Spatial Ranking and Leveling of Rural Areas of the Southern Kerman, Based on Conservative Agriculture Dimensions

Today, success in water and soil management and conservation programs to reduce soil erosion is one of the top priorities of all countries, including Iran and one of the prominent examples in this area is the use of conservation agriculture with the aim of achieving sustainable development and production and sustainable management of water and soil resources. The purpose of this study, was to spatial ranking and Leveling of selected wheat cultivation villages in southern Kerman based on conservation agriculture Approach. The research method was a descriptive-analytical study which was conducted using survey method. The statistical population consisted of wheat farmers in rural areas of southern Kerman. The sample size was estimated about 327 farmers using the Krejcie and Morgan table. The sampling method was proportional stratified random sampling method. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results of ranking the villages using VIKOR technique showed that HeydarAbad Chahsokhteh and Abass abad Tarh Ahrar with the coefficient scores of 0.004 and 0.018 ranked first and second, respectively, Furthermore, “Ferdoos” ranked the last by obtaining the coefficient scores of 0.994. Moreover, the results of spatial classification showed the existence of disparity and inequality between the studied villages at different levels. The results also revealed that 52.8% of rural areas were in the category of "favorable and desirable", 36.1% were in the category of "half-eaten", and 11.1% were in "deprived or undesirable" category. Eventually, due to the fact that 52.8% of rural areas were in the category of "favorable and desirable", it can be concluded that the studied rural areas were in a favorable position in terms of conservation agriculture.