فصلنامه روستا و توسعه
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 30، تابستان 1384)

It is of essential importance to study sustainable agriculture and its associated sub-systems, aiming at a better understanding of their situation, and formulating suitable strategies and plans to achieve a sustainable agricultural development. Conducted with open and in-depth interviews in Haraz basin area in northern Iran, this case study has reviewed the situation of the paddy field system dominated over there in terms of a systems approach, based on a sustainable agricultural framework, in an interaction with social, economic, natural, and political environments. As shown by the results, it appears that there has never been a sustainable situation of the paddy field system in the area, and the continuation of present trends might lead to an increased unsustainability. A number of specific suggestions and comments are therefore presented in this respect.

Known as one of the most important protein nutrients, milk plays a key role in food security. In addition, it has always been focused as an employment-generating product, so that the milk production is currently assumed a main activity in agriculture sector. This study reviews productivity index of dairy cow and determines extents of optimal input uses in Kenebist industrial animal husbandry unit. According to the results, this unit shows a productivity rate of 1.40 for each dairy cow, indicating a high level of productivity. Furthermore, having estimated a function of the milk production, it was consequently realized that alfalfa, silage corn, pulp sugar beet, grain corn, and barley are placed in second area (economic area of production), molasses in first area (non-economic area) of production, and bran consumption, as well as the number of existing dairy cows in the unit in third (non-economic) area.

Started in 1970s, Saemaul Undong Movement is one of the most successful experiences of rural development across the world. It has been a well-established movement to facilitate an active participation of rural people. The movement has made an appropriate interaction between government agents and the rural people through an election of rural Saemaul leaders by the people. It has focused on improvement of applied education and attitude; however, this has not been limited simply to the rural people but involved, at the same time, managers and agents too. The movement is experiencing a top-down and bottom-up development plan in which people and government have reached a common understanding. It began implementing small and limited pilot projects followed by studying them in terms of their generalization. In effect, the movement is based on action-research. In this development process, all stakeholders have actively and dynamically participated in producing knowledge and implementing the projects. More specifically, it was not limited to men, since women have also contributed by their active participation in the movement trend. Although, Saemaul movement is benefiting from experiences of the other countries, there has been a great effort to maintain South Korean indigenous culture as a development setting. Finally, thanks to such a movement, people have achieved their self-esteem and attitude of “we are able to do it ourselves”.

This study gives estimates of demand functions for milk and various types of bird-eggs in urban society, using Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), and examines price and non-price elasticities of compensated and non-compensated demand functions. As indicated by the produced results, over the studied period (1979-2002), budget ratio allocated to the various types of bird-eggs was higher than that allocated to the milk, though the latter was gradually increasing during the latest years of the period, which might be due to the advertising of milk consumption. Self-price elasticity of the various bird-egg types in the urban society suggest that the application of price instrument to improve consumption pattern has not been effective over the studied period. It indicates that it is of a particular importance to include variables like growth in productive activities and growth rate of population in optimal management of demand. These variables should be directed to optimisation by applying suitable policies. However, given the necessity to provide urban households with both of these consumption goods, and considering decreased real expenditures (incomes) of the households due to severe increase in price indexes, it would not be a suitable policy to remove subsidies paid for such goods; rather, there must be a policy to decrease subsidies gradually, parallel to the control of inflation. Moreover, because of using time series data, first, the unit root in variables of the concerned model and then, longterm relation of the data are reviewed. Results of the study indicate that there are a uniform convergence and a long-term relation among the variables of the model.

This research aims at studying future trends and orientations of agricultural extension across the world in general and particularly in Iran, drawing upon a descriptive research method and a meta-analysis approach. The results indicate that the agricultural extension and training should be informative-communicative in nature, achieve agricultural globalization and commercialization, raise agricultural productivity, empower and prepare farmers and clients, and facilitate the participation of local groups and non-governmental organizations in development plans. Moreover, in organizing and administerating terms, there should be a certain emphasis on privatization, restructuring, and decentralization. In Iran, the public sector involved in the agricultural extension should decline, so that, as we suggest, the agricultural extension would be devided into the public and private sectors, the former devoted to small farmers and the latter to landowner farmers, and/or there would be a combination of several trends.