Factors Affecting the Saffron Land Integration of Ghaenat, Iran: A generalized order logit approach

Saffron is one of the strategic products of the agricultural sector in Iran’s South Khorasan province, the second largest producer which has a special place in Iran's non-oil exports. Unfortunately, the dispersion of saffron lands and the existence of smallholder units, while increasing costs and reducing yields, have made it difficult to use new technology and implement modern irrigation projects and has reduced the profit, productivity and production efficiency of saffron growers in the region so that in recent years, many saffron growers have gradually devoted saffron lands to other crops. Land consolidation strategy is of great economic and agricultural importance. This strategy can lead to the optimal use of production inputs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the land integration by saffron growers in Ghaenat county in South Khorasan province. In the completed questionnaire, lands were divided into three levels of small, medium and large-scale farms in terms of size. The results showed that the final effects of the variables of number of households, new technology and tools, knowledge of new production methods, existence of risk in production and performance have been effective on the integration of saffron farmers' lands in both medium and large land levels. In level 2 lands with medium scale (between 3 to 5 hectares), the variables of yield, technology and new tools and knowledge of new methods of saffron production have a significant negative, negative and positive effect on the use of medium scale lands, respectively. Level 3 lands (large scale), the effect of two variables on the number of households and the existence of risk in saffron production on land integration and use of large-scale lands have been negative and significant and the three variables of saffron yield per hectare, new technology and tools and Knowledge of new methods of saffron production with sizes of 0.003, 0.16 and 0.06, respectively, has a positive and significant effect on land integration or large-scale land use. Therefore, by increasing the yield of saffron per hectare, new technology and tools and knowledge of new production methods provide better conditions for land integration and large-scale land use. Therefore, it is suggested that by awareness and informing saffron farmers about new technology and tools, as well as by training and acquiring more specialized knowledge in the field of saffron production, farmers from land integration or the use of large-scale lands in order to improve efficiency and productivity will be further supported.