Nitrogen Fertilizers Consumption in Wheat Fields in Fars Province, Iran (Investigation of the Socio-economic and Technical Repercussions)

Chemical fertilizers are nowadays one of the basic production inputs toward enhanced yields of agricultural products. The private businesses stepping into the chemical fertilizer market increasingly encourage farmers to consume more fertilizers, which, in turn, ushers in doubts about their optimal application at the farm level. To address this issue, the present study was designed and implemented to determine the factors involved in the optimal application of nitrogen fertilizers on wheat fields in Fars Province. For this purpose, data were collected through the multi-stage cluster sampling method and the survey method using a questionnaire admninistered to 457 wheat farmers in Fars Province. The data thus collected were analyzed through descriptive statistics and the Tobit model. Results showed that 78.56 percent of wheat farmers had failed to observe optimal fertilizer consumption levels. It may, therefore, be recommended that the policies pertinent to optimal use of nitrogen fertilizers as tailored to soil and plant requirements should still be enforced as the pivotal approach. For this purpose, informal education on the whole crop rotation may be suggested as the main agenda with due heed paid to farmers’ socio-economic characteristics that affect their learning while farm water management as realized by the fertilizer-irrigation approach management of soil resources as implemented through soil tests prior to field operations and disseminated as a social culture among farmers, and the main focus placed on planting dicotyledonous plants in alternation with wheat.