Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Rainfed Wheat Cultivation Operations in Saqqez County

The need for assessing the relationship between productivity and sustainability is being become more and more visible due to the key role of productivity improvement in development process. Conservation of production resources and paying attention to sustainable agriculture operations are the next important issues.

To achieve the objective of this research, Kendrick Productivity Index and Senanayake approach were used for measuring the productivity and evaluating the sustainability of wheat cultivation operations, respectively. Finally, factors affecting on the agricultural sustainability were identified using a regression model. Furthermore, the required data and information were collected with filling the 271 questionnaire forms farmers Saqqez County during 2020-2021. .

The results revealed that the mean productivity of wheat production factors for the study area is 14.88. Also, application of Senanayake approach showed that the farmers were classified as: I) very unstable (1.84%); ii) unstable (15.13%), iii) moderately stable (65.31), iv) stable (16.24%), and v) very stable (1.48%). Further assessments using estimation by a regression model demonstrated that some variables e.g., level of education, cooperative memberships, the method of production, type of supplied seeds and total productivity have significant effect on sustainability of agricultural operations.

There is a positive relationship between total productivity factors and the index of agricultural operations sustainability. Thus, a set of action plans which will increase the productivity (including efficiency improvement and changes in scale as well as technology) due to economic efficiency, amplifies the motivation of wheat farmers to follow the principles of sustainable agriculture.