Comparison of Indicators of Technical and Economic Water Use Efficiency in Saffron and Wheat Production Systems in the Qaenat Region

The main objective of this research was to determine indicators of technical and economic water use efficiency in the cultivation of saffron and wheat in the Qaenat region located in the South Khorasan province in Iran), where 50 wheat farms and 48 saffron farms were investigated during 2011 and 2012. For this purpose, the necessary information about farmer’s age and education, crop yield, the area under wheat and saffron cultivation, type of irrigation source, water flow rate and the number and duration of irrigation were collected by using a questionnaire. The results showed that the calculated indicator of water use efficiency was 0.84 and 0.34 kg.m-3 for wheat total biomass and grain and 0.36 and 0.002 kg.m-3 for saffron total biomass and stigma, respectively. Economic water use efficiency was estimated to be 23706.43 and 1836.89 Rials per cubic meter of water use in saffron and wheat production systems, respectively. There was a significant difference between the different ages of saffron farms for economic water use efficiency and the maximum value of this indicator was related to five-year old farms. Education of the farmers and the area under cultivation were identified as factors influencing the studied measures for wheat. Also, the results showed that there is a significant negative correlation between economic water use efficiency and soil salinity.