The level of Farmers’ Knowledge and Implementation of Olive Oil Quality Improvement for Marketing Practices in the Village of Imatin, Qalqilya Governorate, Palestine

The current research mainly aimed to identify the level of knowledge, practices and attitudes of farmers regarding improving the quality of olive oil to market it to members and non-members of the Imatin Cooperative Society for Olive Pressing in Palestine. This research was conducted in Qalqilya Governorate in Palestine in the village of Imatin (Imatin Cooperative Society for Olive Pressing). The data of this study were collected using the questionnaire method with personal interviews for a simple random sample of farmers. Frequencies and percentages were used. The most important results were summarized as follows: The general average of the knowledge of farmers who are not members of the association surveyed was (80.1%), and the general average of the knowledge of farmers who are members of the association was (99.5%). There are significant differences between members of the Imatin Association and non-members regarding all the knowledge studied at a significance level of 0.01.The general average of the implementation of the farmers who are not members of the association was (73%), and the general average of the knowledge of the farmers who are members of the association was (92.6%), and there are significant differences between the members of the Imatin Association and the non-members regarding all the knowledge studied at a significance level of 0.01. The positive trends of the non-members of the association had a general average of (85.3%) compared to the general average of the positive trends of the association members which was (99.7%). The negative trends of the non-members of the association had a general average of (81.2%) compared to the general average of the negative trends of the association members which was (99.8%). It was found that there are significant differences between the members of the Imatin Association and the non-members regarding all the trends studied at a significance level of 0.05. The study recommends working on encouraging farmers to join agricultural cooperatives and increasing the number of advisory staff specialized in the field of olives so that their services include a larger segment of olive farmers.