Economic and agronomic impacts of laser land leveling in Fars province

Uneven land is one of the reasons of low irrigation efficiency in agricultural sector. Then, land leveling as one of the strategies of increasing the application of inputs, particularly water, is taken into account by experts and specialists and it has absorbed large amount of budget of Iran. The purpose of this research was to investigate economic and agronomic impacts of laser land leveling. The survey research was used to collect data in Fars Province. The sample consisted of 258 farmers which were selected using multi-stage random sampling. The results revealed that laser land leveling reduces the amount of consumption and cost of inputs such as water, fertilizer, pesticide, fuel and labor. Water use efficiency has been increased 52 percent by application of laser systems. Also this project increases wheat yield, gross income and land price and decrease time needed for land preparation, planting and harvesting. The amount of water, fertilizer and seed consumption decrease and yield increase over time. Finally, based on the results the improvement of farmers’ information about the impacts of project, change the attitude of farmers about water resources management and providing facilities for poor farmers have been suggested.