A survey of water resources sustainability in agricultural sector of Dehgolan Country

Sustainability and water resources management is an important issue. Therefore, appropriate organization management of demand and regulating consumption patterns may build sustainable solutions for moderated in water resources dissipation. By having a proper planning respect to the utilization pattern of land (i.e. the optimal cropping pattern) we may manage the demand for water. The current study attempted to design cropping pattern, for the purpose of increasing the productivity of water resources in agricultural sector of Dehgolan County and apply respect to virtual water. The necessary data collected from 110 farms through simple random sampling and to find the cost of cultivation the statistical year book of agricultural organization used. The optimal cropping patterns were determined in three different scenarios such as increasing agricultural strategic crops price policy, with existence of strategic crops and use of total area under cultivation for the sample farms including Less than 10 hectares, between 10 to 20 hectares and more than 20 hectares. The result showed that, Wheat, potato, cucumber and alfalfa crops are main products in the cropping pattern for three groups of fields and according to the results of three concerns scenarios, the application of increasing price policy strategy had positive impact on the farmer's income and use of this policy along the policy use of available total land was more effective in the sustainability of water resources.