This has provided for failure of such projects in long-term (Baghaee, 2006). 40 year history of agricultural production cooperatives in Iran shows that this type of exploitation system has been faced with various problems. First, the cooperative sector has not been able to play a major role in the development of the country. Secondly, the cooperative movement has been started by the government in Iran. This can be triggered that people look at toward cooperation and its transcendental ideas with skepticism (Arayesh & Ehsani, 2011). This is why the governments are trying to encourage participation of the people in the economic affairs and use cooperatives as a mechanism for accelerating the economic development of the villages. This can cause people to doubt the noble ideas of taking part in cooperatives, and imagine it as state or quasi-governmental organization with particular political desires. In such circumstances the members do not feel they belong to cooperatives and do not make much effort to achieve its goals. (Arayesh, 2012). According to the statistics provided by the end of 2006, there have been about 1,046 active agricultural production cooperatives in the country, covering a total of 4,963 villages with a population of about 278,362 people (Bazrafshan and Shahin, 2010). There are 174 agricultural cooperatives in the township of Shirvan-Chrdavol and Halylan from which 102 cooperatives (751 T International Journal of Agricultural Science, Research and Technology in Extension and Education Systems (IJASRT in EESs) Available online on: www.ijasrt.com ISSN: 2251-7588 Print ISSN: 2251-7596 Online 2014: 4(2):99-104 Received: 13 June 2014 Reviewed: 26 July 2014 Revised: 8 August 2014 Accepted: 29 August 2014 Keywords: Cooperative, Participation, Socio- cultural, Economical and Managerial factors Abstract