Identification of Promoters and Deterrents Factors of Agricultural Land Consolidation Plan (A Case Study: Wheat Growers of Shoush County, Iran)

The implementation of land consolidation plan with the aim of integrating the dispersed parcels of smallholder farmers and minimizing their number has a long history, but the adoption of the implementation of this plan by the farmers community is affected by various factors that must be addressed in the implementation of the LC plan to be placed. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors affecting the adoption of LC plan in order to provide suitable solutions for the implementation of this plan. The statistical population of this research was wheat growers of Shoosh county of Khuzestan province (N=2000). The sample size was estimated 322 people by using Krejsi-Morgan table. They were selected by simple random sampling among farmers in rural areas of Shoush. The research instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was reviewed and corrected by using a group of academic researchers and experts in the area of land management. The logit model was used to estimate the effect of different variables on the adoption of the LC plan. The results of this study showed that income variables such as the ownership of agricultural machinery, non-agricultural occupation, distance between parcels, educational level, participation in extension classes and having knowledge about the benefits of the LC plan have a positive and significant effect on the adoption of LC plan. Variables such as farmers' experience, number of components, the amount of loans received and the number of household members have a negative effect on adopting LC plan. The results of the ADOPT model showed that 9.3 years are needed to consolidate the Shooshtar county by 98 percent of the farmers. In the first five years of the plan, 66.2 percent of the farmers will accept the plan in Shushtar. It should be noted that we need four years to make 50% of the farmers adopt LC plan.