The effects of nutritional management knowledge of farmers on economic yield of pistachio orchards in Kerman province

Two problems of increasing costs and environment effects have enhanced the important of nutrition temporal management and its effects on productivity. In typical agricultural activities, inputs such as chemical fertilizers, plant pesticides and water are used uniformly and without regard to their actual needs in farms and orchards. However, given the high emphasis on the quality and efficiency of food production, it is necessary to use inputs based on actual needs in terms of time and place.

In this study, at first, the scientific points of view were determined related to deficiency and toxicity symptums and time management of nutrition. Then, growers' attitude and behavior regarding temporal management of this input was evaluated. Comparing growers' knowledge with experts' idea, the pistachio producers' number related to temporal management of nutrition and was calculated. Using questionnaire method, data was collected. Pistachio producers of Anar and Rafsanjan cities in Kerman province were study population. Using stratified random sampling method, a sample of 100 farmers was selected. As, more than one orchard were considered for each grower, final sample size was 286. Also, for measuring the effects of socio economic factors on growers' knowledge and also the effects of growers' knowledge on pistachio yield, Pearson correlation, variance analysis and regression methods were used.

The results showed that average of farmers' knowledge regards to temporal management of nutrition and recognizing the symptums of deficiency and toxicity nutrients is low and is very different among pistachio producers. Among the three indicators of deficiency and toxicity of elements, the time of elements application during the year and based on the plant growth stage, farmer's knowledge about the application time of the elements during the year was the best and about plant growth index was the worst condition. Also, among the elements studied, nitrogen is the best, followed by phosphorus and potassium.The results, also, showed that research and extension activities have had the significant effect on increasing knowledge of input temporal management. Also, knowledge of nutrition temporal management has increased land productivity. In this regard, one number increasing in farmers' knowledge will enhance pistachio yields, 21.32 kilogram per hectare. In other words, a person who receives 20, his yield is 426 kilogram per hectare more than a person who receive zero.

The knowledge of farmers and the impact of this knowledge on productivity of fertilizer use can be increased with the quantitative and qualitative increase in education and extension, raising the quality level of human resources employed in agriculture, improving water and soil conservation guidelines and reforming the rules for paying subsidies.