Evaluation of Factors Influencing to Apply Sugar Beet Consultant Engineers by Farmers in Khorasan-e Razavi Province

   This paper investigated social and economic factors influencing to apply consultant engineers using a cross sectional data of 453 sugar beet producers of Khorasan Razavi province in 2008 and discriminant analysis model. The results showed that type of farm ownership has the most and numbers of land parts, agricultural jobs, contract with factory, amount of product and insurance have the least importance to discriminate between users and non-users of consultant engineers' services. Also, sugar beet insurance has negative impact and type of farm ownership, the number of land parts and contract with factory show positive effect on applying of consultant engineers' services. With regard to results, targeting farmers with private ownership and land fragmentation, units with higher production and re-training of consultant engineers with concepts of risk and its management, especially recognizing of risk profile and more knowledge to farmers suggested.     JEL Classification: C02, C25, D2, D21