Application of Multifunctional Ecological Footprint in Sustainability Analysis of Saffron Production in Southern Khorasan

The ecological footprint (EF) is a strong indicator of sustainability analysis that is used today in scientific communities. The footprint index determines the space required to support an activity by the average area needed to provide resources and absorb waste in term of global hectare (ghaGha). In this study, due to the significant increase in saffron production in recent years, the sustainability of saffron production in southern Khorasan province as one of the most important saffron production centers in the country was investigated. The data for this research was collected through questionnaires and interviews with the 396 farmers in 2017. According to the different yield and consumption of inputs in different years, sustainability investigation was carried out for the first to sixth years. For this purpose, the amount of bioproductve land directly required for the production of the saffron was considered as an indicator of the direct ecological footprint and the amount of bioproductve land needed to absorb the waste generated by the production process as indirect ecological footprint. The results of this study showed that the average indirect EF of saffron was 2.02 global hectare (ghaGha), which 0.07 was related to on farm and 0.13 gha Gha was related to off farm emission. The highest EF was allocated to the first year of production. The multi-functional ecological footprint showed that the EF land was 0.01 gha, EF revenue 0.63 gha Gha and EF yield was 0.003 ghaGha. Comparing the results of this study with the results of other agricultural sector studies conducted in Iran and elsewhere in the world showed thatGeneraly it seems that saffron production is relatively sustainable farming compared to other agricultural productscrops.