فصلنامه تحقیقات اقتصاد و توسعه کشاورزی ایران
سال پنجاه و یکم شماره 4 (زمستان 1399)

Public health has always been one of the main concerns of policy makers in different countries, while the speed of economic growth that has led to an increase in emissions of polluting the environment has added to this issue. OPEC member countries are turning to the expansion of the industry based on their oil revenues, which has added to the problems caused by degradation of environmental quality and the level of public health. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between economic growth, environmental quality and general health in OPEC member countries, which is estimated using panel models for the years 2016-2000. The results of estimating economic growth models, environmental quality and public health among OPEC members showed that increased economic growth does not improve the environment and there are no conditions for accepting the Kuznets environmental hypothesis. Increasing and improving the accumulation of per capita capital, urbanization rates, public health and education will increase economic growth. In the health sector, promoting health education and increasing the share of per capita health expenditure and reducing CO 2 emissions will improve public health. Therefore, it is recommended that the national development models of the member states contribute to the sustainability of oil revenues in all sectors of the economy.

Trade agreements play an important role in reducing trade barriers and increasing trade flows among countries. Empirical researches indicate that the presence in trade agreements is not guarantee for increasing exports in all countries and products. Therefore, considering the importance of fishery exports in recent years and lack of study in this area, the aim of this paper is investigating the effect of Iran’s membership in trade agreements on fishery exports. To achieve the purpose, the gravity model and information of Iran’s fishery exports to 25 Asian countries with 88% share is used during the period of 2001-2016. Based on the results, Iran’s membership in the trade agreements has had a positive and significant effect on Iran’s fishery exports to trading partners. The results of the interaction between trade agreements and trade barriers showed that trade agreements reduced the effect of trade barriers such as geographical distance. So, it is suggested that exporters take advantage of the capacity created through the presence of trade agreements to identify new markets and develop appropriate long-term marketing programs to export to these markets.

In this study, the rice energy efficiency in Golestan was investigated using interval fuzzy (triangular) data envelopment analysis model at different alpha levels in the year 2016-2017. The data required were collected using interviews and completing questionnaire from 286 rice farmers in Golestan province who were selected using simple random sampling. The results showed that at the level of α= 0.25 could be reduce the amount of input energy to 37.99% in upper bound and 1.83 in lower bound without any effect on the output energy (yield). Also, the results showed that at the level α =1 (certainty conditions) two inputs, irrigation water and chemical fertilizer with 33% and 31.2% respectively, and among the types of input energies, non-renewable energies (energy of machinery, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fossil fuels) with 60% (24117.7 MJ / ha) had the largest share in the production of this product. The use of new technologies in the use of water input such as installing smart meters on various pumps, reducing the consumption of chemical fertilizer by promoting the use of organic fertilizers and proper training in the use of inorganic fertilizers helps a lot to reduce energy consumption in these high-consumption inputs.

Due to diverse ecosystems in Iran, the country has been one of important centers of supplying herbal plants. Hence, the context of herbal plants can act as a valuable resource for increasing non-oil revenue. Current research has investigated how to design a herbal plant’s supply chain network in view points of business and customers. Therefore supply chain of herbal plants of India, Africa, United States, and Iran has been studied. Iran’s Foeniculum vulare Mill herbal plant has a remarkable share in trade market. Razan city in Hamadan province is one of the major planting centers of it. In this article, modeling of supply chain network considers 4 levels which are purchasing material, processing, distribution and customer. Modeling is done by bi- objective MILP to increase two objectives of profit and quality. Research method is quantitative. Outputs of network design are location of processing and distribution centers, also assignment of distribution centers to customers, determining delivering quantities and different transportion modes selection between all active nodes of a network in different levels of the supply chain. Main innovation of the research is application of quality featurs of herbal plants as quality degredation rate. Validation of the model is assessed by real data in the case study. Sensitivity analysis on the results shows that the modeling has the validity and reliability. Effective solutions of the model are shown in a Pareto boundery. The results in one selected point are described. Results of the research can be used for agricultural products with limited shelf life and constant degredation rate and also for herbal plants in priority in national document of herbal plants programming. In order to develope the research, uncertainty of supply and demand parameters can be considered, also multi products supply chain and network of exporting herbal plants can be considered in future studies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting behavior of using new technologies for water conservation among farmers in Sari County. That was done by adopting the Davis model. The population of the study consisted of 30788 farmers in Sari County that 220 were selected through multistage random sampling. The research tool was a questionnaire which its validity determined through sustainable agriculture expert and Diagnostic validity with using an average variance extracted (AVE). The reliability was confirmed with using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR). To explain the effectiveness, factor analysis and structural equation modeling with LISREL software, version 8.80 was used. According to the findings, water conservation behavior was relatively low in 40.9% of farmers. According to the results of the optimal model of using new water conservation technologies, farmers directly explained different dimensions of attitude 82% of the variance of the intention to water conservation behavior. Also, the intension to behavior of explained about 58% of the variance of water conservation behavior in farmers. Farmers' perceptions of technology (perceived of usefulness and perceived ease of use) was able to explain 91% of the variance of attitude, 75% of variance of intention to use and 52% of variance of water conservation behavior.

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of nutritional awareness and attitude on rural households’ food security level in Zanjan County. The statistical population of the study was 25864 rural household heads of Zanjan County among which 353 persons were selected using a stratified sampling method with proportional allocation. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. A panel of experts at University of Zanjan confirmed the face validity of the questionnaire. Additionally, the construct validity (including convergent, divergent, and nomological validity) and composite reliability of the research instrument were obtained by estimating measurement model and after making necessary corrections. The data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. The descriptive results of the research showed that the level of food security for the majority of respondents was low. Moreover, the results of the structural equation modeling revealed that two variables of nutritional awareness and nutritional attitude and its components including food hygiene, food safety and health, nutritional value and food price and quality had positive and significant effects on rural household heads’ food security level explaining about 68 percent of its variances. Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that improving villagers’ nutritional attitude and awareness, especially by providing them with the necessary educations is one of the basic preconditions for increasing food security among them.

In recent decade, improving of business ecosystem has attracted the attention of policy-makers. In the research area, although some studies appraised efficacious factors on development of country's business ecosystem in its general meaning, its identification and conceptualization in specific subject areas have been neglected. In this regard, the current exploratory study has been conducted in order to identification and explanation of constituent components of rural women's enterprise ecosystem in Guilan and Mazandaran provinces. Research sample individuals have been selected in terms of non-probability sampling. The qualitative data were collected by conducting detailed semi-structured interviews to obtain theoretical saturation, and then analyzed through applying ATLAS.ti software. Finding of this section categorized the conceptual emergent codes from detailed interviews with 24 key informants into 9 super-families of constituent components of rural woman's enterprise ecosystem. Consequently, applying a researcher-made questionnaire, the 9 emergent categories were reciprocally compared in the hierarchical analysis process with the use of Super Decision software. Findings showed rural woman's enterprise ecosystem has different entity, combination and priorities in comparison to large-scale industrial enterprises and even small rural enterprises controlled by men. Among resulting conceptual categories, market condition; government's main strategies and politics; regulations; physical and biological infrastructures had the highest weights respectively, with a considerable interval from the other components, implying on their priorities and attention necessity in supportive projects for rural women's regional enterprises.

The agricultural sector is going to face enormous challenges in order to feed the 9.6 billion people that the FAO predicts are going to inhabit the planet by 2050: food production must increase by 70% by 2050, and this has to be achieved. The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) that is the hot points in the Internet field has shown a new direction of innovative research in agricultural domain. Hence, in this research we seek to identify the applications of IoT in smart agriculture. This research is an applied research in nature and it would be classified as qualitative regarding data collection. In order to identify the usages of IoT in smart agriculture with the help of meta-synthesis approach, at first we have examined 480 researches among which only 168 have been selected for the final analysis, then we categorized them in 8 area of agriculture that consist of “farming”, “greenhouse”, “urban agriculture”, “Smart Gardening”, “smart fishery”, “smart forestry”, “smart livestock” and “smart supply and distribution network”. based on data analysis applications in 6 categories of “monitoring”, “control”, “tracing”, “diagnosis” and “descriptive planning” are categorized. Finally, agricultural area based on sustainable development indicators are respectively: smart greenhouse, smart supply and distributions network of agriculture, smart livestock, smart Gardening, smart fishery, smart farming, smart forestry and smart urban agriculture.

Surface and groundwater resources are of the most important issues in the development of rural communities. Because in these areas, water resources have a significant impact on economic development, especially agricultural activities. Meanwhile remote sensing technology and geographic information system (GIS) are used to prepare extensive and on-time land use maps. The aim of this study was to study the role of water resources and these challenges on the trend of changes in rural settlements and in in Sari County. In order to apply the remote sensing technology in this research, Landsat 8 satellite images were used in 2014, 2017 and 2019 then the radiometric calibration were done and land use map was obtained for each of the years. According to the land use map in 2014, 2017 and 2019, agricultural - rural land use in Sari County was 306.25, 290.83 and 300.38 square kilometers, respectively. Also, the results showed that surface and groundwater resources changes in selected years and the reduction of these resources have reduced the agricultural - rural land use areas. Therefore, the nnecessity for less dependence of farmers and rural community on water resources with the creation and development of infrastructure related to other agricultural activities such as rural tourism and agro- tourism with low dependence on water resources has been proposed.

Monitoring and evaluating adaptation policies can have various functions, including identifying and understanding the need for intervention, facilitating the design of new adaptation policies, or justifying budget allocation. The purpose of this study was to analyze climate change adaptation policies in agriculture. For this purpose, a Multi-criteria analysis approach was used. Data collection was done using a questionnaire consisting of 86 adaptation policies in 5 categories including financial and credit policies, research, planning and technology, infrastructure and conservation of water and soil resources, training and extension, and Institutional policies.  Criteria of effectiveness, urgency, efficiency, power, side effects, equity, flexibility, organizational legitimacy, and feasibility were used for evaluation. Samples selected, using purposive sampling. Visual PROMETHEE software used to analyze the data. Results showed that the effectiveness criterion was the most important criterion. Among the financial and credit policies "provide low-interest facilities to prioritize the pattern of optimal national and regional cultivation" was the most important policy. "Planning to integrate native and modern agricultural knowledge to introduce new options for adaptation or climate change", "installing smart water meter on agricultural water wells”, and "reviewing the process of submitting surface and groundwater harvesting permits" were the most important policies among “research, planning and technology”, “infrastructure policies” and “institutional policies” categories, respectively.

For a number of reasons, including more compliance with the religious democratic system and inconsistency with the criteria of the capitalistic economic system, in Islamic revolution, the cooperative sector could well receive increased attention on the part of the economic activists. Also, in the pursuit, a great effort has been made for further strength of the sector This research was an attempt to develop scenarios for the future of cooperatives economy system in Iran. To do this, scenario development method was used. The data was gathered through a review of available documents and articles as well as interviews with 18 experts with a very good command of cooperatives economy. Regarding that the national economy is currently dominated by the government, the key identified uncertainties for cooperative economy included: Whether the government supports or not and whether people embrace or not. Considering the two- sided nature of the uncertainties, four scenarios could be conceived. Scenario 1 as the most desirable one to occur for cooperative economy in the next decade was metaphorically named: climb of cooperatives. In scenario 2, absence of willingness in people, as the major factor responsible for the growth of cooperatives, would result in the gradual decline or “descend of cooperatives“. Under scenario 3, in spite of absence of supports by the government, popular willingness causes cooperatives to experience a gradual growth (take off) in short-term and an increasing trend in long term. Scenario 4 which is less likely to occur as compared to the other scenarios, would lead to the collapse (crash) of cooperatives in Iran. In order to manipulate the uncertainties for a better result, general and specific solutions were provided to bring the Cooperatives Economy System closer to the intended vision for the next decade and prevention from undesirable ones.

Agricultural sector is one of the main production sectors in each country. Increasing the growth and efficiency of this sector requires the development of a proper, accurate and realistic model of crops planting based on different goals and criteria, in order to provide the benefits of the whole beneficiary community in long term. The purpose of this research was to identify, validate and rank the effective criteria on crops prioritization for being selected in the cropping pattern, using a hybrid research method of exploratory factor analysis and analytical network process. In order to achieving the research goals, in the first phase, by aid of literature reviewing, effective criteria on crops prioritization have been selected, and then by using exploratory factor analysis method and application of SPSS 25 software, these criteria have been loaded on 6 factors named: cultural and social, political, passive defense, water, environmental impacts and economics. The final step of this phase was the construction of the conceptual model of the factors and effective criteria. In second phase the criteria were ranked by using analytical network process method and application of Super Decisions software. According the results the most important criteria in the process of assessing the prioritization of crops are listed as below: “Domestic Resource Cost” with a weight of 0.2277, “consent culture” with a weight of 0.1468, “risk taking attitude of farmer” with a weight of 0.1160, and “crops’ irrigation water demand” with a weight of 0.0754. The conceptual model can facilitate the selection process of crops and ease the designing of optimal crop pattern.

Self-efficacy is a person’s beliefs about his or her ability for organizing and executing necessary actions to achieve the intended results. This study was an applied research and data collected through a survey method. The study was a causal-comparative research. This study aimed to anticipate level of teaching self-efficacy of agricultural trainers based on teaching strategies in the classroom. Statistical population was consisted 210 agriculture trainers of applied scientific centers of agricultural higher education in Tehran and Alborz Provinces. 130 trainers were randomly selected according to finite correction population formula. Research instrument was a standard questionnaire which its face, construct and discriminant validity was confirmed. Ordinal Theta and composite reliability coefficients were satisfied. Statistical dominant structural equation modeling method employing partial least squares (PLS) method was applied. The results showed that between the teaching strategies and six dimensions of teaching self-efficacy (motivation of the students, adapting to changes, interaction with parents, learners, dignity trainers, self-efficacy in education, adapting teaching to individual needs) were significant relationship. In this regard, the more appropriate the teaching strategies the teacher uses in the classroom, the better the self-efficacy of the trainer. This increase in self-efficacy leads to the greater willingness, enthusiasm, commitment, motivation, and dedication of more time for students to learn, which, finally improve the students’ academic achievement. Hence, holding training courses for educators, which will improve their teaching skills, would be a good way to enhance their self-efficacy.