جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « sustainability » در نشریات گروه « اقتصاد کشاورزی »

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has had numerous adverse impacts on every aspect of human existence. In times of crises like epidemics throughout history, ensuring a sufficient food supply has always been a crucial concern. Given that the agricultural sector plays a vital role in the food supply chain and maintaining sustainability in this sector is essential for food security, this study aims to identify and prioritize the factors that influence the sustainability of the agricultural supply chain, specifically focusing on the wheat crop, during and after the Corona era.

Based on the research background, the factors that impact the sustainability of the agricultural supply chain were determined. In the agricultural sector, like previous studies on supply chain sustainability, the study focused on the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. However, experts suggest that the study is more centered on these three dimensions, which are particularly significant in the agricultural industry. By utilizing the Fuzzy Delphi method, 28 sub-criteria related to these hidden sustainability variables were identified. The Fuzzy DEMATEL method was then employed to examine cause-and-effect relationships and the interaction between criteria. Finally, the Fuzzy method was used to determine the degree of importance and weight of these criteria.

To achieve sustainable agriculture, research centers should prioritize the necessary research in this field, as highlighted by Sharghi et al. (2010). Farmers who possess more information about sustainability have been found to have more sustainable farms, confirming a direct correlation between these two factors (Afrous & Abdollahzadeh, 2011). The outcomes of the present study align with previous research, demonstrating that the level of attention given by research organizations to required research on sustainability is the most influential criterion within the causal group of sustainable procurement with a weight of 3.34, it holds the highest importance in the ranking according to the SWARA method. Updating and sharing information in DEMATEL's method has the fourth highest impact on other factors in the cause-and-effect group. However, in the SWARA's method was found to be the second most important factor, with a weight of 0.2403. Another study confirmed that the three main limitations of sustainable wheat production are the farmers' limited knowledge, lack of approved and resistant seeds, and inadequate management systems, especially for weeds. The use of local suppliers, specifically utilizing stored seeds from farmers, can lead to the spread of diseases and an increase in weed populations (Husenov et al., 2017). The proliferation of weeds leads to the squandering of production resources and a decrease in production levels. The most impactful factor for the sustainability of the wheat supply chain, as determined by the causal group, is the requirement of collaborating with an ISO-certified supplier. This criterion holds a significant weight of 0.4915 and is essential for achieving sustainable supply and design. Recognizing the significance of this criterion is crucial to enhance production and mitigate the risk of potential diseases. However, farmers, due to the expensive cost of modified seeds, resort to utilizing seeds from their previous crop. Based on the Fuzzy DEMATEL method, water consumption management ranked fifth among the criteria that influence other criteria. However, according to the Fuzzy SWARA method, it ranked second with a weight of 0.251. With water resources being scarce in the region, it is crucial to use water efficiently and prevent wastage, as this will positively impact productdid not support the significance of stopping gray marketing of products. According to experts, this study determined that the most effective criteria for the causal group in stabilizing the agricultural supply chain of wheat products during the Covid-19 era is to stop gray marketing. This criterion received the highest degree of importance, with a weight of 0.4469, in the dimension of sustainable distribution.Imports decreased because of the restrictions and quarantine measures, which led to a shortage of seeds for crops like wheat that relied on imports. Social distancing measures also caused a shortage of labor in agriculture, leading to a significant reduction in farming activities. By focusing on supply and sustainable design during epidemics and crises, there is an ability increased to manage the supply chain and positively impact other aspects of production sustainability.

Based on the results obtained, increasing farmers' awareness, and utilizing approved seeds can prevent resource wastage and enhance the stability of the supply chain. Additionally, reducing gray market activities can contribute to the supply chain's stability and ultimately enhance food security. Effective management of water consumption is also crucial for ensuring the sustainability of the supply chain, particularly due to the water scarcity crisis in the region. Enhancing the stability of the supply chain not only facilitates resilience during crises like Covid-19 but also promotes self-sufficiency in producing agricultural products essential for Iranian households, including wheat, which is a fundamental necessity.

Due to the negative effects of agricultural production activities on the environment, especially water and soil pollution, one of the most important decisions in the agricultural sector is the optimal allocation of resources. In this study, an attempt was made to propose an optimal cultivation pattern for crops in Shiraz County with a multi-objective approach based on the water-food and environment nexus. The goals of this research include maximizing economic benefit, minimizing water consumption, minimizing fertilizer and chemical pesticide consumption, and maximizing food security. To solve the multi-objective programming model, the weight Lp metric method was used. The information required in this study included information on the production pattern, consumption of inputs, price, and performance of significant crops in Shiraz city in the crop year of 2019-2020, which was collected through library documents and completed a questionnaire by random sampling method. The results of the study showed that the area under cultivation of most of the crops of this County is reduced in the optimal pattern with the combination of goals. Onion crop was not prioritized and the area under cultivation of cucumber, lentils, barley, and beans is increasing. In total, this model will be able to reduce water consumption in the agricultural sector by 10.75%. The 10.26 percent reduction in the cultivated area of Shiraz County is associated with a 10.60 percent reduction in chemical fertilizers and a 10.37 percent reduction in chemical toxins. However, the cost of managing the consumption of production resources in this model will be a 9.71% reduction in the profit of the farmers of this city. Therefore, if the policymaker tends to lean toward environmental goals, he should consider that the main incentive for farmers to produce is economic incentives for production. Therefore, policymakers should find suitable solutions to make the farmers follow the proposed model.

Sustainability of agricultural businesses is one of the significant factors to reach sustainable economic development. As a result, the goal of this study was to examine both internal and external factors that affect the sustainability of agricultural businesses in the province of Golestan. In this descriptive-survey study, 160 samples were chosen using G-power software from a statistical population of agribusiness owners (N= 124280) in the province who were active in various areas of the food supply chain. A researcher-made questionnaire served as the study's measurement instrument, and the reliability of the tool was determined by calculating Cronbach's alpha and it was validated by receiving expert judgments. Software such as SMARTPLS4 were used for the data analysis. According to the findings, the individual and family index had the least impact on business sustainability, with a coefficient of 0.199, and the economic-financial index, with a coefficient of 0.332 had the greatest impact. Additionally, the political-legal index with a coefficient of 0.224 and the index of promotional interventions (external-organizational) with a coefficient of 0.203 had the largest and least impact on business sustainability, respectively. Additionally, the results showed that external organizational elements rather than internal organizational factors have a bigger influence on the sustainability of agricultural businesses. According to the findings, it is advised that the government should provide more favorable conditions for the sustainability of agricultural business through reforming and strengthening its policies by applying flexible procedures and systems and removing legal obstacles

The purpose of this research is to identify the components and indicators of the development of corporate social responsibility based on the components of competitive advantage, which has been implemented by focusing on the functions and duties assigned to international commerce chambers. This research has been done in two stages. The first stage was carried out using the fuzzy Delphi technique with the aim of identifying social responsibility indicators. At this stage, the statistical sample consisted of 30 academic experts and high managers of commerce chambers who were selected in a targeted manner. In the second stage, a quantitative approach was used to screen and confirm the identified categories. In this part, the statistical sample included 357 experts of commerce chambers and they were selected by random cluster method among different provinces. The findings of this study showed four dimensions in the form of 12 components and 46 indicators for the corporate social responsibility of commerce chambers. The environmental dimension has four components: "sustainability", "efficiency", "green cities" and "efficient infrastructure", the ethical dimension has two components: "responsiveness to stakeholders" and "social justice", the economic dimension has four components: "entrepreneurial economy". "competitive economy", "producer economy" and "efficient economy" and the legal dimension also have two components: "complying with requirements in upstream documents" and "fulfilling obligations to all stakeholders". Therefore, it is suggested to take measures based on knowledge and communication and information innovations to promote corporate social responsibility based on the components of the competitive advantage of international commerce chambers.

Currently, the agricultural food supply chain is facing many challenges including the increase in the diversity of consumer demand, quality, product safety, and unsustainable growth, as well as many challenges including environmental, economic, and social concerns. Despite its importance, unfortunately, until now, there has been very little coherent and coordinated research on identifying and solving the challenges in this field. On the other hand, a wide range of indicators for monitoring and evaluating sustainability issues in the field of agri-food are seen sporadically, but a few of them are specifically related to this field. Therefore, this research aimed to provide a model of effective indicators of the sustainable supply chain of agricultural food and to increase attention to the research results obtained using a systematic review approach. To identify accurately the indicators by searching in the databases, 74 articles in the field of the sustainable supply chain of food and agriculture were reviewed separately. Finally, 40 articles were selected until the beginning of 2023 and analyzed to reveal the prospects and research gaps in this field. Previous studies have focused individually on the aspects of identification, safety food safety, and performance evaluation, but the simultaneous examination of the supply chain of agricultural food sustainability with other indicators involved in this field has rarely been investigated. The main category of key performance criteria and indicators (i.e. efficiency, flexibility, responsiveness, product quality, and reliability) have been identified as effective indicators in this field. A new concept for evaluating and identifying indicators, chain challenges provide an agricultural food supply that includes sustainability indicators and other relevant indicators along with special indicators.

Due to the negative effects of agricultural production activities on the environment, especially water and soil pollution, one of the most important decisions in the agricultural sector is the optimal allocation of resources. This decision should be in such a way that while maximizing the profit of farmers, it will result in less environmental effects. This action is often done by determining the optimal cropping pattern (CP). In this research, by quantifying the economic, social and environmental effects, a compatible CP with agricultural resources was presented by using a multi-objective planning model.

The social effects of different agricultural crops were calculated using various indicators such as social solidarity, social security, participation and quality of life through interviews with farmers. The environmental effects and economic efficiency of the CP were also considered through the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA) and gross margin per ha, respectively. Further, by calculating socio-economic and environmental indicators, the optimal CP was formulated by developing a multi-objective function based on maximizing profit, reducing water and fertilizer consumption, reducing negative environmental effects of production and improving social indicators. In order to solve the multiple programming model, the method of weighted LP-metric model was used. The information required in this study included information on the production pattern, consumption of inputs, price and yeild of major agricultural crops of Sari County.

The results showed that considering the social indicators, the least attention of the farmers was related to corn and onion, and the five priority crops were identified as wheat, cotton, lentils, rice and canola, respectively. The results of LCA showed that the cultivation of tobacco, canola and corn in this city have the most negative environmental effects. In the optimal CP by combining economic, social and environmental goals, alfalfa, cotton and corn were removed from the stydy area, and the cultivated area of cucumber and clover showed positive changes compared to the current pattern. Also, the cultivated area of the cereal decreaseed in the areaChanges in the cultivated area of barley were predicted more than wheat and rice. The total cultivated area reduced by 15%, resulting in 12.91% and 14.46% reduction in water and fertilizer consumption, respectively. In addition, the efficiency of the program in the studied area decreased by 12.97%.

The development of environmental goals in the implementation of CP programs requires that policymakers consider appropriate economic incentives for farmers. Therefore, policy makers should find suitable solutions to make the farmers to follow the proposed CP.

The purpose of this study, Investigate the differences between the villages of Gachsaran from the perspective of sustainable development by using a collection of indicators and to compare different methods of measurement and classification using indices combined. The reliability of the components of the top 6/0 of the questionnaire was to analyze the data was performed by software spss. The study population included 300 gardeners Gachsaran city. Considering Morgan - Jersey sample of 169 persons was estimated, the purpose of the random sampling method was used. For grading, the 19 indicators from the areas of economic, social and environmental identification and data corresponding to 11 villages in Gachsaran County were collected. To provide a composite indicator, the two methods were used Morris and Mr Granahan indicators combined for calculating villages and categorized. Based on this classification, the general Amamzadhjfr villages and Tlkhabshyryn ranked first and second were stable.It is suggested that the government prevent the drilling of wells for each garden and use the wells cooperatively to prevent excessive use of groundwater.

In recent decades, the agricultural sector in most developing countries has been influenced by a variety of government interventionist policies aimed at supporting this sector in comparison with other economic sectors. These policies cover a wide range of interventions that directly or indirectly affect the price and market of these products. In Iran, the agricultural sector and its sub-sectors have also been affected by these policies in recent decades. These interventions have been done mainly through controlling the price of goods, imposing quotas or paying subsidies on their production inputs. On the other hand, with increasing pressure for production and cultivation level, the sustainability of the exploitation system has been challenged, so the purpose of this study is to analyze the policy system of the agricultural sector and provide supportive strategies for optimal cultivation and sustainable development. The statistical population of this study in the first part to measure sustainability using the AHP method is experts and experts in the agricultural sector and in the second part secondary information is obtained from the Agricultural Jihad Organization, Regional Water, Statistics Center of Iran and .... Finally, 11 scenarios were developed and implemented in the Hamadan-Bahar plain using GAMS software. The results of the research for each of the studied scenarios showed that in using each scenario, the best scenario should be considered according to the upstream documents and the characteristics of the region,

Sustainable management of thesupply chain has a special place in thesupply of products to thefinal consumer.Iran's pistachio industry is also very important in providing foreign exchange and improving thecountry's trade balance.Therefore, reforming thesupply chain through theexpansion of knowledge and awareness will greatly contribute to thegreater competitiveness of this industry in theglobal market and thestability of thesupply chain.Therefore, thepresent study seeks to investigate theeffect of thelevel of knowledge and awareness of customers on improving thesustainability of thepistachio product supply chain in Iran from the experts' point of view.This research was applied interms of purpose, which was done with a mixed approach.In thequalitative stage, thestudied population included20experts of Iran's pistachio industry, who were selected through thewebsite of theIranian Pistachio Association, using thepurposeful snowball sampling method.In thequantitative stage, thestatistical population included156people from thefield of pistachio industry,130 people were determined according to Cochran'sformula and simple random sampling was used.In thequalitative part, thematic analysis method was used to identify the categories and concepts, and in thequantitative part, thestructural equation modeling method was used with SmartPLS3 software to analyze therelationships between thevariables.Based on theobtained results, in thequalitative section,55concepts were identified in theform of 6main categories. Also, theresults of thequantitative section showed that the categories of agricultural knowledge have a direct effect on processing knowledge, processing knowledge on warehousing and transportation knowledge,warehousing and transportation knowledge on marketing and distribution knowledge,marketing and distribution knowledge on support and service knowledge.Also, allthe categories, except the marketing and distribution category, which wasnot approved, have a direct impact on sustainable supplychain management.

As for the key role of the agricultural sector in providing food to the human being, the proper utilization of soil and water resources is necessary. To maintain sustainability in the growth rate of agricultural production and saving vital environmental elements from damages done by excess use of chemical inputs, an appropriate price policy of chemical inputs is essential. Therefore, in this research, an attempt is made to quantify the effects of chemical inputs price policy on cropping patterns and consumption of these inputs. For this research 4, price scenarios including 50%, 100%, 200%, and 500% increase in prices of chemical inputs are used. Both primary and secondary data were utilized. in this research Results showed that the gross margin of farmers under all 4, scenario decreases, the area under crops that used more fertilizers and pesticides reduced and that of those consume lesser amounts of chemicals and fertilizers increased. Suggestion: As the gross margin of farmers decreases by the implementation of these scenarios to encourage them to implement price policies especially policies of increasing prices of chemical inputs by 200% and 500% providing fiscal as well as the technical incentive to the farmers is essential.

Kheirabad river basin is part of Zohre-Jarahi basin which is rich in surface water resources. But unprincipled usage of water and soil resources and also increasing water harvesting under climate change reduced the ability of the basin to respond to water demand. Reducing water storage of the Kowsar Dam as a result of reducing surface water inflows, make a concern to meet the future water demand at the basin. Therefore, the management of water resources in this basin is essential. In this study, we used a systemic approach to identify the factor affecting water supply and demand along with feedback and interaction between different elements for studying the behavior of the water resources system over time. The results of the study showed that the available surface water decrease and groundwater balance will be negative. Also, population growth and development of the agricultural sector will lead to an increasing trend in water demand and an increase in the surface and groundwater resources withdraw. Under these circumstances, water scarcity index is increasing and the water system sustainability index is smaller than the unit. The results also revealed that under business as usual (B.a.U) condition, the vulnerability index and maximum deficit of the water system are 0.119 and 0.213, and the reliability and sustainability indices are 0.50 and 0.703, respectively. Therefore, according to the results, the probability of not meeting the increasing demand of water, thus increasing the population and the level of crop cultivation, is predicted by using available water resources during the study period. Therefore, it is necessary to apply demand-side and supply-side management policies in Kheirabad River Basin. Among water demand-side management policies, increasing irrigation efficiency and changing crop pattern, by increasing the sustainability index from 0.703 to 1, are the most efficient policies. Besides, decreasing per capita water consumption plays an important role in increasing the water sustainability index in the basin.

Natural resources are valuable gifts that God has granted to humane who benefit from it carelessly. Proper and fair use of these resources is human task that any person directly or indirectly associated with it. Thus, considering public participation in environmental conservation is a matter of great concern. In this regard, this study aimed to examine the challenges and strategies for attracting public participation in environmental conservation projects in rural areas. A survey was conducted among intermediate managers of the department of natural resources and watershed of Zanjan province (N=132). 105 of managers were surveyed based on random sampling. The main tool of this study was questionnaire; face validity of which was approved by a panel of experts. For determining the reliability of questionnaire, Cronbaches' alpha coefficient was calculated which for the main scale of questionnaire (α>0.7). Analysis of data was done with SPSS/windows. The results of factor analysis indicated that from respondents' viewpoint challenges to public participation in environmental conservation projects were categorized in four-factor including; "lack of projects quick impact", "lack of familiarity with the techniques of participation," "the lack of legal criteria for people and government agent about participation" and "lack of attention to people's demands". Totally, these four factors could explain 65.78 percent of the total variance. Furthermore, from respondents' viewpoint strategies of public participation in environmental conservation projects were categorized in the three factors including: "counseling with people and participatory monitoring", "informing people about the project" and "financial support and incentives" that totally explained 69.10 percent of total variance.

One of the most difficult duties for public decision-makers is to select a practical and legal instrument to receive water tariffs in the agricultural water pricing policies. This study aimed at analyzing the potential consequences of different instruments for irrigation water pricing (area, volumetric and two-part tariff) and their effects on the sustainability of irrigated lands with respect to economic, social and environmental impacts. For this purpose, farmers’ behavior in response to pricing instruments was simulated through positive mathematical programming and the composite indicators were calculated for sustainability measurement of different instruments in these irrigation water pricing policies using Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP). The required data were collected in two-stage cluster sampling by 120 questionnaires completed from farmers under the irrigation network of Qazvin Plain in Iran as well as opinions and experiences of experts and documentary data. The results showed that the implementation of the studied irrigation water pricing policy instruments had negative impacts on economic sustainability indicator (i.e. profitability) and social sustainability indicator (i.e. employment) and a positive impact only on environmental sustainability indicators; and water consumption increased in area pricing and decreased in volumetric and two-part tariff pricing. In addition, the overall sustainability index in two-part tariff was higher than other water pricing instruments. Therefore, a two-part tariff pricing policy and adoption of alternative policies to achieve complete sustainability and compensate for the negative effects of this pricing policy were recommended.

Fishery is an important activity in terms of trade, income, livelihoods, food and nutrition security especially to fishing communities living close to the coast. Therefore, Fishery is an essential part of sustainable development goals. High-level experts emphasize the enormous potential of oceans and seas for wielding so much influence in offering solution to one of the greatest humanitarian crises such as rapid population growth and meeting their basic needs (High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security). The concepts of sustainability are greatly connected to "sustainable development"; as it is the development of resources for human use that modifies natural ecosystems. One of the scientific and practical ways of achieving sustainability, as first step, is evaluating or measuring sustainability. In this article, a participatory multi-criteria approach is used to evaluate the sustainability of Iranian fisheries in the Persian Gulf as a case study.

Given that the fishery is a multidimensional human activity, and for the purpose of decision-making and management, sustainability assessment is necessary in all its dimensions. Among scientific approaches, multi-criteria decision-making methods have been evaluated as a formal and scientific method for assessing sustainability. Rapfish introduces a rapid appraisal technique to evaluate the sustainability status of fisheries, with a multidimensional view at the issue of sustainability in fisheries and based on a multi-criteria approach.
 

The importance of each of dimensions for Persian Gulf is expressed by weights for three groups of stakeholders separately. Weights are obtained based on a pairwise comparison between dimensions using the AHP method for each groups. Finally, the overall weight is calculated using the arithmetic mean. For example, for the researchers groups, the ecological weight 0.43 show that ecological dimension is more important than other dimensions, while the managers groups consider the management dimension (0.35) and technological (0.22) have more weight than other dimensions. For fishermen, as the exploiters of the Persian Gulf, the economic dimension is more important which has weight of 0.41 in first priority compared to other dimensions, followed by technological dimension (0.22) and social dimension (0.21). Overall weight indicates the importance of dimensions in terms of three groups of stakeholders. For Persian Gulf, ecological and economic dimensions are equally important and dimensions of social (0.19), technological (0.17) and management (0.18) are of almost the same importance. The average score for each dimension was obtained according to the mean value of the sustainability score for each system. Based on this ecological dimension, with an average sustainability score of 37.8% in a less sustainable situation, social and management dimensions with less than 50% are also less stable(sustainable). Regarding the average sustainability score, the activities of the fishing systems in the Persian Gulf are in a sustainable state in the economic (65%) and technical (64%) areas. 

Considering the importance of the issue of fishery sustainability in the Persian Gulf, this study identify the exact dimensions of sustainability based on the fundamental studies conducted in the world and the views of local stakeholders in Iran. The evaluation is carried out in five dimensions: ecological, economic, social, technological, and management, and the significance of each of these dimensions is measured from the perspective of three different groups of stakeholders. The importance of each of these dimensions is measured from the perspective of three different groups of stakeholders. The results indicate the importance of all five dimensions, and three ecological, economic, and social dimensions are prominent. Based on this result, it is suggested that managers, policymakers and stakeholders in the south of Iran pay attention to all dimensions and also policies and plans should cover all of them. Since without a holistic view, it is doubtful to move towards sustainable fishery in Persian Gulf. In the next step, using conventional methods, the importance of indicators for each dimension is determined based on local stakeholders' opinion. In fact, these dimensions and indicators are validated and localized for Iran.

Today, may countries have prioritized the tourism industry for sustainable and sustainable growth. Among the different forms of tourism, agricultural tourism can be one of the ways to reduce farmers' risk as a complementary agricultural activity, Because agriculture is affected by many uncontrollable factors. But to prevent the negative effects of agricultural tourism development, a strong interaction between different aspects of agricultural tourism needs to be established. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the sustainability of agricultural tourism through sustainability indices in three economic, social and environmental dimensions. To achieve this goal, the required data and information were collected in six top tourism-agricultural cities of Kerman province in 2017 using documentary method and questionnaire and survey of Delphi tourism and agricultural experts. Then, using mathematical programming model with the help of Spss, Excel and Gams software, the level of sustainability of agricultural tourism is practically determined in the selected cities. The results show that due to the available facilities and lack of proper infrastructure, the environmental dimension of agricultural tourism is not acceptable and has an inappropriate status compared to other aspects of agricultural tourism. The stability of this dimension was obtained in Kerman, Bam, Jiroft, Rafsanjan, Sirjan and Zarand respectively, 0.191, 0.226, 0.182, 0.122, 0.132 and 0.109, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary for the development of agricultural tourism to pay more attention to the principles of sustainability and protection of the environment, while achieving the benefits of agricultural tourism and preventing its environmental damage to sustainable development.

Attaining sustainable food security in Iran, as a country located in arid and semi-arid region requires overcoming many challenges including limited basic resources (water and arable land), improving food safety and health and increasing productivity of agroecosystems as well as reconstructing market and affordability to food. Climate change has further threatened country’s capabilities for sustainability of agricultural systems. Reconsideration for intensive farming due to diminished quality and quantity of water, soil, and biodiversity resources which are caused by long time conventional practices is a necessity for providing sustainability of agroecosystems in Iran. Food security, however, should not be declined in the process; so, we need a new paradigm of “sustainable intensification” which integrates food security and meanwhile ecological sustainability of these systems. Sustainable intensification is a prerequisite of adaptation to climate change in Iran, as adaptation needs to reduce water consumption and increase water use efficiency (WUE), optimize soil tillage and management and maximize productivity of whole production chain. This would be done in triple steps of 1- reducing input consumption, 2- replacing conventional inputs and practices by integrated and sustainable ones and 3- recreating and redesigning climate- resilient agroecosystems. Opportunities and challenges of the duty is reviewed in the text.     

Evaluation of Agricultural Sustainability Indicators With regard to important categories such as climate change, water and land resources crisis, conservation is an important factor. In this research, the indicators of sustainable agricultural technology protection have been evaluated. For this purpose, data were collected by distributing questionnaires among 375 wheat cultivars in Marvdasht city.To analyze the data, financial analysis and hierarchical analysis process (AHP) were used. The results of financial analysis showed that protection agriculture led to a reduction of labor force by 29.73%,Reduction in labor force, 48.28% reduction in water use, 25% decrease in machinery use, 17.63% seed reduction, 17.98% reduction in fertilizer, 29.03% decrease in chemical pesticides and 19.69% increase in wheat yield,Also, each hectare of agricultural protection in comparison with conventional agriculture, from 21.76% more income, 3743 rials less per kilogram of wheat production and 24715 rials more profit. The results of AHP showed that among the main criteria for sustainability of agricultural conservation are environmental, economic and social indicators.

The use of chemical inputs seriously threaten the sustainability of crop production due to the erosion and destruction of soil health, in such a way that it has been always put into question and concerns for it have been growing. The current study was conducted to investigate the factors influensing the application of chemical fertilizers in saffron farms in Gonabad County. To this end, the descriptive-correlation research method was used. The study statistical population consisted of all saffron farmers in Gonabad. Proportional random sampling procedure was used in which 105 saffron farmers were selected. The data collection tool was a questionnaire that its. Face validity  was confirmed by the professors of agricultural economics. Also, the reliability of questions related to attitude towards sustainable agriculture was evaluated by conducting a pilot study in which the Cronbach’s alpha was calculated as 0.698. Afterwards, a two-stage Heckman model was carried out to investigate factors affecting the use of chemical fertilizers. Based on the results, the coefficient of attitude towards sustainable agriculture in both stages was negative and significant, which represents that improvement of farmers' attitude effectively reduces the use of chemical fertilizers. While the coefficients of variables of farmers' income, age, education level, and agricultural insurance are positive and significant in both stages and increase the probability and amount of using fertilizers by farmers. Based on the findings, adopting appropriate strategies for familiarizing saffron farmers with sustainable agricultural practices, luding trust of reliable and experienced farmers to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, and reforming the structure of agricultural insurance system plays a decisive role in improving the farmers’ consumption pattern of chemical fertilizers.

Today, the aquaculture industry has a special status as one of the most important economic sub-sectors in providing food security, trade, job creation and depriving rural areas of the world. This study was aimed to determine the factors affecting sustainable aquaculture in Lorestan province. This applied research is conducted in a survey method and its descriptive-correlative research type. The statistical population consisted of all fishery farms in Lorestan province. The sample size was determined by using Cochran formula. In this study, the sustainability of aquaculture farms is derived from the combination of three indicators of sustainability (ecological, economic, and social). Results show that the level of sustainability is moderate. It was also found that there is a positive and significant relationship between the farmers technical characteristics, the extensional education activities, total sustainability, the authorized use amount of disinfectants, the number of in-service training courses, the temperature of water entering the farm, the number of training courses prior to the activity and the water cost, totally explained of 44.3% of the total variations in depended variable. In order to sustainability increase of these farms, training courses about nutrition management, cost management, disinfectant management, fish farming cooperatives, and the technical considerations of fishery experts are recommended.

Determinants of behavioral change toward organic farming among the farmers of Bushehr province was the main purpose of the study. Data collection was accomplished using survey and a sample of 101 farmers was selected using stratified random sampling from the counties of Bushehr, Dayyer and Jom-o-riz. Face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a group of professors and specialists of agricultural research center. The reliability was also confirmed by a pilot study with 30 farmers out of the study region and the Cronbach`s alpha was computed in a range of 0.60 to 0.91. Findings revealed that farmers have been used biological control techniques as well as green fertilizers more than the other methods of organic farming. According to the causal model, agricultural background, the use of communicative media and its effectiveness, attitude toward conventional agricultural consequences, knowledge about organic farming, attitude toward reference group, attitude toward environment and human health and attitude toward organic farming are affecting factors of organic farming activities by the farmers. Finally, some recommendations were presented: Selection and training of the educated individuals in order to promote organic farming in the area, facilitating the basic factors for this modern way of farming, assigning this task to the centers of agricultural extension and services, enhancement of scientific and practical skills of the experts and extension agents in terms of organic farming and healthy products.