مجله مدیریت اراضی
سال نهم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1400)

Hobby farms or second rural homes account for a new kind of urban life that is growing rapidly in suburban areas due to their relative vicinity to urban areas and pleasant climate. Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth of such second homes across Iran, in general, and in Kermanshah Province, in particular.  Surveys indicate that a great portion of such residences lack the required construction permits; hence, their development might have dire environmental and economic consequences for the target rural areas. It was the objective of the present study to investigate the future trend of hobby farm development in agricultural zones in Kermanshah Province. For this purpose, the Fuzzy Delphi method was used in three rounds. For population studies, 20 experts in land use conservation were selected based on criterion sampling. Moreover, expert answers were converted into definitive quantities using the fuzzy statistical method. The findings showed that environmental pollution due to wastewater release and waste disposal into agricultural environments, land use changes leading to farms or orchards being wiped out, rising farm land prices, and increasing unemployment in rural areas are among the already known consequences that are highly likely to occur in future. The manuscript concludes with practicable suggestions to planners and authorities as measures to reduce the irreparable consequences; these include adopting deterrent measures and punitive laws to ban land sales, implementing participatory programs, and empowering local communities to preserve their agricultural property.

Land use change is a major challenge to agricultural production that has intensified in recent years. The problem will in the long run have severe economic, social, and environmental repercussions for rural areas and beyond. Identification of the many factors involved allows for effective policies to be formulated and executed in order to reduce the adverse impacts. It is the purpose of this qualitative study to analyze the factors affecting agricultural land use change in Bavi County, Khuzestan. The statistical population used in this study comprises local farmers who committed either authorized or unauthorized land use changes. Sampling is accomplished using the ’snowball’ method and data are collected through interviews with users. Analysis of the data thus collected reveals that economic, social, legal, and regulatory factors as well as indiscriminate spatial development may be identified as the causes underlying agricultural lands use changes. Based on the results obtained, recommendations are finally formulated to improve upon the current indiscriminate land use change in the study area.

This study was carried out to investigate and monitor variations in soil characteristics as a result of a paddy field consolidation project executed in Mavaremkola, Ghaemshahr City, Mazandaran. For this purpose, soil characteristics were evaluated before and after the consolidation project in two large plots: Plot 1, where soil was displaced at a low to moderate rate, and Plot 2, where soil was displaced at a high rate. Meshes 10×10 m were created along the longitudinal axes of the plots from which samples of the composite soil were collected before and after land leveling operations to determine their physico-chemical characteristics according to the standard methods recommended by Soil & Water Research Institute (Iran). Results revealed changes in certain soil characteristics as a result of the land leveling operations such that significant reductions were observed in phosphorus and potassium contents of the soil from Plot 1 (with low to moderate soil displacement) but none in that from Plot 2 (with high soil displacement). The operations were found to induce significant decreases in soil organic content in both plots. This is while soil EC increased and pH decreased in both plots but trace micronutrients such as iron, manganese, zinc, and copper in either plot remained unaffected as a result of land leveling operations. The relative reduction in organic carbon observed in this study was attributed to the non-standard land leveling of paddy fields and the use of high-quality topsoil for making access roads and plot borders, indicating that the consolidation project led to a relative decline in soil quality.

The debate over small farm agriculture at both international and regional levels is witnessing a shift in attitude toward smallholder farming and peasant households; indeed, the new approach considers small farms as a major solution to poverty and hunger rather than their cause. However, small-scale agriculture is facing such escalating challenges as expanding economic interactions and competitions, market economy, demand-driven agriculture, and lower global prices of large-scale farm products so that its future has become a topic of much discussion among the global academic and policy-making circles. Advocates of small-scale agriculture, in contrast, argue for its functions in and positive impacts on food security, production efficiency, income promotion, and poverty alleviation as well as its environmental, social, and cultural benefits. The present paper will scrutinize each of these aspects. Among the measures proposed for promoting and re-establishing small-scale farming are included explication of distorted and ostensible policies raised against small-scale agriculture, social recognition of the practice, development of a market strategy for this type of farming, promotion of part-time farming, formulation of a remuneration system for ecosystem services, and provision of local public services supplied to such farmers.

As a vital source of life, water has been attached a great value and always regarded as scared among peoples. It is also one of the most valuable and decisive factors in horticultural activities. The present article investigates the traditional irrigation system in the city of Nowdeshah based on the criteria and traditions observed by their ancestors. As the most common and effective system, the traditional Ajin irrigation system has a history of centuries and is still in use in its original form both across the whole Hawraman region and in Nowdeshah in particular. With subsistence fruit raising and traditional livestock breeding as their main sources of livelihood, the inhabitants in Hawraman use a regular and accurate irrigation system that has evolved through traditional rules and has its own water exploitation and allocation methods with extremely rich social aspects. In collective water exploitation in this system, water sharing groups are formed consisting of a certain number of farmers who share a specified number of irrigation hours in each water cycle. A salient feature of the system in Nowdehah is efficient irrigation during low water seasons since irrigation timing and quantity are governed by such local factors as climatic conditions, product type, growth stage, tree yield, soil properties (e.g., water holding capacity), and the extent of vertical and horizontal development of tree roots. Overall, the irrigation system in this region has its roots in the local culture, indigenous knowledge, and environmental and climate conditions.

Conservation agriculture is a relatively new system aimed at enhancing productivity and achieving sustainable agriculture. It represents the main components of an alternative pattern of farm production that necessitates radical changes in production methods. It is the objective of the present study to explore the status of conservation agriculture on a global scale and to investigate its current status in Argentina as one of its successful examples. The research method employed is ‘best practice research’ that is way between systematic review and narrative review. Results indicate that conservation agriculture is winning public acceptance and gaining ground as an emerging system due to its potentials for enhancing productivity and efficiency, reducing production costs, and increasing profitability as well as its higher flexibility toward environmental stresses, soil erosion and degradation, and increased production of soil organic matter; as such the cultivated area under conservation farming rose from 2.8 million ha in 1973 to more than 180 million ha in 2016 the world over. In Argentina, where private associations have played a key role in its development and promotion, conservation agriculture has come to be recognized as one of the most important developments in agriculture over the last few decades. A final finding of the present study indicates that public acceptance of conservation farming presupposes a change in the behavior of all the stakeholders and that such tools as testing, learning, accepting, and adapting play vital roles in its success.

In order to determine the effects of optimal fertilizer application on wheat yield quantity and quality relative to farm reference values, this study was conducted in 2016-17 as a research-extension pilot over a control plot of 5000 m2 and an equal plot of optimal nutrition treatment on four farm fields in the four provinces of Khuzestan, Fars, Sistan, and Golestan. Prior to wheat cultivation, soil samples from a depth of 0-30 cm were taken from each field using the combined sampling method and fertilizers were applied on the treatment plots based on soil test results. Other farm operations (including tillage, irrigation, cultivation, and cultivar selection as well as pest, disease, and weed control) were carried out following local farmer practices. Using the quadrant sampling method, three samples were taken from each wheat plot in each region (both treatment and control) to measure such traits as plant height, number of grains per panicle, panicle length, weight of one thousand seeds, biological yield, and grain yield. It was found that optimal nutrition of wheat cultivations based on soil test results had positive effects on panicle length, biological yield, and grain yield but no significant effects on other traits. Specifically, grain yield in experimental treatments across the four provinces showed a significant mean increase of 21.3% relative to those measured in farms under local farmer practices. It may be concluded that combined application of basic fertilizers, biofertilizers, and growth stimulants in accordance with diets based on soil test results should be practiced in the study regions if reduced use of chemical fertilizers, improved cost-effectiveness, and increased wheat grain yield are sought.

Fort the purposes of this study, data were collected using a questionnaire on crop rotations in Isfahan Province alongside field observations and commonly used indices. It was found that the rotations common in all the three cold, temperate, and warm climatic zones identified in the province were often short-termed with two or three crops grown. The temperate zone, however, is characterized by 30 dominant types of rotation. Land use efficiencies of 43-98%, 60-95%, and 50-81% were recorded for the temperate, warm and cold zones, respectively. Production efficiency in the rotations was found to have declined to levels below 40 kg per rotation day depending on the type of crop grown, cultivation of small grains such as wheat and barley or certain oilseeds such as rapeseed and safflower, and fallow periods allowed between rotations. The presence of high-yield forage crops (such as fodder corn), especially when combined with tuberous crops (such as sugar beet) and summer crops (such as watermelon and honeydew melon), was found to increase the production efficiency of the rotations (sometimes to more than 200 kg day-1 in the temperate zone). Water productivity in crop rotations across the three zones rarely ever exceeded 6 kg m-3. Crop diversification in the rotations, therefore, seems to be the most urgent measure that should be taken in the three climatic zones. Finally, more extensive cultivation of tuberous crops in the temperate and warm zones as well as wider growth of pulses in the cold zones seem not only to be feasible but also economically rewarding.

Insects are the most abundant organisms associated with plants and soil. Mass rearing of insects to supply animal feed has provided access to insect frass as a new source of organic fertilizer. The chemical composition of insect frass (i.e., proper amounts of organic nitrogen, soluble carbon, and nutritional elements as well as a low carbon to nitrogen ratio) and its physical properties (fine size and layered structure) have given rise to an increasing interest in their potential use for enhancing soil fertility and developing novel organic products. In addition to its being a rich source of plant nutrients, insect frass not only contains beneficial microorganisms such as some species of Bacillus and Pseudomonas bacteria but is also the only source of chitin available top plants to improve their resistance to biotic (insects and nematodes) and abiotic (drought and salinity) stresses. Current studies in the field are focused on the two industrial insects of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) and mealworm (Tenebrio molitor). The results have shown that application of 5-10 tons of frass from these two insects per hectare of farm soil increases the yield, both in quantity and quality, in such important crops as rapeseed, barley, rye grass, corn, and sugar beet. Given the nationwide rise in the mass rearing of industrial insects, it is instructive to accelerate the development of appropriate methods and standards for their application as a fertilizer.

Application of biofertilizer is governed by different factors whose identification and knowledge will play a great role in farmer acceptance of the fertilizers. The present quantitative study was conducted to identify the factors involved in the use of biofertilizers by farmers in Yengijeh village, Zanjan, Iran. The statistical population consisted of all the local farmers (N=313). Using Yamane formula, the sample size was calculated at 175 but data were ultimately collected from 165 farmers through the convenience sampling method. For this purpose, a questionnaire was used whose face validity had been approved by an expert panel and its reliability was computed via Cronbach' alpha (α˃ 0.7). Binary logit regression was employed to examine the effects of two categories of variables on biofertilizer consumption; these included farmers' individual characteristics (including attitude toward and knowledge about biofertilizers and communication channels) and perceived innovation characteristics (including compatibility, trialability, observability, complexity, and relative advantage). Results revealed that while the three innovation characteristics of trialability, observability, and complexity had significant effects on fertilizer consumption, farmers' individual characteristics had none whatsoever.

Housing large and heavy industries, Isfahan Province is facing water shortage, encouraging investigations aimed at reusing industrial effluents in agriculture. Using average values obtained from tests of samples taken every 15 days over a period of two months from industrial effluents in northeast Isfahan, the present descriptive cross-sectional study was implemented to determine whether the effluents would pass quality standards for agricultural reuse. The average values of BOD, COD, TSS, pH, and turbidity as well as Fe, Zn, Pb, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Vanadium, Ag, Mn, and Nickel concentrations in addition to total and fecal coliform counts were compared with the quality standards recommended by EPA. It was found that average BOD, COD, TSS, pH, and turbidity values did not exceed standard values while total coliform counts as well as oil, fat, detergent, and heavy metal (e.g., cadmium, copper, vanadium, and cobalt) contents in some samples did exceed the relevant allowable limits. Based on the results obtained, the treated effluents exhibited certain limitations (e.g., high cadmium, copper, vanadium, and cobalt contents) that need to be addressed before reuse in agricultural irrigation. To avoid the adverse environmental effects of the effluents on soil, they may be recommended for irrigating non-edible trees and industrial plants such as cotton.

The complicated relationship between land use (LU) and environmental factors influences human livelihood; hence, it is essential to monitor LU changes and to prepare pertinent maps due to their relevance to such vital fields as urban planning, climate change, and environmental monitoring. In this study, a supervised classification was applied to three Landsat images collected over time (1990, 2000, and 2018) in order to derive the data on land use changes in Bushehr region. The supervised classification results were further improved by employing image enhancement and classification accuracy of the Landsat images was enhanced by visual interpretation to enhance. Finally, eight LU categories were identified and mapped. It was found that land reclamation projects over the last three decades had had drastic effects on LU changes throughout the study area. Land use changes during the study period show increasing trends as evidenced by the 29.19 hectares of agricultural land with a rise of 30.19% and the 15.78 hectares of urban and rural residential land with a rise of 16.39%. In contrast, declines are observed in barren land covering 4.15 hectares with a change of -4.31%, salty land covering 11.66 hectares with a negative change of -12.11, and sandy land covering 5.21 hectares with a change of -5.41. Hence, agricultural land area as well as urban and rural residential areas show significant increases whereas barren, salty, and sandy land areas show decreases. These changes in LU reflect regional policies and the dynamics of human impacts (agricultural and construction activities) on land use changes in the study region. Identifying the causes underlying these changes, the present article tries to formulate policy recommendations toward improved land use management.