H. Amirnejad; A.R. Shahpouri; M. Taslimi
Abstract
Introduction: In today’s traditional agriculture and trade, it may not be possible to increase yields per hectare without applying some types of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By producing 950 thousand tons of rice Mazandaran province supplies 42% of rice of the country. In the internal and external ...
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Introduction: In today’s traditional agriculture and trade, it may not be possible to increase yields per hectare without applying some types of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By producing 950 thousand tons of rice Mazandaran province supplies 42% of rice of the country. In the internal and external studies, it has been dealt with the study of entering nitrate into water technically. According to the destructive effects of nitrogen water-soluble on health and to the fact that Mazandaran province is the main producer of rice in Iran and applying the fertilizers containing nitrate is common in rice cultivation; the purpose of this study was to examine the effective factors on the entrance of nitrate into groundwater in cultivating rice in Sari. The aim of the present study is also to examine the effective factors on absorption pure nitrogen in the water used to cultivate rice.
Materials and Methods: The dependent variable in this study indicates the amount of pure nitrogen used water by i th farmer that has been divided into three categories. Calculating the dependent variable is such that the total amount of urea consumed by farmer is obtained by interview with farmers, the dependent variable of the amount of Nitrate pollution used groundwater was divided into three classes of low, medium and high. Considering such studies and the nature of dependent variable of the present study, that is as ordered discrete, the best model to respond the research objective is to use logit ordered pattern, but if the parallel regression assumption has not been considered, the advanced generalized ordered logit pattern should be used. In generalized ordered logit, the estimating parameters of independent variables that have rejected the assumption of parallel regression, cannot be same for different groups or levels. In other words, each level not only has separate intercept but also different coefficients. In order to select the samples, simple random sampling method has been used. Data used in this section has been collected by survey research method in 2015 for Sari. In order to determine the sample size, a pre-study has been conducted based on Cochran relation. The sample size of farmers’ was set at 98 farmers but finally 106 questionnaires were completed. Estimating the model and their results were conducted through Stata v.12 software.
Results and Discussion: According to the results, the dependent variable has been divided into three groups. About 43% of rice producers are the farms who used a moderate amount of nitrate into water, but 64% of them used medium and high amount of nitrate pollution that should be noticed. The results of parallel regression test for individual independent variables showed that among 17 independent variables, seven variables have been violated the condition of parallel regression. Therefore, the generalized ordered logit model was used. The variable income that has not been violated the assumption of parallel regression, has the coefficient of 0.83 in the first and second groups, that has been significant at the level of 10%. It means that, by increasing the level of farmers’ income and stability of other conditions, the possibility that the farmer will be in the group with more pollution will increase. As expected, the significant variable such as applying animal fertilizer, paying water expenses and agreement with omitting subsidy have negative and significant effect on the amount of nitrate used water. In other words, by increase in each variable, the possibility of placing farmers in the group of more pollution decreases. If farmers’ income increases as one unit, the possibility of placing the farmer in the group of low pollution decreases 0.2 unit and placing in the group of high pollution increases 0.17 unit. Being familiar with cultivating organic production will increases the possibility of placing the farmer in the group of low pollution in 0.55 unit, while the possibility of placing in the group with high pollution increase in less amount. On the other hand, the more positive attitude in rice cultivator towards supportive and public organization, the possibility of their placing in the group of low pollution of Nitrate decreases 0.13 units and the possibility of their placement in the group of high pollution on Nitrate increases 0.11 units.
Conclusions: Based on the obtained results and coefficient for every level of dependent variable, entrance of Nitrate in to groundwater in cultivating rice in Sari and interpreting the final effects of significant variables, the recommendations are offered for optimal utilization of fertilizers containing Nitrate and improving health of groundwater in cultivating rice as follows According to the factors effective on income and this variable that cultivating rice could not afford life express of 77% of the surveyed people, public supportive, private and insurance organizations should pay specific attention to this significant and important section. Revising supportive policies of the supportive public and private organizations for rice cultivators can be effective so that the policy making should have been lead into facilitate solving production and improving the farmers’ income than subsidiary supports of fertilizers. Revising in owner share and share on transaction under the supervision organs of agriculture are recommended. Of course income support and facilitating the sales of owner farmer can avoid renting the farm. Applying natural fertilizers and being familiar with cultivating organic and healthy products, have placed the rice cultivator in the level of minimum usage of chemical fertilizer as well as nitrate entrance into groundwater. Therefore, promoting, advertising and encouraging farmers to cultivate organic can be a strategy accompanied with financial and security incentive and finally, it is recommended to design and perform efficient policy making of water market in Mazandaran province to approach the real price of water.
M. Jamalipour; A.R. Shahpouri; M. Ghorbani
Abstract
Introduction: Land use in the overall concept is said to be the type of using land in the current situation which contains all users in different sectors of agriculture, natural resources and the industry. Protecting land use is as follows: “Prevent the change of application of certain lands by their ...
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Introduction: Land use in the overall concept is said to be the type of using land in the current situation which contains all users in different sectors of agriculture, natural resources and the industry. Protecting land use is as follows: “Prevent the change of application of certain lands by their owners, if their change has negative natural, economic, political, cultural, or scientific effects”. Change of application of land is certainly the most important factor that will affect the protection of natural ecosystems. Thus, it is imperative to consider the importance of land use change from the perspective of environmental, economic, social and finally, its important aspects such as food security and the lack of planning for its realization and the changes that occur in these sectors.Factors affecting the development of land use change should be considered to finally be able to apply appropriate policies and strategic principles to reduce its negative effects.
Materials and Methods:Thestudy’s data and information were obtained by simple random sampling and through interviews and 60 questionnaires that were completed by farmers and rice farmers of Tonekabon city that all or part of their land use had been changed and the datahadbeen collected in 2012. For investigating the factors affecting agricultural land use changes, the Tobit model of Heckman’s two-step was used. In this paper, the relationship between the factors that influence decision to change land use and actions to land use change were investigated. The variables including family size, literacy, experience, number of garden plots, citrus cultivation, kiwi cultivation, the price per square meter of garden land, the price per kilograms of horticultural crops (citrus), the price per kilograms of horticultural products (kiwi), number of pieces of agricultural land, cultivated level, the price per kilograms of crop, the price per square meter of agricultural land, satisfaction of supporting institutions and garden and agricultural insurance were used in this study.
Results and Discussion: The estimated Probit model’s marginal effects showed that the variables of literacy, experience, citrus and kiwi cultivation, number of garden plots, the price per kilograms of horticultural products (kiwi), cultivated level, and the price per square meter of agricultural land have been positive signs that indicate a positive impact of these variables on the decision to change the use of land. The estimated linear regression model showed that the variables of number of garden plots, citrus cultivation, kiwi cultivation, the price per kilograms of horticultural crops (citrus), number of pieces of agricultural land, cultivated level and garden and agricultural insurance have been positive signs that indicate the positive impact of these variables on the action to change the use of land. Due to significant coefficients of the quantitative variables that influence the rate of change in land use, cultivation of citrus fruits is dedicated to most positive effects. As well, satisfaction of supporting institutions also has the most negative role as a dummy variable.
Conclusion: The issues of land use change, prevention of land destruction and preservation of land, are of the main challenges in recent years. In this paper, we investigated the factors affecting change in land use by using a survey of 60 farmers in Tonekabon and the two-step Tobit model (Heckman) in 2012.The result of the Probit model showed that literacy levels, experience, number ofhorticulturalland pieces, area of citrusandkiwi,the price ofhorticultural products(kiwi), crop area and price ofland hada positive effect andhouseholdsize, price ofhorticultural land, price ofhorticultural products(citrus), number ofagricultural land price, and averageprice ofcrop, the satisfaction level of support in situations, horticultural and agricultural insurance had negative effects on thedecisionofchanging agriculturallandtohorticultural. Also, the results of the second stage Tobit regressi on model showed that the number of horticulturalland price, area of kiwi and citrus, price of horticultural products (citrus), pieces of agricultural land and crop area, price of land and horticulturalcropinsurance hada positive effect on householdsize,literacy levels, experience, price ofhorticultural products(kiwi), and price ofcrops and satisfaction level ofsupportinstitutions had a negative effect on thelevel ofchanging in land use. According to the findings, creation of expansion in surance for coverage of small farmers, preventing price volatility horticultural and agricultural products, paying attention to agricultural production asstrategic products and supporting the operation of this sector in a package is suggested.
