Investigating the Factors Affecting the Choice of Crops Cultivation (Case study: Savojbolagh and Karaj)

Allocation management is one of the main and well-known solutions for sustainable development in agriculture. The present research was undertaken aiming at investigation and determination of the factors affecting the choice of crops to be cultivated at Karaj and Savojbolagh, Iran. For this purpose, 9 factors affecting the choice of crops cultivation were investigated. Furthermore, energy efficiency and mechanization degree indices were calculated. Statistical population for the present research composed of farmers at two townships during 2012-2013 crop years. In order to gather required data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used whose reliability coefficient was found to be 0.91; Also, data from Agricultural Jihad Organization was utilized for this purpose. Obtained results indicated that, the factors “training and promotion” (with a correlation coefficient of 0.32) and “characteristics of technical and agronomic” (with a correlation coefficient of 0.06) have the maximum and minimum perceived usefulness, respectively. All effective factors of “characteristics of farming system” were found to be significant at 99%. In terms of energy efficiency indices, wheat, and in terms of mechanization degree, alfalfa, outperformed other crops investigated across two townships. Therefore, in order to approach sustainable agriculture and enhance importance coefficient of the factors such as climatic potential of different regions in selecting crops to be cultivated, one can go for farmers training and prepare required foundations for them. Accordingly, when it comes to cultivation of crops across Karaj and Savojbolagh, in the cases where agricultural input and energy consumption represent farmer's priorities, they may be recommended to cultivate wheat. Otherwise, where they have shortage of motor power, they may better going for alfalfa.