a. dourandish

Groundwater is a vital resource for agriculture in arid regions which its over-extraction has led to significant challenges of declining water levels and increased scarcity. This study addresses the urgent need for sustainable groundwater management by employing an inclusive group decision-making approach involving diverse stakeholders, with a focus on farmers. Overlooking the participation of farmers in the decision-making approach led to ineffective policies. Utilizing Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods, specifically the fuzzy Shannon entropy and Fuzzy TOPSIS techniques, the research prioritizes strategies for reducing groundwater consumption in the Safi-Abad region of North Khorasan, Iran. Qualitative data from stakeholder interviews provided insights into the challenges and opportunities related to groundwater use, revealing two primary strategies: (i) transitioning to low water-demand crops; and (ii) adopting modern irrigation systems. These approaches not only promise significant reductions in water usage but also support sustainable agricultural practices. The findings highlighted the importance of stakeholder collaboration in implementing effective water management policies, ensuring responsible resource use, and securing long-term viability. This study served as a model for future research, advocating for mixed methods integrating qualitative and quantitative analyses to inform policy recommendations and improve water resource management.

Exporting agricultural products is considered as one of the strategies for developing non-oil exports and achieving sustainable economic growth in developing countries. Saffron, as an export commodity, holds particular significance in Iran's non-oil exports. Given Iran's position among the top four saffron-exporting countries globally, this study aims to prioritize Iran's saffron target markets based on market competition indices and calculate its relative advantage and export stability index in the world market and Iran's export target countries. Comparison of the global market structure of the product during 2003 to 2022 revealed that despite the significant shares of Iran, Spain, England, and Nigeria in most years, the market structure has been characterized by a multi-sided monopoly, open and closed, and in some years dominated by oligopoly, indicating an increase in the number of competitors and the competitiveness of the export market for this product. Iran, with an average share of 13.6% in the saffron export market and producing over 80% of saffron, does not have a direct share in global exports, and most of Iran's saffron is exported to countries such as the UAE, Spain, China, and Oman, and then re-exported to other countries, for which strategies such as market expansion and branding need to be prioritized. The results showed that in 2022, four countries, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Spain, accounted for 93% of the total world exports, and Iran ranked second in terms of export volume in the saffron export market during the study period. Also, Iran had an export stability index of less than one (0.96) but the trend of this index indicates a decrease in Iran's stability. The results showed that the majority of Iran's saffron exports are concentrated in only four countries, with the composition of these countries varying over time. To enhance market stability and growth, it is crucial to expand the target export markets. Prioritization should be given to China, UAE, Spain, India, USA, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Kuwait, with average priority ranks of 4.15, 6.85, 7.7, 7.95, 8.9, 12.3, 14.35, 15.25, 15.5, and 16.45 respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that the export market for saffron is oligopolistic. Therefore, it is essential for all exporting countries to collaborate in determining the price and market share for each country. This collaborative approach can help in stabilizing the market, ensuring fair pricing, and promoting sustainable growth in the saffron industry.

The emerging world of work requires the acquisition of a set of non-technical competencies with technical competencies in a career for sustainable employment. This paper aims at designing and validating a model for integrating the ethical components with technical competencies in curriculum based on competency in industrial mechanics’ branch.

The research approach is based on the concept and nature of the research, "mixed or combined," and its purpose is applied. The Statistical Society in the design section of the pattern was composed of curriculum experts, professional ethics experts, and teachers and experts in the occupation, and the sample was chosen purposefully and in the accreditation department, The statistical sample of 28 curriculum experts, were randomly selected. The data in the design section be used documents analysis and Delphi methods, and in the validation section, data from the questionnaire were analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage and compaction percentage.

A three-dimensional model was developed to integrate the components of professional ethics into in curriculum based on competency in industrial mechanics. From the experts' point of view, the proposed model was consistent and valid with the components related to the integration of professional ethics components in the curriculum based on competency in the industrial mechanics’ branch.

The process of integrating technical competencies with the components of professional ethics at all levels of the curriculum based on competency in industrial mechanics branch was obtained. The results of this research can be used in the design of curriculum based on competency in industrial mechanics branch and other technical and professional disciplines

International trade theories have highlighted the importance of specialization of countries to benefit from the global trade network. In addition to foreign currency earnings, the development agricultural exports can play an important role in ensuring food security and improving the level of resilience of agricultural sector in Iran. One of the approaches to analyze export development process is to study export possibilities from the perspective of comparative export advantage and specializing in the framework of advantage dynamics. So the present study seeks to explore the following research question: has the exports of selected Iranian agricultural products (pistachio, saffron, dates, raisin, apple, cucumber and kiwi) has moved towards specialization in the global market? To achieve this goal, we assess the specialization pattern of Iran over the period 2001 to 2017. Findings reveal that all the selected products had a comparative export advantage during the selected period, but none of them has moved towards specialization. In other words, despite having the export comparative advantage, Iran has not have long-term plans to promote exports of selected products in the global market. The analysis in the form of panel data during the two periods of 2001-2009 and 2010-2017 also indicates that the export of selected products do not support dynamism and specialization over time. Regarding the export capacities of Iran's agricultural sector, it is recommended to enter into long-term contracts in the target markets in order to increase the export share of selected products through adaptation and implementation of continuous production and export policies.

Due to the importantance of sugar in daily consumption of Iranian households, governments annually store sugar as a strategic reserve. Therefore, managing and timing adjustment for the inventory of this product is essential in its ability to compete in markets, modifying the temporal and spatial distribution of products and inputs in economic subdivisions. In recent years, at national scale there was extra sugar in warehouses and a few cases of shortages in stock were exception. Higher sugar production along with lower sale, will increase the costs, so the aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting sugar surplus and its export in Iran data time searies 1991-2017. In this study our results showed that sugar beet and sugar price as product price did not play a decisive role in stock surplus. Therefore, the stock surplus can neither be the result of price policies nor it be resolved through price policies. It seems that the government should adopt other policies, such as adjusting the timing of import decisions, resolving conflicts between government objectives, and providing strategic reserves from domestic products and gradual elimination of imports, support factories for improving and upgrading equipment, and help sugar beet producers to achieve cheaper product rather than using price policies related to sugar and sugar beet prices.

Lack of access to adequate energy and the prevalence of undernourishment are of the most important issues in the developing world due to their impacts on public health and individual’s physical and mental abilities in society. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the impacts of drought, food production diversity and different household characteristics on the prevalence of undernourishment in rural areas of Iran. For this purpose, panel quantile regression was considered as the best technique to estimate the impacts of social and economic indicators on the prevalence of undernourishment during the period of 2012-2016. The main results indicated that among the household characteristics, increase in household income, share of food in household expenditure and age of household head and among the environmental indicators, increase in food production diversity would prevent the prevalence of undernourishment in studied rural households; on the other hand, increase in household size, education expenditure, drought severity, and food price indexes would increase the prevalence of undernourishment. Based on these results, non-agricultural income tax exemptions in the rural areas and redistribution of current subsidies by focusing on highly malnourished areas as well as focusing on large rural households, providing policies that reduce the impacts of drought on food production and ultimately, promoting the strategies that allow for increased diversification of food production at the household level could be suggested to prevent further malnutrition in the rural areas.

Given the importance of pursuing a policy of free-market prices in bread and flour markets within Iran’s subsidies reform, this study aimed at recognizing and prioritizing the most important factors affecting the bread and flour prices under such an assumed situation using AHP and FAHP methods and comparing the results. The required data were gathered in 2013 through questionnaires and interviews with seven experts who had been active in government offices as well as the bread and flour producers. Unlike the FAHP results, the AHP results were proven to be valid. Furthermore, the AHP results indicated that the most important contributing factors of flour prices would be domestic wheat prices, international wheat prices plus export volume, respectively; in addition, bread prices would be influenced firstly by flour prices and then by wages and fuel costs, respectively. Therefore, since following the implementation of free-market price policy in bread and flour markets, the bread prices might be significantly influenced by the wheat ‎prices, it would be inevitable to build up a stable wheat market through a market regulation mechanism and to make a careful reconsideration ‎of wheat guaranteed prices in this respect. ‎

Price transmission in different levels of market has some effects on producers and dealers’ income and welfare and consumers’ expenditure and welfare. For this reason, analysis of agricultural commodities prices is important both in economical and political aspects. Existence of asymmetrical price transmission will incur increasing in marketing margin and will have profit for marketing factors, also will decrease producers and consumers’ surplus. For the reason that beef provide society nutrition and there are too many producers in this sector, this article conducted with the aim of considering to kind of price transmission in Iranian Beef Industry. In this study, using monthly data for farm, slaughter-house and retail prices for beef during 1998-2005 and error correction model, price transmission model is estimated. Results show that price transmission in all beef marketing level in long run is symmetry and in short run from farm to slaughter-house and from farm to retail level is asymmetry. Elasticity of price transmission show that increase in farm price transmit to retail level with stronger effects. For asymmetry reason in beef market price transmission, consumers pay most expensive price from final price, and marketing factors will get profit for price fluctuation.