Assessment of Various Agronomic and Social Factors Impacts on the Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): A Case Study, Kermanshah Province, Sanjabi Rural District

Yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) as the most important bean crops of Iran affected by various factors, including tillage for soil preparationsowing date, sowing method, sowing density, the type of crop varieties, crop rotation, management of pests, diseases and weeds, harvesting date, as well as social factors such as experience, education level of farmers and agricultural facilities. In order to assess the impact of common various factors on chickpea yield production, the study was conducted as field survey in Sanjabi rural district, Kermanshah, Iran. In this study, we tried to consider the most important agronomic and social factors affecting yield production of pea in the study area. An experimental survey was conducted in three villages located in Sanjabi Rural district in the Kermanshah province in 2015 with a sampling of 85 chickpea fields. Data collection was done by two ways including completing the questionnaire by farmers and direct sampling of the farm. Information extracted from the questionnaire covers tillage, sowing date, sowing method, seed rate, seed varieties, crop rotation, weed management, harvesting date, and also social factor including experience, education level and the area of land owned by farmers, and village type. Sampling of farms was done randomly in six points of each farm using quadrate size 1m*1m and yield of chickpea were recorded. The results showed that applying twice tillage before planting, using mechanized sowing techniques, weed management and selection of appropriate planting and harvesting date significantly increased the yield of chickpea in the study area. Accordingly, twice plowing in winter and before sowing in comparison with once plowing before sowing, with the average yield of 277.2 and 227.7 kg.ha-1, respectively , sowing in March in comparison with April, the average yield of 285.2 and 244.3 kg.ha-1, respectively , mechanized sowing  in comparison with hand spreading sowing, with the average yield of 287.2 and 245.2 kg.ha-1, respectively, seed rate of 45 in comparison with 35 kg.ha-1 for sowing, with the average yield of 277.6 and 235.5 kg.ha-1, respectively, mechanical weed control in comparison with without weed control with the average yield of 298.8 and 248.7 kg.ha-1, respectively, and harvesting date in late June (297.3 kg.ha-1) in comparison with harvesting date in mid-June and mid-July (275.5 and 258.5 kg.ha-1 , respectively) had significant differences in average grain yield of chickpea. In addition, two social factors of experience of farmers and education level are important factors in increasing crop yield. So, enhancing the experience of farmers resulted in high chickpea yield. Thus, that the highest and lowest chickpea yield was observed in the farms belonging to farmers over the age of 60 years and farmers aged 20 to 30 years, respectively. Farmers with high and low educational level harvested more grain yield of chickpea compared to the farmers with mean educational level as well. . It seems that lack of farmers with average education level to agricultural activities is the reason of it. Moreover, the results showed that the village residence status had significant effects on chickpea yield. Residence in village with increasing the probability of the farmer's attention, led to an increase in the chickpea yield. This data would be helpful in understanding the effective agronomic activities and the farmer’s attributes on chickpea yield in the studied area. Evaluation the crop production using real information of the fields could lead to increase the awareness of managers and thus taking proper decisions.