Biodiversity Evaluation in Agricultural Crops of Desert Regions of the South Khorasan Province

Data on the different types of crops and cultivated areas were extracted from 11 cities of South Khorasan province in the growing season of 2019-2020 to evaluate the biodiversity of agricultural crops in this province. Subsequently, this information was divided into various groups to calculate biodiversity indices. Crop categorization was based on the consumption type (cereals, beans, industrial crops, vegetables, grapevine, forage crops, and medicinal plants) and plant family. The finding indicate that 35 crop species are grown in this province. The largest area cultivated is cereals at 65.01%, the second for forage crops at 11.1%, and the third of medicinal plants at 10.8%. According to the results, the production systems of the agricultural ecosystems of South Khorasan do not show a rich diversity. The diversity index was very low among all agricultural groups and plant families. Of the groups studied, cereals, medicinal plants and fodder crops were more diversified than others. The groups of plants with the greatest variety were Poaceae and Iridaceae. Qaen and Boshruyeh cities had a more desirable diversity than the other cities resulting in the richness of the species and a higher homogeneity and Shannon index. However, the diversity indices were low in cities of Ferdows, Sarbisheh, Darmian, and Khoosf. Since the preservation and development of biodiversity is one of the key components to achieve stability in agriculture, attention to the biodiversity of agricultural crops seems to be crucial in South Khorasan province, especially in low-diversity cities.