Study on bio-economic aspects of reddish blackberry (Ribes biberistentii Berl. & DC) in ‎Ilgene ‎chay watershed of the Arasbaran forests

The main objective of this research is to study the production of Ribes biberistentii (reddish blackberry) and its role in rural household`s economies of the Arasbaran region. This research was carried out using library references and field surveys in the summer of 2018 in the Arasbaran forests. A questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-economic from 32 harvesters of Kalasur village in Ilgeneh chay watershed of Arasbaran. The collected data were about fruit price, type and method of processing, amount of harvest and consumption of raw and processed fruit, sales and marketing, and medicinal uses. Pearson correlation analysis was performed between different tree characteristics and fruit production. The results showed that the weight of 1000 fruit of reddish blackberry was 240 grams. Fruit production of this species had the highest and positive correlation with the average crown diameter (0.767) at 0.01 significant level. The results showed that its fruit had medicinal uses to treat high blood pressure by local peoples. Concerning the price of raw fruit and the amount of harvest, the economic value of fruit harvested for the entire households was 192 million rials at 2017. The average annual economic value of harvesting and selling of reddish blackberry for each household was about 6078 thousand rials.