Analysis of Barriers to the Creation and Development of Organic Wheat Production Business and Providing Solutions: A Case of Wheat Growers in Markazi Province

Agribusinesses that follow conventional approach, due to overuse of off-farm inputs threaten ecosystem services, environmental health and human life. Insisting on the continuation of these type of businesses will threaten the sustainable livelihoods of the rural population, as well as the lives and health of consumers. Therefore, to deal with these threats, the creation and development of organic production businesses is an inevitable necessity.The present study sought to first identify and prioritize the challenges of creating and developing organic wheat production business and then introduce appropriate solutions to remove these obstacles and challenges.

The present study used the Delphi technique to identify and prioritize the barriers and solutions of the creation and development of organic wheat production business. Using snowball sampling, 21 Agriculture-Jahad specialists of Markazi province were selected to participate in two rounds of Delphi technique. The data from the semi-structured interview of the first round were coded using the content analysis and then were compiled as a Likert scale and again provided to the experts for scoring. The coefficient of variation was used to end the Delphi technique and the normalized weight index was used to prioritize the variables.

The results revealed that lack of initial capital, lack of government support for organic wheat production due to the dominance of self-sufficiency policy, improper marketing, insufficient knowledge and skills and low motivation along with long period of transition and lack of insurance coverageas were the most important challenges respectively and the formation of a wheat growers’ cooperative, the payment of low-interest facilities, training and extension, crop insurance and guaranteed purchase along with supplying inputs were the most important solutions respectively.

In short, in this study an economic challenge i.e. insufficient initial capital has been introduced as the first and most important obstacle for creating and developing the organic wheat production business and a policy issue i.e., lack of government support for organic wheat production due to the dominance of self-sufficiency policy has been introduced as the second important obstacle. Other challenges, namely marketing, cognitive and psychological problems, are overshadowed by these two challenges and are in the next ranks. The interesting thing is that given the challenges, a social action, i.e., organizing wheat farmers in the form of a production cooperative, has been introduced as the first and most important solution to address the challenges and reduce their adverse effects. So that other measures such as payment of facilities, holding training and extension courses, insurance, guaranteed purchase of the products and supply of inputs within it and through it will be facilitated, accelerated and implemented.