masoumeh matinkia

In the first part of this paper, multi-dimensional understanding of the soil and water management of agricultural lands of Honam Sub-catchment was provided by determining the 53 homogeneous soil and water management units (HSWMUs), current behavior assessment of the farmers, and the yield gap analysis. It was found that efficiency of water and fertilizer consumption in the region was relatively low. Therefore, soil and water management packages including soil fertility management, irrigation management and land degradation prevention were prepared for each HSWMUs. The method of preparation and validation steps of management packages is the subject of this paper. To transfer the achieved knowledge and technology and to evaluate and validate the recommended packages, Aliabad Agricultural Jihad Center of Lorestan was selected as an innovation platform. Scaling-up was carried out by active cooperation of multi-level local to national experts to hold a technology exhibition including management of optimal use of chemical, organic and biological fertilizers, and irrigation methods to test the research results. To this end, the selected technologies and recommendations were implemented at volunteer farmers’ fields. The pilots were separated into two treatments of farmers' conventional practice and integrated recommendation in the beet-wheat rotation. The results of the best bet showed that, on average, crop production of winter wheat increased from 5 to 7.5 t/ha and water use efficiency improved by 13%. These results were displayed to other farmers on the field day, which matched up with the time of wheat harvest. By proofing the effectiveness of the results in the farmers' fields, the soil and water management packages of the region were prepared. Despite holding workshops for farmers, results were not scaled to others. We found that the out-scaling of soil and water management packages within HSWMUs and improvement of the average yield along with the principles of sustainability is rooted in three gaps: yield, research and development, and value chain gap. In other words, the awareness and motivation of the farmers, the ability to implement recommendations, and the availability of facilities are the basic conditions for filling crop yield gap in the region. Therefore, one-year pilots are not effective enough and should be continued for several years. Afterward, the capacity building of local extensions at the Soil and Water Research Institute (SWRI) was carried out to show the different stages of preparing HSWMUs, recommendations and instructions. All data were transferred to the innovation platform in digital and printed format. Receiving feedback and to continue scaling-out under spiral proses method, a number of farmers of HSWMUs who volunteered to test the recommended packages in their farms were selected, and the pilots was designed based on participatory research. It is expected that with the establishment of long-term demonstration farms and the provision of various requirements such as the existence of various fertilizers and other agricultural inputs by the collaboration of public and private sectors, the transfer of recommendations to other farmers as well as decision makers of the sub-basin is facilitated.

This study expresses the steps of achievement to the indigenous-executive framework of integrated soil and water management at farm level through a mega project with 19 sub-projects. The projects were carried out during 2013-2020 with active participation of international, national and regional experts as well as local farmers in Honam Sub-basin, Lorestan Province, Iran. To understand the soil and water management problems for agriculture in the same homogeneous units (HSWMUs), farmlands were classified regarding physical, chemical and biological characteristics of soil, making it possible to convert soil maps into thematic maps. In this research, the fertility capability classification (FCC) method that integrates surface and sub-surface soil textures with modifieres was used. In addition, several modifieres were revised for soils of semi-arid regions and new modifieres were introduced for Irrigation Capability Classification (ICC). The required information was collected from 119 soil profiles and 101 surface soil samples in detailed scale of 1:25000 and the corresponding measurements were made. Accordingly, different data layers including detailed soil map were produced via geopedological method icluding land limitation, land suitability, and land production potential (LPP) of major crops, land degradation, location of water withdrawal, land use and agricultural cadastre of 2395 farms were prepared. To evaluate the current soil and water behavior of farmers within HSWMUs, the multidisciplinary team recorded the issues through field visits and open semi-structured questionnaire of 84 selected farmers in 24 villages who were interviewed during 2018-2019. The results showed that 23 and 30 HSWMUs that covered, respectively, 93% and 90% of the irrigated and rainfed areas were delineated on the map. Investigations showed that the sub-basin suffers from problems such as plow pan, phosphorus and zinc deficiencies, poor irrigation scheduling, and three types of farmers. Finally, recommended packages were prepared and validated for each HSWMU, which will be discussed in the part 2.