The objective of the study was to indicate social and psychological (inner) motives associated with the desire and needs of travelling to health resorts (push) as well as external motives resulting from destination’s attributes, and explaining the choice of the health tourism establishment (pull) by Polish treatment-seekers divided into two social groups: persons in employment and retired persons. The research hypothesis assumed the two groups of people differ very much in terms of preferences motivating them to participate in health resort tourism, destination choices and services offered by health resort establishments.Of the 258 health resorts, 154 establishments were selected for research purposes taking into account a proportional distribution of health resorts throughout Poland. An authorial questionnaire was developed and it included three questions with multiple answers, each answer being assessed on a 5-point Likert scale. The research adds new insights by analysing motives associated with health resort tourism in terms of benefits sought by visitors. The main and strongest motive for choosing health resort tourism is concern for health. In addition to old age pensioners, it was legitimate to analyse the group of employed respondents as their stays at a health resort are undertaken to regain not only physical fitness but also work motivation.The present study has demonstrated that motives and age groups have a significant effect on destination choice. Based on the results, it can be concluded that these groups often have diverse needs, expectations and, as a result, motives for choosing this form of tourism and a given health resort. What follows is a possibility of dividing the visitors to health resorts in terms of push and pull motives.The research hypothesis assuming the two groups varied considerably in terms of preferences motivating them to participate in health resort tourism, destination selection and choice of services offered by the health resort establishment has been confirmed. The ramifications of the study’s findings may also be relevant for health resort/spa tourism outside of Poland because healthy lifestyle promotion is a worldwide trend. Increasing wealth and health awareness of society, changing lifestyles, and globalisation have contributed to tourism development worldwide . Travel Health tourism directly improves the tourist’s health condition and indirectly positively affects his or her general well-being in social, physical, mental and spiritual terms . Health Health resorts are dedicated establishments which provide curative treatment services using natural resources with medicinal properties . Poland Tourists seeking treatment and additional services endeavour to retain good health and prevent diseases by spending their time in a relaxing and natural environment thus benefiting from the very health resort facilities and its surroundings . Health The contribution of the present work to the theory and practice consists in adding to the literature on health tourism with insight into push and pull motives of a group of tourists. Moreover, analysis of motive segmentation based on Polish health resorts, to some extent will add information and make it possible to evaluate tourist demand for European health resorts. However, one should bear in mind there are some limitations resulting from e.g. differences in financial circumstances of older people from different countries and different subsidizing methods by the state.Motivation is a psychological process which influences human behaviour and actions in order to achieve the assumed aim , 19. It The effect of selected motives on destination choice by tourists and their decision to revisit the destination have been studied by Ćulić et al.  and GajiOne of the most well-known theories of tourist motivation is Crompton’s concept  called ‘In health tourism, tourists are motivated by prophylaxis or treatment goals to improve their health and/or well-being . ResearcRecovery after illness or injury,The need to remove negative effects of stress,Anti-aging and beautifying procedures (including plastic surgery),Addiction rehabilitation,The decision to improve one’s health by using specialist health care,Intervention or activity in a laid-back health resort atmosphere unlike a hospital setting,A way of an access to increasingly variable complementary therapies associated with prophylaxis of health protection means.The literature on the subject of health tourism provides examples of different approaches to selecting or dividing factors which motivate visitors. Some authors examine motives in health tourism without referring to pull and push motives , 57–60. In their work, the authors refer to push motives is different ways, e.g.:Receiving medical treatment, visiting friends and relatives plus receiving medical treatment, exploring new places and cultures plus receiving medical treatment, fulfilling a dream plus, receiving medical treatment, reasons other than receiving medical treatment ,Desires to participate in employment, physical activity, and daily life, determination to diminish bodily pain, desires to overcome perceived or experienced lack of access to care at home ,Self-development, health and physical activity, relaxation and escape, isolation and nostalgia, nature, autonomy and stimulation, and social status .Also pull motives are viewed differently by authors:Tangible resources and marketing image ,Personnel services, health promotion treatments, environments, healthy diet, relaxation, social activities, experience of unique tourism resources, ental learning ,Natural resources, cultural and natural environment, spa/wellness infrastructure and social and political environment .All in all, in literature there is no universal and homogenous approach to push and pull motives of health resort visitors. Thus, it seems warranted to develop a pattern (method) of conducting this type of research.The study involved a diagnostic survey method using a questionnaire. The method is frequently utilised in studies in the field of tourism and hotel industry. It was selected because it offers a possibility of examining a larger population and ensures the reliability of the method –71.The research was conducted from April to October 2022, and it included 2,864 correctly completed questionnaires filled in by adult treatment-seekers and tourists. During the study period, the respondents stayed at health resorts for a period of at least 10 days, which guaranteed objectivity of questionnaire completion. The period of 10 days was assumed to be sufficient to fully get acquainted with the resort’s functioning, evaluate the level of treatments and personnel qualifications as well as asses factors which, according to respondents, should be changed. The validity of this assumption is supported by the very idea of treatment at Polish health resorts which offer stays from 2 to 3 weeks long, in some cases extending to as many as 26 days . The anaOf 2,864 respondents, 120 (4.2%) were either pupils or university students, 991 (34.6%) were persons in employment, and 276 (9.6%) were either disability pension recipients or unemployed people. The most numerous group, 1,447 people (51.6%), consisted of retired persons. The research reported here included the two largest groups of respondents, that is persons in employment and retired persons. The main assumption of this research procedure was to distinguish people in employment, who need rest, regeneration and treatment before returning to the job, and a group of old age pensioners who already retired from their job.The procedure of study sample selection was based on the number of health resorts operating in Poland, located at 45 localities. As of December 2021, the number, which was used to calculate the sample size, equated to 258 . Only fuTo follow the established study protocol which required a 10-day stay, the target population was made up of only treatment-seekers and tourists choosing to stay at fully residential health resort establishments offering on-site accommodation. The number of people going to stay at such health resorts, as of December 2021, amounted to 529.9 thousand visitors of which 61.5% were females and 38.5% males . Taking The study conforms to the code of ethics of the World Medical Association and the standards for research involving human subjects set out in the Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities No. 2/2020. This research was performed following relevant guidelines and regulations. After an explanation of the aims and protocol of this study to each participant, written informed consent was obtained. The survey was conducted in a direct manner and was preceded by assuring each respondent about maintaining confidentiality.As there is no homogenous division of pull and push motives, based on literature on the subject , 74, 75,The research objectives were achieved by analysing responses provided by participants of which:20 answers pertained to socio-psychological motives (push),15 answers (pull) explained choice of health resort establishment,10 answers concerned additional services offered by the establishment and taken into consideration by tourists/treatment-seekers.If an answer pertaining to the following push motives:The need to improve body capacity and fitness,The need to undergo procedures unavailable where one lives,The need to recover from an addiction developed as a form of relaxation,The need to improve one’s build to be more attractive;or the following pull motives:The need to feel one is a fuller participant of the society,Reasonable prices at a given establishment,Location of the establishment within an urban agglomeration,Organisation of free time, diagnostic tests conducted both at the beginning and during the stay.did not find favour with respondents or was viewed as unimportant, it was excluded from the created discrimination function models.A preliminary survey, including 124 treatment-seekers and tourists, was conducted to validate the questionnaire and ensure the respondents found it clear and understandable. In this survey, internal validation of the instrument was performed, and the design was adjusted accordingly in order to obtain the best results. In the internal validation of the questionnaire, a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.876 was obtained, so demonstrating the reliability of the instrument, which scored well over the recommended ideal value of 0.7.p ≤ 0.05.STATISTICA 13 PL  software and discriminant function were used to conduct statistical analysis. Discriminant analysis is a statistical method used to examine differences between three groups (such as in the study reported here) by a simultaneous analysis of several variables to find out which variables are the greatest contributors to group discrimination. Classification of cases is one of the main goals behind an application of discriminant analysis. The applied classification function is based on a linear combination of discriminant variables. There were two functions, the same number as the number of groups. They are used to determine to which group a given case belongs. Multidimensional normality was examined before testing, checking each variable for normality of distribution. We used the Kołmogorow-Smirnow test which verified the hypothesis that two samples were taken from different populations. Due to a large number of individuals in each group, slight deviations were of little importance . It was p ≤ 0.001, more often pointed to by old age pensioners than the group of treatment-seekers/tourists in employment. Doctor’s recommendations expressing the advisability of staying at a health resort establishment were the next most important motive which obtained high values of classification function. In this case, slightly higher values of the classification function were found for the employed vs. retired group. The opportunity to lose weight and receive proper rehabilitation after an illness were another important motives of staying at a health resort, them being more significant, at p ≤ 0.001, for the persons in employment.The created discrimination function model included 14 out 20 selected motives pertaining to the desire and need (push) of using health resort establishments expressed by the respondents  , an opportunity do change treatments during the stay (at p = 0.037) and an unlimited availability of a doctor or physiotherapist to consult should a need arise (at p = 0.049).Eight out of ten pull motives contained in the questionnaire entered the model of discrimination function, them reflecting additional services offered to visitors by health resort establishments Table . The mosResults of the survey made it possible to achieve the assumed objective which was to indicate motives both employed and retired persons have for staying at holiday resorts. Also hypothetical assumptions of the study revealed differences and changing preferences of motives between the major customers of health tourism.The main motive which was also the most strongly accentuated by both the groups of respondents was health and health concern, which agrees with earlier reports by Araújo Vila et al. , RodriguIt was demonstrated in the study that doctor’s recommendations were a powerful motive which patients followed, in particular whose who were in employment, which concurs with findings reported by Kucukusta, Guillet .People in employment were much more significantly interested in body weight loss, which appeared to be one of more important motives pointed to by respondents. In recent years, body care services, including slimming, skin care and nicotine addiction treatment, have become a trendy direction of healthy lifestyle care .Rehabilitation needs after an illness turned out to be an important motive, in particular for working persons, which seems understandable in view of their need for convalescence and rest. In the Polish healthcare system, employed people requiring rehabilitation in order to return to their usual work-related routine or not to reduce their working activity due to health-related reasons, may bid for a stay at a health resort which will be entirely paid for by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) within the ZUS disability prevention option. In order to be considered, the patient is required to supply a medical certificate stating there exists a need for rehabilitation .Striving for well-being and having a pleasurable stay at a holiday resort, both being hedonistic factors , were stNatural factors contributing to communion with nature, such as spending time in the open air surrounded by a beautiful landscape and greenery are important motives of participating in health resort tourism , 87. TheThe desire to be in good company reflects the need to renew the physical and emotional balance as well as update socialising, the lifestyle and social identity, all of which being expressed more often by retired visitors .Of the motives explaining choice of a given health resort establishment declared by both groups of visitors, the most important ones included cleanliness and safety during the stay. Safety at the establishment was the element which contributed to the good mood of treatment-seekers  and satiThe motive of the health resort establishment’s location within a forest-parkland complex or in a natural environment was significantly more appreciated by retired respondents. Such preferences had been previously reported in studies by Antunes and Cunha , 101, boIn order to achieve the balance between body and mind, individuals satisfy their psychological needs by sports and relaxation activities , these aAs of now, operation of health resort establishments is focused on offering both health- and leisure-oriented services. Due to this, it seems necessary to develop new products and services, which will be increasingly exclusive, creative and unique to draw visitors and make the health resort a one-of-a-kind establishment . StrivinAs people, especially those who work, are constantly in a rash, they search for means of stress alleviation and taking care of their mental and physical health . The peaThe society is displaying an increasing health awareness , 114. WhHealth resorts are recommended to consider an extensive improvement of aesthetic components of their facilities , and conPromoted worldwide healthy lifestyle underlies present-day social transformations in Poland. It results in a growing interest in and meaning of health tourism, including health resort tourism. There were indicated push and pull motives of tourists choosing health resort tourism and destination. An understanding of the motives behind people travelling to health resort establishments is of utmost importance for the development of this sector of tourism. The research complements and fills in gaps in research examining the strength of push and pull motives of people participating in health resort tourism, which contributes to better management of health resorts and creation of conditions meeting expectations of potential tourists. The research adds new insights by analysing motives associated with health resort tourism in terms of benefits sought by visitors. The main and strongest motive for choosing health resort tourism is concern for health. In addition to old age pensioners, it was legitimate to analyse the group of employed respondents as their stays at a health resort are undertaken to regain not only physical fitness but also work motivation. The study has demonstrated that motives and age groups have a significant effect on destination choice. It can be concluded that these groups often have diverse needs, expectations and, as a result, motives for choosing this form of tourism and a given health resort. What follows is a possibility of dividing the visitors to health resorts in terms of push and pull motives. The research hypothesis assuming the two groups of treatment-seekers varied considerably in terms of preferences motivating them to participate in health resort tourism, destination selection and choice of services offered by the health resort establishment has been confirmed. The ramifications of the study’s findings may also be relevant for health resort/spa tourism outside of Poland because healthy lifestyle promotion is a worldwide trend.It should be pointed out that the limitation of the study reported here as impossibility of extending the findings to other countries which is due to different financial circumstances of older people in, for example, Germany and Poland, or the methods of subsidizing the stays in question in various countries. Only pensioners and working people were included in the research reported here. It would be informative to extend future research to include other social groups. The limiting circumstance of this study was interaction with persons selected as respondents who, with no good cause, avoided participation. The large number of resorts to be included in the study (154) was also potentially a limiting factor as it required a substantial number of people to be involved as well as prior logistical examination. Another study will be undertaken with wider participation of other social groups and more issues associated with health resort tourism.


Globalization and international development in language education have inspired a shift from the learning of traditional College English to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This article begins with a section on the methodology used to develop the literature review. From various literatures, a historical perspective was first presented for the period, 1962 to the present day, and accompanied by a review on the teaching approaches. The purpose was to reveal emerging trends in ESP development and forefront the strength of association between ESP development and the changes in teaching approaches. Then it focuses on the relationship between needs analysis and ESP, as needs analysis is well recognized as a vital ESP characteristic and it is given a comprehensive revisit as an update in ESP development. The review continues with some insights into recent studies from various countries to reflect on various aspectual developments of current ESP practices that illustrate the dynamics of growing research agendas that have implications for current and future ESP research directions. Finally, future vistas for ESP development and teaching are affirmed. The paper concludes on the note on the importance of knowing past and future ESP developments, and the prioritizing of effective teaching based on soundly designed materials tailored to particular student-centered needs and wants. However, this understanding has changed over the past few decades as the teaching of ESP gained popularity, especially in non-native English-speaking countries. A change in teaching methods was also needed to maximize the educational or learning outcomes of the foreign language teaching process that tends to lean toward the learning of ESP. This includes the design of specific educational learning objectives for short-term or long-term courses, or programs to fulfill the following: (1) the specific needs of the learners, (2) the overall goals of the course or program, and (3) the specific type of training learners hope to achieve upon completion of the program . UltimatAn important characteristic of an ESP course is that the materials and goals are tailored to the learners’ specific needs. They would concentrate on the language, identified skills, and genres that are most relevant to the specific activities that learners need to perform in so as to use English efficiently. In the words of How to identify learner needs, the nature of the genres that learners need to be able to produce as well as participate in, and how to know if our learners have been able to do this successfully, and if not, what we can do to help them (p. 7).2.A semi-systematic literature review (LR) approach is used to meet the needs of this review. The general aim of the LR is to identify gaps in research and also to engage with the ESP theory development, and to parallel the developments with the emergence of discernible teaching approaches. A semi-systematic review approach was adopted. It often looks at how research within the ESP field has progressed over time or how a topic has developed across research traditions . Being cThe first step was to scan the relevant selected literature in relation to the research agenda. In total, aside from physical book and journal article references accessed mainly through libraries, the keywords “ESP development,” “Needs Analysis,” “future of ESP,” “technology of ESP” and “interculture and ESP” were keyed into Web of Science (WOS), Google Scholar and a website in China—the National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). More than 400 articles out of 1000 of articles, books and reports related to ESP were finally downloaded. They were most relevant to the research and contained the highest number of recorded citations. The MarginNote 3 app from Apple program helps to scan all literature with notetaking, summary facilities, which include the drawing of mind maps and the different topics were then drawn together to provide a coherent literature review. Endnotes app also helps the establishing of inclusion and exclusion criteria that can trim the body of ESP literature, such as, year of publication, the language of articles (English or Chinese), and type of article and journal. These procedures resulted in careful data extraction to ensure quality and validity in the review process. In compiling the data, due attention was given to author information, especially when attending to seminal theories, and their arguments. A comparative method ensued to identify similarities and differences in their arguments in order to construct a meaningful and discerning flow of the discourse. In addition, the review also considered the currency of the writings, which is important as a benchmark for updated literature on a research issue. On another note, the researchers considered the reputation of the publishers and journals, and perspectives were sought from different countries to pan the diversity and breadth of the relevant work done. The literature review data were then organized according to the five keyword topics and the information was then captured in a number of specific literature matrices that were tailored to the selected topic or theme that would help in the final reporting. As a result of the LR process, the final outline for the literature review report evolved and it then served as a guide for the drafting of the report and the finalizing of the selected bibliographic entries.3.Following the LR methodological procedure, the first theme that emerged was the historical overview of ESP development which traces the origin and history of ESP. In this review, each phase of development since ESP gained traction in the 1960s was noted. The historical overview will be presented and described according to the traditional four phases of ESP history identified by 3.1.According to their landmark work, lingua franca rooted in ESP that met their needs for cross-cultural communication, commercial transactions, and information exchange  in the new commerce-driven world. The end of the Second World War had ushered in an era of tremendous expansion in scientific, technical, and economic activities worldwide due mainly to the growing economic strength of America. These changes created new and dynamic roles in the use of the English language leading to its consolidation as a significant international language. Greater impetus for its development is the Oil Crisis in the early 1970s which resulted in the flow of Western currency and knowledge into oil-rich countries. With these developments, new demands were made on the learning of the English language, thus impacting the growth of ESP with discernible teaching trends. Non-native speakers had to be equipped with a new exchange .3.1.1.The afore-mentioned events, and subsequent growth in ESP placed strong pressure on the language teaching profession to produce fast track results in the 1970s. In this regard, linguists promoted register analysis to enhance the development of scientific and technical lexis which was hypothesized to give ESP learning a boost. ESP practitioners, in turn, identified their major role as imparting and training of technical vocabulary related to a field of study or profession. For example, if one were educating nursing students, his/her job would be to teach them nursing terminology in a designed curriculum that was “flavoured” with medical and nursing terms .At the same time, the learning of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) impacted the move toward learner-centered teaching. This movement resulted in great emphasis on learner needs and needs analysis as the foundation of ESP course design. Another major outcome, as stated by 3.1.2.Register analysis then gave way to the application of discourse analysis to obtain a better understanding of ESP discourse for teaching. At this point of time, register analysis was criticized as giving excessive focus on language form, and had failed to explain why and how sentences were created and integrated for use in specific disciplinary situations. Rhetorical and discourse analysis then took center stage as the emergent teaching trend and it “introduced the notion of linking language form to language use, making use of the key criterion for the selection of ESP teaching materials” , p. 22. ESPJ in 1990. This interest in international rhetoric was alive and well at that time, especially in ESL development  publications and concluded that the journal had published a noticeable number of ESP studies outside of the United States and the United Kingdom, which are traditional sources of ESP work. The deep interest in ESP had spun over countries, such as, China, Central America, and South America, and Hong Kong as ESP hubs for information dissemination. He further concluded that there was a growing wave of recognition of ESP as an academic discipline internationally. Another finding was the diversity of ESP topic coverage that included development in EAP and EOP with their many sub-branches. Thirdly, as a result of these developments, general English as the more generic approach to program design seemed to be given less emphasis. Instead, more emphasis was placed on the learning of ESP with discourse analysis as a methodological procedure. In addition, ESP practitioners appeared to concern themselves substantially with specific target settings in language learning, and giving due regard to the design and production of ESP-oriented materials to enhance the development of ESP courses  the Wide-angle Approach vs. the Narrow-angle Approach in ESP and (c) Genre Analysis and Rhetorical Moves.Along with the show of deep interest in ESP research, the journal added many special issues targeted at specific learning to further equip practitioners with ESP teaching skills, covering domains ranging from ESP teacher training , vocatioThe discussions thus generated a consolidated platform for ESP debate and argument. To illustrate, via academic study), and takes into consideration students’ various learning styles” .students , p. 6.Aspects of Article Introductions” and his books on genre analysis further perpetuated the importance of genre analysis and rhetorical moves in ESP research. However, in this phase of ESP development, most ESP research had remained more focused on EAP, especially EST at the post-secondary or graduate level for ESP learning. Also written discourse remained the preferred data for analysis , while the Journal of English for Academic Purposes (JEAP) in response to the overwhelming number of ESP related papers submitted for publication in the ESPJ. ESPJ was only around 25%, indicating that a significant portion of submissions was not published, and there was a definite need for more publishing opportunities for ESP explorations.During this period, more interesting and vibrant developments took place in the ESP arena. Among them were the flourishing of new ESP oriented work that focus on intercultural rhetoric, genre studies and corpus studies as evidenced in publications in new journals in the field. During this era, two new international journals were launched and considered on par to Genre Analysis, sparking off a highly fruitful debate among academics  on “evaluation in academic discourse.” The modern period of ESP development was characterized by another research innovation that uses corpus research, notably in studies of written academic genres. During this time, the relevance of inter-personality and interactivity in written discourse grew to the point where one aspect, evaluative language, became a focal point for discussion as evidenced in a 2003 special issue of the 3.4.Following the three marked phases in ESP historical development and teaching, it would be apt to consider what lies beyond the phases as future vistas in ESP development. The early developments to the current 21st century have seen a deep-seated entrenchment of ESP teaching often aligned to the identification of needs. As such, the following section on future vistas will explore specifically the changes in defining needs analysis and its implications for teaching while noting the theoretical inputs that have contributed to ESP practice.3.4.1.Needs analysis or needs assessment often forms the corner stone of ESP practice and it is envisaged to continue to be so in future ESP works. Since its appearance in the 1970s, needs analysis has evolved as a framework that has attracted and garnered much attention of many ESP and ESL researchers and practitioners. Among the influential works are those by The two intertwined concepts of “needs” and “analysis” are defined in terms of necessities, wants, or lacks . These “As for subjective needs, Subjective needs […] are situated in the present and influence the teaching methodology of the syllabus, taking into account biographical information and learner preferences, thus going into why the learner wants to learn a foreign language and the classroom tasks and activities that the learners prefer (p. 18).In a nutshell, Along similar lines, Needs analysis is the systematic collection and analysis of all subjective and objective information necessary to define and validate defensible curriculum purposes that satisfy the language learning requirements of students within the context of the particular institutions that influence the learning and teaching situation (p. 102).The articulated needs set the target learning goals and are reflected in the defining of language use governed by the context for learning, realized in specific disciplines, such as for academic purposes, business, sports or aviation. In future, it is likely that more novel ESP courses will arise due to the evolving changes in disciplinary needs, whether objective or subjective. In the event, relevant materials can be designed. Information from discourse and genre analysis can help feed meaningful analyses of the needs. Objective needs can also be generated from the needs of the location of study or workplace and its demands compounded by the social situation, thereby adding to the complexity of the “needs” concept.The situations in which a language will be used (including who it will be used with).The objectives and purposes for which the language is needed.The type of communication that will be used .The level of proficiency that will be required (p. 51).While basic notions about needs analysis remain relatively constant over the years, however, 3.4.1.1.In support of ESP work that has evolved as multi-dimensional in approach, which is still developing, some current sample readings are explored to provide more insights. For example, Identifying students’ needs ultimately requires a thorough investigation of many elements. Tailoring a course to meet the needs of the learners in and of itself does not ensure course success and effectiveness. Motivation to learn plays a crucial role in ensuring learning success. On the other hand, ESP teachers may need to help learners to attend to general academic needs as the immediate goal. Academic fulfillment like reporting on project work and completing course assignments in English is just as important as fulfilling professional or workplace-related needs like writing professional emails, attending job interviews, and doing specialist oral presentations. In this way, rather than depending on intuition, ESP teachers may develop courses based on information obtained through personalized needs analysis. Indeed, support given to academic fulfillment as part of a well-designed ESP course may boost learners’ confidence, fluency, and accuracy as they enter into specialized communication. In an increasingly internationalized context, it is also necessary to reappraise current ESP courses and practices to determine the extent to which they are adapted to the ever-changing needs in a globalized world.In Indonesia, In Malaysia, College English is a mandatory course for students who enter tertiary education in China. The exit language performance indicator is a set criterion score obtained through the CET (College English Test) as a graduating language assessment attainment goal. This requirement is often viewed as a less than satisfactory rigid language policy implementation. The tension between ESP approaches and College English which centers on the learning of general English has been much debated among Chinese scholars. Attesting that ESP research in China has developed rapidly in recent decades, In brief, various current studies have been found to identify learners’ specific needs . In addi3.4.2.From the above description, ESP development is certainly affected by ever-changing needs and contextual challenges. Future vistas about ESP developments and learning potentially can result in a more flourishing and thriving field. Nonetheless, it is a fact that technology is here to stay and it is also an ever-growing concern as more and more transborder transactions take place. With the world experiencing fast-paced technological advances, it is inevitable that it will impact current and future language use. Technology can be said to be perversive especially in the workforce. Every country bent on economic growth must attend to advances in technology so as to remain competitive. These national needs are translated into the realm of language teaching.3.4.2.1.As a line of investigation, English in the Disciplines: A Multidimensional Model for ESP Course Design in which the authors, With specific needs analysis results, teaching materials could definitely be designed for a specific group of individuals. During the teaching process, simulated teaching methods, task-based teaching methods, cooperative project-based learning  and flipvia the ESP Linguistic Corpus  and with a little “c” . In the designing of materials, From another perspective, 4.This review study began by introducing the basic tenets and trends of ESP giving a historical account of ESP development which was accompanied by a discussion of how ESP teaching and learning have evolved concurrently. This recognition of history sets the tone for possible future trends in ESP development and teaching giving due emphasis on the need for a revisit of needs analysis, the salience of technological advances, and intercultural communication. In sum, new explorations in needs analysis, technological advances, and intercultural awareness will significantly support the construction of a better environment for learning English in specific situations, therefore justifying the establishment of future ESP courses to properly prepare students and train professionals for the workplace. To confirm the effectiveness of the use of ESP frameworks, it is reiterated that it is equally vital to recognize that changes in ESP development will also result in changes in learning approaches that must be taken seriously into account for successful learning.AD, SC, and MW contributed to the conception and design of the study. AD wrote the first draft of the manuscript. SC and MW revised sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


Green manure is used as an environmentally friendly technology to produce clean agricultural products. This technology not only helps reduce environmental and health concerns, but can also increase productivity. Green manure is especially needed in the production of paddy. Because rice as a strategic product is the main food of people in many countries of the world. Rice production using green manure can enable countries to develop and increase healthy production. However, the acceptance of this technology is low in many rice producing countries. In this regard, this study used an integrated and extended version of the theory of planned behavior to predict and encourage the adoption of green manure technology in Iran. To collect the required data, a cross-sectional survey was performed among Iranian rice growers and the results of hypothesis testing were analyzed using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling. The results revealed that moral norms of green manure, attitude towards green manure, perceived behavioral control on using green manure, and trialability of green manure have positive and significant effects on intention towards using green manure. In addition, bootstrap analysis showed that moral norms of green manure and trialability of green manure positively and significantly mediated the (indirect) effects of subjective norms towards application of green manure on intention towards using green manure. The results led to important practical and theoretical implications that could provide new insights for policy-makers, planners, and practitioners to develop and encourage the adoption of green manure technology to produce clean and healthy agricultural products. Accordingly, the agricultural research sector addresses issues related to food security, sustainable food production, environmental indicators, and socio-economic developments in rural-agricultural communities of underdeveloped and developing countries as a new agenda for agricultural production systems2. Today, agriculture is much more diverse than ever and is often combined with other activities. New agricultural knowledge produced by farmers, researchers, and private companies has created highly dynamic and complex knowledge networks3. However, the intertwined and specific relationship of agricultural systems with the environment distinguishes it from other economic sectors4. Because, an agricultural system is the result of the complex interaction of interdependent components such as water and soil, crops, labor and other resources in the environment6.In the past years and after the Green Revolution, many efforts have been made to increase food production, which has led to a significant increase in global food production. The results of this increase in production have been more in favor of developed countries and other regions of the world, especially underdeveloped countries have benefited less from this increase in productiontechnology is one of the sources of agricultural production1. Increasing efforts in technology sector to increase production and diversify agricultural activities result from the continued growth of social expectations in the field of food security, animal welfare, bio-sustainability and pro-environmental production9. Sustainable farming and environmental-related technologies can be called Green Agriculture, which is an alternative approach to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and minimize waste. In other words, the green agricultural systems, instead of using non-renewable and unstable inputs for agricultural production, use pro-environmental technologies such as green manure, biofertilizer, animal manure, etc. Since non-renewable resources endanger human, animal, and environmental health and cause climate change through global warming10. For example, overuse of nitrogen-based fertilizers in agricultural sector contributes to emissions nitrous oxide which is considered as one of the most important greenhouse gases. Leftover nitrogen that is not absorbed by agricultural products and plants, reacts with the soil. This reaction results in production of nitrous oxide. At a global level, agricultural sector accounts for about 80% of human-caused nitrous oxide emissions. This sector is also responsible for about 8–14% of all greenhouse gasses. In addition, ammonia compound, which is generally used in chemical fertilizers, also plays a role in climate change. Ammonia must be made under high pressure and at high temperature. In other words, it takes a lot of energy to produce it. Most of this energy comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal and methane gas. These fossil fuels lead to the production of carbon dioxide, which is the main cause of climate change. Today, ammonia production accounts for between 1 and 2% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide12. Several definitions have been proposed for green technology. Soni13 states that green technologies are environmentally friendly technologies that address issues such as energy efficiency, recycling, increasing the use of renewable resources, reducing concerns about the safety and health, and so on. Green and environmental technologies produce less pollution and use all resources in a more sustainable way. These technologies recycle most of their waste and products and manage the remaining waste in a principled way with alternative technologies. In general, it can be understood that green agricultural technology includes renewable energy sources, biofertilizers, green manures, waste reduction methods, remediators of environmental pollutants, sewage treatment, waste water recycling, and improving the agricultural systems, which have positive effects on environmental decisions14.In addition, 15. In this study, the use of green manure is considered as a “technology”. Technology is a set of processes, methods, techniques, tools, equipment, machinery, and skills by which a product is made or a service is provided16. There are two reasons why green manure can be considered as a technology. First, as defined by Januszewski and Molenda16, technologies are not just hardware tools or machines. Rather, the inputs by which a service is provided are also technologies. In this study, the use of green manure is considered as a method through which healthy rice can be produced. Second, according to Fathian and Mahdavi-Noor17, if there is a hard-soft technology that can transform renewable and non-renewable natural resources into usable services for users, it can also be called technology. Considering that green manure is a technique that leads to the use of plant residuals to produce a green product, it can be considered as a technology.Green manure technology refers to plants that have already been uprooted and are often already placed under the soil. These dying plants are cover crops that are grown mainly to add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Typically, a plant used as a green manure is grown for a period of time and then plowed and incorporated into the soil while it is still green or shortly after flowering. Green manure products are generally associated with organic farming and are considered essential for ship systems that are supposed to be stable for many years18. Different types of green manures  have different functions and applications in environmental protection, sustainable development, and agricultural economic development. For example, green manures help increase humus in the soil, carbon sequestration, and improve soil fertility19. Crop residues and green manures release their nutrients after decomposition in soil18. This process increases the content of soil organic matter  and improves the soil-forming structure. Green manures maintain the nutrient cycle in the agricultural ecosystem and enhance the biomass and activities of soil microorganisms19. Also, these manures help control weeds, pests and plant diseases, and reduce soil erosion20. Therefore, green manure products and technologies play an important role in reducing the use of chemical fertilizers21.Green manures are made from a combination of plant materials (either freshly cut weeds or rotation crop debris) and added to the soil while they are still green22. Conceptually, circular premium is defined as the consumers’ willingness to pay more for circular products. Consumers may be willing to accept that a circular price of the rice  is different from the normal price 23. The review of research literature in this field shows that the circular premium has positive impacts on the development of the circular economy and the production of sustainable products. For example, Colasante and D'Adamo24 and Appolloni et al.25 introduce the concept of “green circular premium” and state that strategies like green circular premium and sustainability certification can create a sustainable competitive advantage in today's uncertain world for mature industries and producers. In other words, one of the impacts of the green circular premium is that it makes the producers not consider innovation in production and process as the only strategies to maintain and increase income and competitiveness23.Another point that is very important in the discussion of the production and consumption of green products and their effects is the circular premium that the consumers of the products accept when purchasing27.Although there is still no general agreement on the concept of clean agricultural products among experts and researchers, in the present study, clean rice product refers to the rice product that farmers did not use chemical fertilizers for its production. On the other hand, they have used rice plant residues as the manure to increase their production. In some cases, researchers use the term “green fertilizer” instead of “green manure”. But it should be emphasized that there are six basic differences between fertilizers and green manures. First, green manures are obtained naturally by the decomposition of dead plants and residues. However, fertilizers are chemical substances and are not typically natural. Second, although manures are not very rich in nutrients, fertilizers are rich in soil nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Third, despite fertilizers that are easily absorbed by plants. manures are slowly absorbed. Fourth, manures provide a lot of humus to the soil; but fertilizers do not provide any humus to the soil. Fifth, manures are prepared naturally in the fields. However, fertilizers are prepared in the factories. Sixth, manures do not adversely affect the plant or the soil if supplied in large quantities. That is while fertilizers adversely affect the soil and the plant if supplied in large quantities28. That is while different stakeholders’ engagement in food production process is of great importance. Stakeholders in the food production chains are very extensive. These stakeholders can range from individual consumers of different food products and industry bodies to primary producers such as farmers. The engagement of these stakeholders is necessary to produce green products. In a study that D'Adamo29 conducted to enable stakeholder engagement for sustainability reporting in the food industry, concluded that stakeholder engagement is an order winner for sustainable strategies in the food (pasta) industry. Leonidou et al.30 and Shams31 in their studies on the role of stakeholders’ engagement in the food industry claim that if this process is managed correctly, it can make the food industry work more effective in line with sustainable principles. Considering stakeholder theory, there are differences between internal and external stakeholders in terms of role-playing in the food industry34. However, according to Wolf35, at the food supply chain level, the role and effect of external stakeholders seems complex. Greenwood36 and Giacomarra et al.37 concluded that stakeholder engagement plays a key role in identifying key stakeholders and identifying unproductive interactions. In other words, in the stakeholder engagement process, the companies and industries can determine which stakeholder(s) to cooperate with and how to cooperate. Also, Greenwood introduces “knowledge sharing” as the main role of stakeholder participation. Kazadi38 also states that stakeholders' engagement in industries such as the food industry can strengthen the collaborative production of knowledge. This has a significant role in increasing competitiveness, motivating work, and encouraging and developing food innovations. Ghassim and Bogers40 call this role of stakeholder engagement “accumulation of valuable capabilities”.Although planting green manure in fallow croplands in winter can have a variety of economic and environmental benefits, including carbon capture and sequestration, soil retention, sandstorm prevention, water retention, and provision of habitat for biodiversity and the government enthusiastically supports the planting of green manures, the implementation of this action is slow. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that increasing the cost of production and planting green manures has reduced the willingness of farmers to adopt green manures19. In some cases, factors such as lack of operational conditions  are limiting factors in the development and use of green manure by farmers40. Another obstacle that worries farmers is the cultivation and occupation of the farm with crops that do not lead to an immediate return on capital and profits in the short term. Although long-term and medium-term benefits for commercial crops and soil should be considered, in many cases the poor economic strength of farmers prevents them from paying attention to long-term benefits. Limitations related to the size of agricultural lands, labor costs, management of some species used in green manure41, lack of cost-effective and quality seeds, lack of adequate knowledge, limited capital, land competition20, lack of proper regulatory framework, manpower shortages, performance uncertainties, and financial, political, cultural, and legal issues13 are of the most important constraining factors in the adoption and application of green manure technology by farmers. In some cases, these obstacles have caused the development of the use of chemical fertilizers in countries like Iran. A review of the statistical data of the Ministry of Agriculture of Iran shows that the average use of chemical fertilizers in Iran is about 70 kg per hectare42.Subsidy policies for green manure planting are still under research and development. There is currently no subsidy policy and the cost of planting green manure is high in terms of economic outcomes. In addition, there are no formal or sufficient incentives to encourage farmers to voluntarily plant green manure43. In this regard, the main objective of the present study was to analyze the intentions of Iranian rice farmers in to adopt green manure technology. To achieve this objective, following some sub-objectives were defined:Developing a theoretical framework based on the theory of planned behavior;Running the measurement model of the framework to assess the outer model’s reliability and validity;Running the structural model of the framework to test the hypotheses and assess the inner model’s reliability and validity; andInterpreting the results and presenting some theoretical and practical policy implications.In addition to the issues and problems mentioned above, it should be emphasized that the lack of sufficient knowledge of policy-makers, decision-makers, managers, and practitioners about the determinants, including farmers' intentions to use green manure is another major problem leading to failure in the transfer of green manure technology46. Intention in this theory is defined as an action-oriented future behavior that may occur in the very near future48. For example, the intention to adopt green manure technology refers to a series of future-oriented behaviors that farmers may take in the very near future to apply this technology43. The three main antecedents or determinants of adoption in TPB include attitude towards green manure, perceived behavioral control on using green manure, and subjective norms towards application of green manure53. Attitude refers to an individual’s evaluation about a specific behavior in terms of the desirability or un-desirability54. In this study, attitude towards green manure refers to farmers' evaluation of the desirability or un-desirability of the practice of using green manure. Subjective norms refer to out-of-person control interactions that direct his/her behavior56. In other words, subjective norms refer to the views of others about whether or not a person should perform a particular behavior48. In present study, subjective norms towards application of green manure measures the impact of others on the green manure technology acceptance behavior. Perceived behavioral control also represents the perceived difficulty or ease in performing a behavior51. Some researcher including Valizadeh et al.56 consider this variable as human agency. Perceived behavioral control on using green manure is based on the key to how far farmers think it is difficult or easy for them to adopt green manure technology. Although the predictive power of TPB in explaining different behavioral intentions has been proven in various studies (see58), it is still criticized58. These weaknesses have led to the development of this theory among researchers in various scientific fields, especially environmental psychology, has become an emerging discourse59.The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is known as one of the most practical theories to explain the behavioral intentions of individuals, which is mediated by three key variables60 and Haji et al.59 stated that this theory considers individual behavior as a rational behavior. In other words, the reason for the behavior in this theory goes back to the personal/private-sphere interests of individuals62. Stern63 argues, however, that people's behaviors or behavioral intentions do not always stem from their personal interests. In some situations, factors such as moral and altruistic considerations can also guide individuals' behavior64. Such critiques have led proponents of moral theories  to see the extension of TPB theory using moral norms as an undeniable necessity. Therefore, in this study, the variable of moral norms of green manure was incorporated into TPB as a new variable. Moral norms of green manure refer to the sense of moral  responsibility of farmers in using green manure on farms. In other words, farmers consider the use of green manure as a moral responsibility, which prevents the destruction of the environment and results in sustainability of agricultural activities.Regarding the weaknesses of TPB, Pradhananga et al.65. However, it is noteworthy that not all of the features in this theory can be added to TPB. Because features such as comparative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and visibility are reflected by different names in the TPB. The complexity variable, for example, is called ease of use in TPB. In addition, the attitude in TPB itself includes all the factors of comparative advantage, compatibility, and visibility. Accordingly, in present study, trialability of green manure was the only variable added to TPB from IDT theory. Finally, the extended version of TPB was presented as Fig. 43.In development process of TPB, other new theories and perspectives have been proposed. In particular, Innovation diffusion Theory (IDT) emphasizes the importance of innovation features. The most important determinants of technology acceptance and non-acceptance behavior in this theory include comparative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and visibilityPerceived behavioral control on using green manure positively and significantly will affect intention towards using green manure;Attitude towards green manure positively and significantly will affect intention towards using green manure;Trialability of green manure positively and significantly will affect intention towards using green manure;Moral norms of green manure positively and significantly will affect intention towards using green manure;Trialability of green manure positively and significantly mediate the effect of subjective norms towards application of green manure on intention; andMoral norms of green manure positively and significantly mediate the effect of subjective norms towards application of green manure on intention.Regarding the relationships of variables in Fig. This study was conducted in Fars province of Iran, which is located in the southwest of the country. With a population of nearly 5 million people, this province is one of the most populous provinces in Iran. Having the province with fertile soils and suitable climate, has led to the development of agricultural activities in it. In other words, fertile soils have made this province one of the centers of production of strategic products for Iran from wheat, barley, rice, and oilseeds. This has made the agricultural sector of Fars province one of the pillars of food security in a country like Iran, which has been under international sanctions for years. One of the leading products for Iran and its growing population is rice. More interestingly, despite the strategic importance of this product for Iran, its production is possible in many limited parts of the country. Meanwhile, Fars province is the most important producer of rice after the northern provinces of the country . However, rice production in this province has been associated with many problems in recent decades. Factors such as not using new agricultural methods, lack of water resources, and lack of access to sufficient credit are new obstacles to sustainable production of rice in the province. The synergistic effect of these issues has also shown itself in the form of some rebound effects, which has caused the most damage to the environment of the province. In this regard, many experts believe that in the process of rice production in Fars province, sustainable/clean production methods should be used to minimize the impact of environmental impacts. One of the strategies proposed to achieve this goal is to encourage farmers to use green manures. Unfortunately, evaluations have shown that the use of this technology is low among rice farmers. In addition, no study has been conducted on the determinants of farmers' willingness to use green manures on farms. This factor has made the acceptance of green manures as a research priority for agricultural executive organizations in the province. In this regard, the aim of this study was to identify and analyze the socio-psychological mechanisms of acceptance of green manure technology among the rice farmers.We used a questionnaire-based survey to collect the information. But before entering the main survey stage, four important steps were taken. In the first step, the prepared questionnaire was given to a panel of experts in environmental psychology, agricultural extension and education, and practitioners of new agricultural technology development. This was done by the first and third authors. The panel of experts presented their views on the face and content validity of the questionnaire. Therefore, items that may not be related to the measurement of the variables were removed from the questionnaire. Also, some questions (items) were modified to adapt to the participant's understanding. In the second step, the necessary coordination was done with the local leaders and village heads (managers); so that the first and third authors could make initial visits and evaluations of the rice fields of the province. In the process, some initial talks were even held with some farmers to discuss their issues and problems with the use of technologies such as green manures. In the third step, a number of questionnaires were filled out by farmers as pilots. Completion of these questionnaires allowed researchers to be informed of the time required to complete the questionnaires, incomprehensible words or items, barriers, and drivers of an effective communication (while collecting data) with farmers. In the fourth step, the total number of rice farmers in the province was inquired from the Agricultural Jihad Organization of Fars Province. According to the information provided by this organization, there were 10,158 rice farmers in Fars province. Therefore, 375 of them were selected as a sample through Krejcie and Morgan sampling table. According to Agricultural Jihad Organization of Fars Province, most of the rice farmers have a traditional farming system and do not mechanize rice cultivation. In addition, in terms of gender, most of the farmers are men, but women also help men in harvesting stage. Because the rice production process in Fars province is generally traditional, usually the young people are less willing to continue their father's job. Of course, it should be noted that in cases where young farmers decide to continue their father's job, they try to change the rice production process from traditional to mechanized. A data collection team was used to collect the required information. The team consisted of six skilled researchers led by the first author. The members of the data collection team had two special characteristics. First, they all had high experience in collecting and processing survey data. Therefore, they were fully familiar with the techniques of gathering information and communicating with the participants in this type of studies. Second, five of them (except the first author) were natives of the study area. This would help them collect more reliable data. Systematic random sampling method was used to select the samples. Systematic random sampling is a transformed simple random sampling method. In this sampling method, the distance and order of sampling is obtained by dividing the population size by the sample size. This means that each person is systematically selected from a non-ranked list based on regular intervals and in a specific order. A systematic sample is generally distributed more evenly throughout the population, resulting in more information (than simple random sampling with the same population size) about the population. Therefore, due to the characteristic of obtaining more information per unit cost, this method is very suitable for studies and surveys that work with budget constraints. Systematic sampling is often easier to implement in structure, execution, comparison, and understanding than simple randomization. Hence this sampling method is more popular among researchers. It is worth mentioning that the possibility of error by the questioner in this method is reduced.All interviewees were informed about data protection issues by the enumerators and gave their consent orally at the beginning of each interview. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All materials and methods are performed in accordance with the instructions and regulations and this research has been approved by a committee at Shiraz University, Iran. This research has been approved by an institutional review board at Shiraz University, Iran. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.This study is part of a larger project on the willingness to adopt green manure technology in Fars Province, Iran. Participants' responses to each of the measures and questions were used to address the questions and achieve the objectives of the present study. The measures used included some of the key variables of technology adoption pattern and innovation dissemination theory that were used to construct the theoretical framework of the research Fig. . Based o64, Bagheri et al.48, and Haji et al.59, moral norms of green manure items were adapted from Yazdanpanah et al.66 and Stern63, intention towards using green manure items were adapted self-developed, subjective norms towards application of green manure items were adapted from Savari et al.64 and Mancha and Yoder54, trialability of green manure items were adapted from Adnan et al.43 and Haji et al.59, and attitude towards green manure items were self-developed. It should be noted that all of these constructs were measured using a five-point Likert scale (strongly disagree: 1 strongly agree: 5). The measuring items of each of these constructs have been presented in Table To measure perceived behavioral control on using green manure, moral norms of green manure, intention towards using green manure, subjective norms towards application of green manure, trialability of green manure, and attitude towards green manure we used three, four, three, three, three, and six items, respectively, all of which were adapted from previous research studies on conservation behaviors. Perceived behavioral control on using green manure items were adapted from Savari et al.Internal consistency reliability of the measures was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficients and composite reliability (CR). The validity of the measures was assessed using convergent and divergent validity assessment methods. AVE and Fornell-Larker criteria were used to evaluate the convergent and divergent validity, respectively. The results of all indices are discussed in the research results section.67, PLS based SEM is an efficient method for implementing and interpreting integrated models. Third, this method and the software used for it are much more user-friendly than other methods and software. PLS based SEM consists of two estimation processes that include evaluation of the measurement model and structural model. In fact, the measurement model tries to determine the role of each indicator in explaining its corresponding latent measure. In the structural model, however, the indicators are not the basis for evaluation. In other words, the structural model involves examining the relationships between latent variables in a theoretical framework. In the structural model, the predictive ability of the hypothetical model is examined67.Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on Partial Least Square (PLS based SEM). There were several major justifications for using this method. First, one of the objectives of the study was to predict the intention of the farmers to use green manure. As a result, an attempt should be made to use a method to maximize the variance of explanation by latent internal variables. PLS based SEM was one of the best ways to meet such a goal. Second, according to Hair et al.68. The rule of thumb for proper reliability is that Cronbach's alpha and the CR of measures should be greater than 0.7. Based on the results of Table 70) who consider alpha values above 0.5 to be an acceptable value for internal consistency reliability. Convergent validity is an evaluation criterion that shows the degree of correlation of one indicator with other indicators of a theoretical construct68. For this purpose, the values of loading factors and AVE index are usually used. The values of the AVE index were presented in Table Internal consistency reliability tests the hypothesis that the indicators proposed to measure a variable have similar results68. As mentioned in the methodology section, in the present study, the Fornell–Larker criterion was used to assess divergent validity. According to the results reported in Table Discriminant or divergent validity indicates how different a theoretical construct is from other structures within a conceptual framework2) of endogenous variables of the structural model were used to judge the predictive power of the model. According to Hair et al.68, the values above 0.75 for R2 are considered appropriate values in a structural model. In the present study, the value of R2 for intention towards using green manure was 0.86, indicating that the model presented has a good predictive ability  and the geodesic distance (dG) were significant at the level of 0.05 error. This result demonstrate that the model estimation is done efficiently. The value of the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) index was 0.107, which indicates that the measurement error in the correlation matrix is acceptable. The root mean square error correlation (RMStheta) index is used to distinguish ill-specified models from well-specified models72. If the value of this index is greater than or equal to 0.12, it can be concluded that the model presented and tested is a well-specified model. In the present study, the value of this index was 0.270, which indicates an acceptable value.Examination of goodness indices Table  of the m73, Savari et al.64, Yazdanpanah et al.66, Alzaidi and Iyanna74, and Gholamrezai et al.75. This result shows that the use of tools and strategies to strengthen the moral norms can still be one of the solutions to the problem of reluctance or unwillingness of farmers to use green manure. In this regard, it is recommended that in the first step to encourage intention towards using green manure, the sense of moral responsibility of farmers to use green manure be strengthened. For this purpose, it is necessary to use different strategies. One of the most important strategies for developing moral norms regarding the use of green manure is to reward farmers who use this technology in their agricultural operations. The fact is that due to the lack of attention to the moral and responsible activities of farmers and the lack of encouragement of these behaviors, such feelings no longer appear in many of them. But it is possible to use encouragement to activate a sense of moral responsibility in them, and therefore help encourage the desire to use green manure technology. The second strategy that can be used to develop moral norms in farmers is self-education and self-judging. In this way, technology transfer officials and practitioners in agricultural communities must first try to teach farmers how to evaluate an agricultural activity morally. To this end, they can introduce criteria for the immorality of these activities. For example, if doing a particular agricultural activity endangers the health of other farmers, it can be considered immoral. In the next stage, farmers must work together collectively to define criteria and to judge and evaluate their agricultural activities. The results of testing the sixth hypothesis also emphasize the importance and necessity of using these strategies. Because, testing this hypothesis revealed that moral norms mediate the relationship between subjective norms in the use of green manure technology and intention. In other words, increasing or decreasing moral norms in the agricultural community can greatly increase or decrease the effect of subjective norms on intention towards using green manure.The results showed that moral norms of green manure had a positive and significant effect on intention towards using green manure and this variable was the strongest predictor of intention. In other words, the higher the moral norms of green manure among farmers, the more they will be inclined to use green manure in rice cultivation. This suggests that encouraging farmers to use green manure by evoking their moral and personal responsibilities can have a significant impact on improving their intention to use green manure technology. Similar results can be found among the results of researchers such as Zhang et al.57, Yarimoglu and Gunay50, Bagheri et al.48, and Aboelmaged58. Attitude towards green manure is important from several aspects, which makes it necessary to focus on it in research related to the use of green manure or other pro-environmental behaviors. First, attitude is closely related to other psychological variables such as values, beliefs, norms, etc. in individuals’ memory. In this regard, creating a favorable attitude towards a pro-environmental technology such as green manure can help strengthen other psychological factors predicting intentions and behaviors. Second, a favorable attitude towards a technology is generally associated with a process of acquiring deep knowledge in the field of that technology, which can challenge competing attitudes such as a favorable attitude towards chemical fertilizers. This issue is important in the sense that in many agricultural societies, the use of green manures is not yet widespread. Therefore, strengthening the attitude towards green manures can help to increase the intention to use green manures by using knowledge development. Third, people with similar attitudes usually have more influence on each other. Therefore, improving the attitude towards green manure in a spectrum of agricultural society can lead to wider social changes in this field through the process of interpersonal interaction. Attitude has always been a key variable in encouraging pro-environmental intentions and behaviors. The present study also confirmed this evidence. In this regard, the policy-makers, managers, and decision-makers of technology development and transfer programs are recommended to create a favorable attitude towards the technologies in the target community before implementing technology transfer programs. Different methods and solutions can be used to create a favorable attitude towards a technology (such as green manure). Informing farmers about the short-term and long-term economic and environmental benefits of using green manure is one of the main strategies that can play a key role in creating a favorable attitude towards it. Awareness of the negative consequences of not using green manure is the second strategy that can be applied to change attitudes. In other words, in this strategy, farmers have a favorable attitude towards green manure by being aware of the harms and rebound effects of using chemical fertilizers. Attitude changes created using these strategies can ultimately lead to an increase in intention towards using green manure.The results showed that attitude towards green manure is the second most powerful construct affecting intention towards using green manure. In other words, intention towards using green manure can be improved by forming a favorable attitude towards the use of green manure technology. This result is in line with the results of Hua and Wang43, Kumar47, and Yarimoglu and Gunay50. Perceived behavioral control generally refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of using a particular technology, such as green manure. The more difficult it is for farmers to use green manure, the less inclined they will be to use it. However, if they find it easy to use, they will be more inclined to use it. Based on this, it can be argued that perceived behavioral control on using green manure should be improved among farmers to encourage intention. It is suggested that internal and external stimuli be used to enhance perceived behavioral control on using green manure. Internal stimuli originate within the farmers themselves and are a kind of reward they give themselves. Self-caring, flexibility, and avoidance of self-comparison are among the internal stimuli that can help strengthen perceived behavioral control on using green manure. Self-care in the application of green manure technology, even if a farmer does not perform well compared to other farmers, can help him/her feel highly self-productive. Avoiding comparing yourself to farmers is also similar to self-caring strategy in terms of performance. Because in this strategy, farmers realize that everyone has a special capacity and ability to use different technologies such as green manure. Therefore, in many cases it is wrong to compare their performance with other farmers. Farmer flexibility more than self-caring and avoiding comparing him/herself with others can be effective in increasing their level of personality resistance and increase the ability to face any challenges or adversity in the field of using green manure technology. The fact is that criticism stays in people's minds longer than admiration, and sometimes becomes important emotional events that are not easy to forget. Imagine that every time farmers face negative criticism, they lose all confidence in a short period of time. Thus, trying to increase realistic performance and accepting that not all criticisms are necessarily correct can be effective in forming a flexible personality in farmers who tend to use green manure. Planners, decision-makers, and practitioners of behavioral change programs for green manure adoption can use these strategies to achieve goals quickly. Of course, it should be mentioned that more successful implementation of these strategies requires the use of external incentives such as government support and financial facilities.Among the variables that directly affected intention towards using green manure, perceived behavioral control on using green manure is the third strongest predictor. Based on the results of SEM, this variable had a positive and significant effect on intention towards using green manure. This result is in line with the results of Adnan et al.48 and Haji et al.59. Trialability helps increase farmers' confidence in the positive results of using green manure. As a result, in the midterm, it can lead to the development of the adoption of this technology. In this regard, it is necessary for technology disseminators to prove the trialability of green manure technology to farmers by creating demonstration farms at the micro level. In addition, it is suggested that researchers conduct field experiments on the effect of using green manures on rice yield. Of course, it should be mentioned that focusing research on experiments in this field requires the support of policy-makers and decision-makers. Because, if the development of sustainable methods of rice production is not included in the policies, it cannot be expected that organized and applied research can be done in this field. Addressing these recommendations allows farmers to use technology on their own farms at the micro level at the second stage. As a result, in a short period of time, they become confident enough about the results of using green manure and use it extensively on their farms.According to the results, trialability of green manure was the fourth variable that had a direct positive and significant effect on intention towards using green manure. This result shows that with increasing trialability of green manure technology, farmers are more willing to use it. This result has been supported by Bagheri et al.64). However, in this study, an attempt was made to investigate the mediating role of trialability and moral norms in the relationship between subjective norms and the intention to use green manure. Due to the significant positive and indirect effect of subjective norms on intention towards using green manure, it is recommended that the implementers of behavioral change programs use control interactions as an effective tool to facilitate and encourage the intention to use green manure. To this end, efforts should be made to identify individuals who have intellectual and ideological influence in the agricultural community. Then these influential people will be convinced that using green manure technology can have many benefits for the agricultural community. By using green manure by leaders, other farmers, who generally follow thought leaders in action, will be more inclined to use it. Because, if they do not use green manure, they will feel that their thought leaders do not approve their work. This social pressure, which acts as a behavioral controller, has two key effects that indirectly improve the intention to use green manure. First, the use of green manure by thought leaders demonstrates the trialability of technology for farmers. Second, the actions of thought leaders in the Iranian agricultural community are generally the basis for moral judgment. In other words, if thought leaders use or approve of green manure, it means that they also consider the use of this technology to be a moral act. Thus, subjective norms as a social controller indirectly  affect intention.The results of bootstrap analysis showed that farmers' subjective norms in the field of green manure application have an indirect, positive, and significant effect on intention towards using green manure. The direct effect of subjective norms on intention has been confirmed in many research studies (seeIn balance, the present study resulted in five key conclusions that can be used by planners, decision-makers, and field practitioners of agricultural technology dissemination to encourage the intention to use green manure. First, moral norms of green manure, attitude towards green manure, perceived behavioral control on using green manure, and trialability of green manure are four key variables that have direct, positive, and significant effects on intention towards using green manure. Second, moral norms mediate the effect of subjective norms on intention. Third, trialability also mediates the effect of subjective norms on intention towards using green manure. The second and third conclusions were one of the most important original contributions of the present study that had not been examined in previous studies. Fourth, the PLS-based SEM results demonstrated that the combination of TAM and IDT in the form of an integrated model is a reliable and valid model to encourage the intention to use green manure even among farmers outside the scope of this study. From a practical point of view, these four conclusions can play a decisive role in facilitating and encouraging behavioral change and the intention to use green manure in agricultural communities.There were five main limitations in the present study, the description of which can both clarify the process of the present study and pave the way for further research in this field. First, in the present study, the self-reporting system was used to collect information on the intention to use green manure and its determinants. However, future researchers can use reference data to test the accuracy of these results. Although this reference data is not available in some countries, such as Iran, it may be present in some developed countries that are seriously analyzing their ecological footprints. Second, this study was conducted only in Iran. Although sampling has been done scientifically and the results of the data-model fit also indicate the reliability of the model, but the repetition of this research using cross-validation in other countries can strengthen the stability of the results and model in different spatial and temporal scopes. Therefore, the generalizability of research results increases. Third, the conceptual framework of the present study is derived from a combination of TPB and IDT. However, in these two frameworks, a limited number of variables are considered as predictors of the intention to use green manure. Therefore, we claim that the framework presented in this research is open for further development and future researchers can extend this framework by adding other socio-economic variables. For example, circular premium is one of the most important factors that might activate the intention of farmers to use green manure. Circular premium emphasizes the importance of the fact that the variables related to the demand chain can also have a significant effect on strengthening the intention of producers to use green manure. Fourth, in this study, the target population was rice farmers. Future researchers could go a step further and explore the intention to use green manure among other farmers. Fifth, the data in this paper were collected during the Covid-19 epidemic. The data collection team and the respondents had to use masks throughout the data collection process and observe social distance. This may have influenced the responses of some respondents.Supplementary Information 1.Supplementary Information 2.