Feasibility of Changing Cultivation from Rice to Beans for the Development of the Agricultural-Rural Sector in the Conditions of Drought Crisis (Case Study: Lanjan County)

Nowadays, general agricultural policies are moving towards sustainable agriculture, and this is despite the fact that countries suffer from a big problem called drought and climate change, especially in the field of this important economic sector. Accordingly, the correct understanding of the comprehensive conditions for growing an agricultural product is one of the significant principles of sustainable agriculture, and in this regard, general policies should be changed from cultivating water-intensive crops to less water-consuming ones. Therefore, according to the current programs, one of the policies considered for the region studied in this research, Lanjan County, located in the southwest of Isfahan province, was the change of cultivation from rice to beans, this research aimed at studying the feasibility of changing from rice to beans. The statistical population of the research included experts from the Agricultural Jihad Organization, experts from the farmers' trade union system (N=50) and rice farmers of Lanjan County (N=270). The sample size was determined by applying Cochran's formula based on which 40 experts and 130 farmers were selected randomly for the study. Data were collected by a questionnaire and were analyzed using SPSS software. The results of the single-sample t-test showed that from the farmers' point of view, the average of production factors (3.33), management (3.35) and attitude (3.44) and from the experts' point of view, the average of most factors including relative advantage (3.37), timing (3.56), production (3.60), attitude (3.74), management (3.46) and background (3.44), obtained significantly higher than the average (3) and therefore higher than optimal. In this regard, the conditions for changing cultivation from rice to beans were evaluated as favorable. Therefore, based on the findings of the research, from the respondents' point of view, it is possible to change cultivation from rice to beans. Finally, some suggestions such as the guaranteed purchase of bean products by the government to provide the market and reduce the price fluctuation of bean products were presented.