مجله پژوهشهای راهبردی در علوم کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی
سال پنجم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1399)

There are now millions of hectares of transgenic cultivation worldwide while the scientific community is still questioning the long-term effects of transgenic foods on human health and the environment. Organic advocates believe that genetic manipulation will alter the characteristics of the food product, some of which are useful and some undesirable. They believe that food products that have not been approved for a long period of time, should not be used. On the other hand, they say that transgenic crops can become dominant in the environment and even endanger some of the natural plants as genetic germplasm sources in the flora of the world. Transgenic crops have made up a large part of the world's agricultural industry. Currently, the level of transgenic crop cultivation has increased more than 100folds since 1996 and reached 189.8-million hectares in 2017. Different countries have made different decisions about production and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In some countries, their production is permitted while their consumption is unauthorized. In some other countries the production of these products is unauthorized and there are countries where the use of evaluated transgenic products is not prohibited but it should be clearly indicated on the food label that it is transgenic in order to make a conscious consumer choice. The Iran Food and Drug Administration recently announced that these products need to be labeled as transgenic. Currently, the area under cultivation of organic crops is estimated to be about 40-million hectares in the world and about 84-thousand hectares in Iran.

Southern coastal zones of Iran are divided into Persian Gulf and Mokran regions. These areas have subtropical and arid-warm climate with relatively long hot summers and short and slightly cool winters. According to greenhouse development program, it is planned to add 48350 hectares to the greenhouses during a ten-year period. The southern coastal zones are projected to have a share of about 13000 hectares from this development. Water scarcity, harsh climatic conditions, need for increasing agricultural productivity, need to alleviate poverty and improve people's livelihoods, and possibility of exporting products to Arab countries, have increased the need for greenhouse cultivation in Iran’s southern coastal zones, with the use of special and inexpensive structures. In this article, while analyzing the climatic conditions of each province of the coastal zone, attempt has been made to present the type and technical characteristics of controlled environments suitable for plant cultivation in each province. In this regard, for south of Sistan and Balouchestan province as a subtropical region, naturally ventilated greenhouses with permanent roof and side opening vents, dome-shade net houses and flat-roof shade net houses were suggested. For south of Hormozgan province with warm-humid climate, naturally ventilated greenhouses with the ability to open and close roof and side vents were recommended. For Boushehr province as well as for south of Khuzestan province, naturally ventilated greenhouses with the ability to open and close roof and side vents with higher ventilation ratio and with supplemental heating systems were recommended.

Access to reliable and sustainable water resources is increasingly threatened by increased needs of developing community in a region. The inter-basin water transfer option is considered as an “uncommon” alternative to overcome limitations of fresh water. The purpose of this study is to investigate various aspects in decision making and planning of inter-basin water transfer projects. At the same time, positive and negative challenges, implications and limitations of the economic, social, environmental, hydrological, technical, and political aspects of such decisions in the origin and destination basins are being discussed and compared. According to projects considered in this study composition and role of various aspects in the evaluation and justification of water transfer plans vary with every specific situation. The complexity of the problem is that the contribution and effectiveness of these factors are not necessarily coordinated and cannot be generalized for other situations. Negative feedbacks from an inter-basin water transfer project can end up to be positive for another project. In general, the efficiency of inter-basin water transfer projects depends on a comprehensive approach based on integrated water resources management. A detailed understanding of the needs of the target basin should be coordinated with identifying the existing conditions and predicting future and long-term consequences of the project in the origin basin. All economic, social, cultural, hydrological, environmental, political and technical aspects of a project rely on the concept of sustainable development.

Some of the reproductive technologies have greatly improved the productivity of livestock in the developed countries. Many factors, which are often not optimal in every herd, affect the cost-benefit of such technologies, including the management, knowledge, expertise and attitude of the involved personnel, farmer’s economic and social conditions, to name a few. Artificial insemination (AI) is the most important biotechnology that its application, along with other technologies such as germ cell cryopreservation especially sperm freezing, can result in considerable improvement in genetics of animal production and distribution of the elite genotypes. Estrous synchronization and sex-sorted sperm technologies increase the efficiency of AI. Embryo transfer technology can improve the female reproduction; however, its application is much more costly, and it is not as effective as AI. In most developing countries, AI is often used for upgrading the native animals with imported semen, and less often for breeding of the native dams with the sperm of native males. Due to lack of effective and reliable methods of animal identification, recording systems, and defined animal breeding schemes, the more advanced technologies cannot be efficiently applied in these animals. The use of molecular markers is generally limited to the genetic identification studies which are often carried out with international collaboration. This paper describes the challenges of the application of assisted reproductive technologies and biotechnologies, with emphasis on the developing countries. When available, the information on Iran will also be presented.

Providing an appropriate model for accreditation of Agricultural and Natutal Recources Research Centers is a heavy duty for monitoring and evaluation of these centers. An accreditation is a process of validation in which academic institutions are evaluated. To do this, an accreditation council must first be formed which its focus is reflected in its belief, vision, mission and values. The standards for accreditation are set by a peer review board whose members include faculty members from the accredited institute and the other accredited centers. Therefore, research centers, with their own evaluation of accreditation program, may be able to develop a model for their ongoing performance monitoring. To this end, they must first form different agents or working groups according to their tasks and missions. Each working group defines the tables of objectives and indicators including main objectives, sub-main objectives, evaluation criteria, measurement indices, and achievement criteria. Measurement tool for the evaluation is a specialized questionnaire relevant to each working group together with the registered data of the evaluated institute. The questionnaire is filled by relevant target groups in the National Agricultural Research Centers in the country. The questionnaires are then collected and analyzed. One of the important outcomes of the evaluation is the motivation of the staff of evaluated center in attention to the importance and quality of research in the center and showing its current situation. In addition, the current status of the center will be determined in terms of its possible distance to the level of utility and standards.

Total aquatic production of the Islamic Republic of Iran has increased from 72105 tons in 1978 to 1282475 tons in 2019. In 2018, Iran ranked second in aquatic production in the Middle East and 19th in the world. Aqua culture production increased from 4935 tons in 1978 to 338,000 tons in 2012 and 526747 tons in 2019. From 2012 to 2018 total aquaculture products increased 44%, shrimp culture 371% and sturgeon culture 515%. There are also many potentials in this sector to diversify production, increase foreign exchange, provide food security and increase aquaculture production in the country. During the last five years, Hormozgan provinc (among the coastal provinces) and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province (among non-coastal provinces) had the best performance in increasing of aquaculture production. On the other hand, in terms of production indices in 2018, Mazandaran province was the best coastal province and Lorestan province was the best in non-coastal provinces. Also, in terms of productivity and employment indices, the best coastal province was Sistan and Baluchestan province and the best non-coastal province was Isfahan province. Growth rate of aquaculture is very high in world. In Iran, growth rate of aquaculture is similar to the world. Investment of the government on aquaculture is necessary for aquaculture growth.