Study of sustainability status in vineyards of takestan county by using Framework for Evaluation Sustainable Land Management (FESLM)

The aim of present study was to assess sustainability and to understand factors that may influence this characteristic by using framework for evaluation sustainable land management (FESLM) in vineyards of Qazvin Province, Iran. Data required to the research were collected by questionnaire and face to face interview with grape orchardists. The statistical population of the research was grape orchardists in Takestan county of Qazvin province from whom 220 orchardist were chosen by stratified random sampling with proportional allocation method. Results showed that for the productivity aspect low performance of irrigation, inappropriate congestion of grape bushes and excessive use of external inputs have led to a unsustainable situation. For the security scale, the high insurance coverage of farmers has provided a relatively sustainable situation. For the viability, due to variation in product sales, market demand existence, diversification of income sources and increasing trend in price of grape and its byproducts, the situation is relatively sustainable. For the protection scale, due to low technical knowledge of the grape orchardists, excessive use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides and increased water loss, there is an unsustainable situation. For the acceptability aspect, access to appropriate facilities and services and interest to gardening activity in grape orchardists has led to a relatively sustainable situation. In general, to improve productivity and to protect the grape production ecosystems, use of drip irrigation systems, trelliswork of orchards and training farmers with integrated management techniques for controlling pests, diseases and weeds in the farmer field school, was proposed.