investigating the role of solar energy in protection and revitalization of pastures in dry region

pastures play an important role in protecting environment and ecosystems. unfortunately more than 40 percent of pasturess in the world have been destroyed and 20 percent of destroyed pastures are located in developing countries. application of solar energy could significantly contribute to preserving the pastures. the main purpose of this study was to examine the role of solar energy in protecting pastures and extension of this energy in the south khorasan province. the total population of the study consisted of 340 person in rural areas which used the solar energy. a well designed- questionnaire, was used to collect the data through interview and observation. questionnaire validity confirmed by content validity method with a panel of expert's and its reliability confirmed by implication of pilot test and calculation of cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.75). all 340 users of solar energy in nazdasht rural of south khorasan province were taken to account as the statistical population of the study. data have processed through spsswin13 software. the results of regression analysis show that 31 percent of variance in the dependent variable (application of solar energy) could be explained by knowledge about importance of pastures, interested in using solar energy and using lecture methods to inform people about solar energy.