Investigation on the Effects of Grasshoppers Attack on the Rangeland Degradation from the Viewpoint of Agro-pastoralists in the North of Golestan Province

Agro-pastoral system is a common Livelihood system in arid and semi-arid areas and pest and insects’ attack can have a great effect on efficiency reduction of this system. Grasshoppers are known as a herbivore insects in all over the world. The present study was performed in two areas of Maraveh - Tappeh and Ghareh - Dong in the north of Golestan province, due to the frequent attacks of grasshoppers. In this order, a questionnaire was prepared using data gathered from interviews with the local exploiters and Natural Resources Experts that completed by exploiters in two studied areas. The results were analyzed by SPSS version 21 using a variety of descriptive statistics, Non-parametric binomial tests and Mann-Whitney test. The analysis results showed that grasshopper attacks is considered a threat for agro-pastoral systems and rangelands through 66.7 percent of Maraveh-tappeh and 91.3 percent of Ghareh-Dong agro-pastoralist’s point of view and grasshoppers’ attack have decreased annual production of rangelands’ foliage since 1952 that 55.6 and 87.0 percent of exploiters identified this influence high respectively. The results revealed that spraying method has been effective in controlling of grasshoppers, but its application afoul to some Problems in terms of location and time. In order to increase the efficiency of spraying, it must be done outside the borders of Iran, in Turkmenistan, and in the nymphal period of grasshoppers.