International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:10 Issue: 4, Dec 2020

The present descriptive survey aims to analyze sustainable rural livelihood in Langarud County of Guilan province, Iran. The statistical population was composed of all rural people in this county (N=37904). Convenience sampling used to determine sample size (n=180). They were selected by proportionally allocated random sampling method. The research instrument was a self-designed questionnaire whose face and content validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha to be 0.76, implying its reliability. Results showed that among five capitals of sustainable livelihood, social, human, physical, natural and financial capitals were ranked from the first to fifth, respectively. Accordingly, rural people were in the best condition in terms of social capital compared to other capitals. Concerning the level of sustainable livelihood capitals, it is recommended that rural development policies should spur livelihood diversification as a core strategy. In addition, attempts should be made to enhance rural people’s awareness of what they have and to change their attitude towards what they feel in their life and/or they see in nature.

Environmental sustainability is one of the most important considerations in planning and managing agriculture in any country nowadays. Agriculture plays an important role in Afghanistan's economy and employment. Herat province is rich in agricultural production in Afghanistan. To achieve environmental sustainability along with profitability, the present research aimed to develop an optimal cropping pattern for Afghanistan with environmental considerations. The crops studied include wheat, barley, sesame, cumin, and saffron, which accounted for more than 70 percent of the cropping area in Herat province. The goal and linear programming model were used to determine the optimal cropping pattern. The goals of reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides along with maximizing gross margins were used in the goal model with the aim of achieving environmental sustainability. The results of the linear model, aimed at maximizing gross margins, showed that in the optimal pattern of the region, the cultivated area of sesame, barley, and saffron should be increased and the cultivated area of wheat and cumin should be decreased versus the status quo. In addition, the results of goal models in different scenarios showed significant changes in comparison to the current cropping pattern.

The qualitative expansion of the higher education system, regardless of quality development, will have inappropriate outcomes. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess the quality of academic services at Yasouj University using the SERVQUAL model. The statistical population consisted of 508 senior undergraduates at Yasouj University in 2018-2019. According to the Krejcie and Morgan formula, 220 individuals were selected as the sample through stratified random sampling in terms of their field of study. Data were collected through a two-part questionnaire including students' perceptions and expectations about the quality of educational, research, and welfare services. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by using the opinions of the relevant field experts after revising, and its reliability was estimated by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The results showed that students had the lowest and highest satisfaction with the current status in terms of welfare services and educational services, respectively. Also, the greatest service gap was in welfare, research, and educational services, respectively. The results of the means comparison test revealed that the students' expectations of educational, research, and welfare services were significantly higher than their perceptions. Therefore, better provision of educational, research, and welfare services should be taken into consideration by the relevant authorities.

This study aimed to assess the environmental sustainability of wheat harvesting operation in rainfed and irrigated farming systems in three different locations in Iran, including Sari, Mashhad and Parsabad Moghan counties. Four sustainability indices of energy, emergy, exergy, and greenhouse gas emissions were investigated in this research. Results revealed that the energy efficiency of harvesting operation in irrigated systems was higher than that in rainfed systems. The emergy analysis results highlighted that the environmental sustainability indices for rainfed systems in Mashhad, Parsabad Moghan, and Sari were 0.047, 0.035 and 0.034, respectively. The values for the irrigated systems were 0.036, 0.035 and 0.034, respectively. The results of exergy analysis also indicated that the exergy efficiency of harvesting operation in rainfed and irrigated systems in Sari and Parsabad Moghan was higher than that in other areas by 56.07 and 128.72, respectively. Total GHG emissions of harvesting operation in Sari, Parsabad Moghan, and Mashhad in rainfed systems were determined to be lower than that in the irrigated systems (54.88, 47.64 and 36.03 kg CO2eq ha-1 versus 67.52, 66.56 and 59.22 kg CO2eq ha-1, respectively). In conclusion, the wheat harvesting system was environmentally more sustainable in Sari and Parsabad Moghan counties in rainfed and irrigated farming systems, respectively.

Khuzestan Province, especially Karun County, is one of the main pillars of date production in Iran. According to the limitations of date palm production in this county, optimal production management, and the efficient use of production inputs are required.  The main goal of this study was to calculate the technical efficiency of date palm cultivators’ management in the whole Karun, as well as the cities in this County including four cities, using a non-parametric approach such as the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. 200 date palm cultivators were selected as samples across the region, 50 date palm cultivators from each city in April 2017 till February 2018. The results showed that Rabie and Shirin-Shahr cities have the most efficient and non-efficient date palm cultivators’ management, respectively. The average efficiency under constant returns to scale assumption was 100 percent, the variable returns to scale input-oriented and output-oriented in Rabie city were 100 and 100 percent, and in Shirin-Shahr city, the average efficiency under constant returns to scale was 97.56 percent, the variable returns to scale input-oriented and output-oriented were 98.69 and 98.04 percent, respectively. In Karun County, the average efficiency under constant returns to scale was 96.62 percent, the variable returns to scale input-oriented and output-oriented efficiencies were 98.66 and 97.57 percent, respectively. In this region, cultivators’ management efficiency can be increased by increasing the awareness and skills of date palm cultivators and educating them in terms of optimal use of inputs.

One of the major contributors to air pollution, soil environmental degradations and health risks in paddy fields is the production of high volumes of rice growing activities’ wastes. Poorly managed rice husk and straw (such as burning) can be problematic since they threaten rice -based cropping system and farmers’ economy. One promising approach to decrease their negative effects is to use alternative managerial practices to guaranty both food security and sustainable agriculture and to address waste management issues. Currently, the burning rice wastes burning and off season’s tillage are two hot topics that is of interest to numerous agricultural researchers. The main purpose of this study was to explore the effects of rice residues burning on a number of crucial paddy soil chemical and physical characters, rice yield and yield component, rice pests, diseases, and common weeds populations. The current one -year field experiment was carried out in five factors factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were tillage methods at three levels (non-plowing, autumn plowing, and winter plowing), and crop residues’ management at two levels (residues burning and residues conservation). The chemical (Total N, Zn content and OC %) and physical (infiltration rate) properties of paddy soil were significantly affected by residual management (p <0.05), except bulk density. The initial soil organic carbon percentage (2.18%) and consequently initial infiltration rate (2.04) increased at the conservative management of the residues in combination with plowing by around 0.51 percent, 2.69 and 2.81, respectively. Furthermore, the 1000 grains weight and filled grains weight were increased by abovementioned treatments by around 8 and 9percent, respectively. The rate of emergence of rice stem borer was negatively affected by winter and autumn plowing more than 4 times, with non- significant difference between winter and autumn plowing.  The applied treatments had not any significant effect on studied rice weed populations, except weed 1 that tillage management caused a decrease about 2 times in its population. The applied treatments (alone and/or in combination) not only can certainly contribute to the reduction of rice weed, pest and disease populations but also strongly recommend to improve some important soil physical and chemical properties.

Over 90 percent of the agrarian system in the west of Iran is based on family farming. Thus, rural people in this region are dependent on agricultural resources, pastoral systems, and nonfarm activities for their livelihood, which has heightened their vulnerability to climate change. Therefore, this study aims to measure the livelihood resilience of family farming to climate change in Mahidasht. For this purpose, a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2018. A total of 338 wheat farmers were selected for interview on the basis of a systematic random sampling method. The instrument developed by the Speranza module was translated into the Persian language. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha and Cohen's Kappa coefficient. Results revealed that the capacity for learning was improved compared to the other components of livelihood resilience. However, less than half of all participants (44.51) did not have adequate self-organization. Based on the results, the framework proposed for measuring livelihood resilience has a holistic view and can measure all aspects of resilience. It is, thus, recommended to use this framework in the research related to this field. Moreover, livelihood resilience to climate change was found to be influenced by gender, marital status, age, and level of education. Hence, it is recommended to local planners and relevant authorities to consider these differences when developing livelihood resilience plans in the region and design their plans based on these differences.