The relationships between agrobiodiversity and socioeconomic factors in Kashan county of Iran

In order to study agrobiodiversity and the factors which affect it، a study was conducted in six villages of Kashan county in Iran in 2011. Villages were Nahsalj، Borzabad، Sensen، Hassanabad، Shadian and Vidoja. All villages except for Nashalj were in plain areas while Nashalj was situated in a mountainous area. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to gather information about the species diversity and socioeconomic characteristics of the villages. Households were considered as sampling units for this study. Simpson diversity index (SDI) was calculated as a criterion of agrobiodiversity status. Stepwise regression was used to find out the contributing factors to SDI. Results indicated that there were significant differences between villages in case of all socioeconomic variables except for the percentage of income from non-agricultural sector and the number of land pieces. Results showed that all villages had relatively high SDI indicating that agrobiodiversity was satisfactory in all villages. Hassanabad and Sensen villages had the highest (0. 88) and lowest (0. 69) diversity، respectively. It was also revealed that the percentage of income from agronomy and livestock sectors، experience of farming and the percentage of income from non-agricultural sector were the four most influencing variables of SDI. Overall، it was concluded that agrobiodiversity in Kashan is relatively in good status and a combination of farmers'' experience and higher income from agronomy and livestock sectors favors agrobiodiversity in this county.