Analysis and Assessment of Subjective Indices of Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Areas (Case study: Rural Areas of Gorgan city)

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1 International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences 014 Available online at ISSN X / Vol, 8 (3): Science Explorer Publications in format of National econference on Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Analysis and Assessment of Subjective Indices of Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Areas (Case study: Rural Areas of Gorgan city) Kalbali.Elham 1, Kavand.Hadis, Salarpour.Mashallah 3, Soltanii.Samira 4 1. MS.c Student of Agricultural Economics Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Zabol Gorgan, Iran. PH.D Student of Agricultural Economics Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Zabol Boroujerd, Iran 3. Assistant Professor University of Zabol Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Zabol Zabol, Iran 4. MS.c Student of Economics Department Economics, University of Marvdasht Fars, Iran Corresponding Author elham_kalbali@yahoo.com ABSTRACT: Concept of sustainable agriculture is a relatively new response to the decreasing quality of the base natural resource which is dependent on modern agriculture and sustains able development of any country is dependent on the sustainability of its agricultural systems. Therefore, this study is performed to investigate the subjective indices of sustainable agriculture in rural areas of Gorgan city. This research was carried out applying a survey method that used the data collected through field study. The research population consisted of rural households in all villages of Gorgan city from which 61 people were selected using Cochran formula and stratified sampling and the needed information was collected through a valid question naire as them a in tool. The results of the statistical analysis in SPSS software showed that the 1.5% of indices was fully sustainable, 19.5% was in sustainable group, 45.5% was in somewhat sustainable group, 5.0% was in the unsustainable group and 5.17% was in the very unsustain able group. Keywords: Subjective indices, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, rural areas of Gorgan city INTRODUCTION Agricultural is considered to be the most significant and necessary part of providing the necessities of human life and it is one of the economic factors and infrastructures and independency of any country. Studies show that in spite of the increasing trend of migration from rural to urban areas, pressure on the agricultural sector in developing countries has increased and this part should have bigger share in employment, providing income, food and clothing; therefore, agricultural development that a direct impact on human life [1]. Now, the most important issue in the development of agriculture is emphasis on sustainable agriculture and sustain ability of agriculture depends on the realization of comprehensive fundamental changes in agricultural structure, management and optimum utilization of resources and facilities, and organizing and directing the well-considered activities in the rural areas because the development and sustain ability of agriculture got the sense and real identity in the shape of noticing the village and rural development []. The most important and fundamental topic in the field of agriculture and village relationship isthe role and task of agriculture as the principal economic activity in the rural areas [3]. So according to the late strep ort of Iranian Official Statistic son the cultivation area of agricultural products,approximately86%ofirrigatedlands, 85% of the landunderdryfarmingand78% of gardens and nurseries land belong to rural operation [4]. Therefore, context of agricultural activities is in a geographic environment with the name of rural environment that considering these areas is crucial forth proper and sustains able utilization of agricultural foundations. In other words, conservation and sustainability of soil and water resources and in general farming in rural areas not only can cause long-term food security in the country, but also it can prevent regional gaps

2 and migration from rural areas and pave the way for growth, sustain ability and stability of national development. Several studies have been conducted in the field of sustainable agriculture some of which are cited as follows: Along and Martin [5] in their study entitled. Assessing the adoption of the methods of sustainable agriculture, evaluated the rate of sustainable agriculture indices adoption by farmers of Iowa. According to the obtained results, availability variables of farmers to information and farmers attitudes towards the adoption of sustain able agriculture methods had the highest correlation with the variable of the adoption of sustainable agriculture and in general, most farmers had positive views on profit ability and adoption of sustain able agricultural methods. Praneetvatakul et al. [6] used the sustainability indices analysis method to assess the sustainability of agriculture in the northern region of Thailand. They evaluated agricultural sustainability in three different levels of households, villages and basin. This study has shown that the quantity of food was the most sustainable agricultural index and size of land per household, land ownership, and water shortage were the most unsustainable indices in the studied region. Mahdavi Damghani et al. [7] studied the ecological sustainability of wheat - cotton in Khorasan Province. They analyzed the information include about this agricultural system including socioeconomic measures, production of crops and livestock, fertilizer and chemicals, crop residue management, water and irrigation, tillage and mechanization, agricultural diversity and weed management and analysis. Based on the results of the studied measures, livestock and crops and water and irrigation management were in inappropriate conditions. Hayati and Karami [8] performed a study to investigate the relationship between affecting socioeconomic and productive- farming structures on the knowledge of sustainable agriculture among wheat farmers in Fars Province. The results showed that there was positive and significant correlation between the level of sustainable agriculture knowledge and the variables of literacy, achievement motivation, total wheat production amount, technical knowledge about prevalent wheat production methods, economic condition, wheat farming method and training provided by agricultural extension agents. They also demonstrated that in general, wheat farmers in the region did not have adequate knowledge on sustainable agriculture. By evaluating the sustain ability of agriculture in the rural areas as the focus of a significant proportion of the country s farmer population and identifying threats on the sustainable development of agriculture, measures can be taken to prepare realistic plans to improve the sustainability of agriculture. In this way, Gorgan city is one of the regions having appropriate geographical and climatic conditions in which agriculture is as the main source of income and employment opportunities, has provided a good condition for the development of the villages of the region. Lack of an infrastructural and systematic study regarding the high potentials of the region in the agriculture section led to the lack of an appropriate use of the region's high agricultural potential. The lack of a coherent plan for the optimum use of scarce and invaluable resources and for the study of region s sustainable agricultural condition is the questions to which this study is aimed to answer. Research objectives Assessing the farmers status in the implementation of the principles of sustainable agriculture Assessing the indices of sustainable agriculture in the rural areas of Gorgan Determining the indices that have gained better conditions comparing to the past METHODOLOGY The present research is an applied study which used survey method for investigation. The main instrument for the study was a questionnaire content validity of which was confirmed by agricultural extension, irrigation and agriculture experts in the Jihad Agricultural Management of Gorgan city and any necessary amendments were applied. Population of the study consisted of heads of households in the rural areas of Gorgan (8056 people), so to have an initial estimation of the typical trait of the research (agricultural operator), to access to the logical size of the sample population and to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, 40 questionnaires were distributed and completed as a pretest in Hossein Abad Malekand Nome villages which were not included in the sample population. Then, to obtain a logical size of the sample, Cochran formula was used in which by considering the confidence level of95.5, value of fortandvalues of 80and0% for q and were considered. With regard to the size of population in rural areas of Gorgan city which consisted of 8056 household, 50 households were selected as the sample to answer the questions of the questionnaire. To make the outcomes more reliable, 50 households were randomly assigned to answer the questions of the questionnaire. (1) (1.96) (0.8)(0.) (0.05) n 39 1 (1.96) (0.80)(0.0) ( 1) 8056 (0.05) 319

3 After determining the sample size for data collection, stratified random sampling was used regarding the villages of Gorgan city (4 villages) as statistical classes. Using stratified random sampling resulted in f irst, appropriate distribution of sample in all classes of the population, second, determination of general and specific characteristics of the population and third, characteristics of each category are considered and studied [9]. Finally, to observe the principles and techniques of the work and to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha was used in SPSS software by which reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was obtained more than 0.76% for the acquired data. Then, regarding the contribution of each category and based on the appropriate geographical distribution in every village, collecting information was done by completing the questionnaire. Nature of sustainability is such that it cannot be analyzed regardless of the time changes and their trend of change in regard to the past. For example, when a status index is studied at the present time, it can not only be considered how the current status is but it is necessary to consider trend of change of the index regarding the past because if the condition of index is good at the current time but it is less than the past, we cannot be optimistic about the future desired condition of this index because of the nature of continuation over the time is implicit in the concept of sustain ability. Thus, in addition to study the status quo of each index, the past status of each index in this research has been questioned. Table 1. names of selected villages and the number of sampled households Name of Population(Household Category North Ghorogh South Anjirab Total Number of Villages) Total Number of Households Number of Sampled Households Total Indices and Variables of the Study Due to the complexity of the concept of sustainable agriculture, many experts argue that sustainable agriculture as a goal involves a wide range of strategies [10]. According to various definitions for the concept of sustainable agriculture, various indices and criteria for the evaluation of sustainable agricultural activities by experts and specialists of this technique and has been brought up and tested [11, 1, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 5]. Study of resources and researches show that in order to assess the sustain ability of agriculture, an important principle should be considered and it is proper indices and indices covering various aspects of agricultural sustain ability should be identified i.e. indices that have required validity and reliability in this field. These indices are listed and presented in Tables 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results indicate that the average age of the subjects was 47.9 years. Per capita farmland of the respondents was 3.6hectares that 1.5 hectares was for dry farming and.1hectares is irrigated farming. Moreover, the average household size was 6.3, and the average income of farmers is about Tumans. Literacy status of the subjects is shown in Table. Table. Status of literacy in the region Level Frequency Percentage Illiterate Reading and Writing Guidance and High School Diploma 5 10 Higher Than Diploma Total In order to assess the attitudes of farmers towards sustainable agriculture indices in the region, all five indices have been studied using five-level Liker scale (very high 5, high 4, moderate 3, low, and very low 1). Among the indices, the highest score (4.1) was related to crop rotation on the farm level and the lowest score 30

4 (1.77) was related to the use of minimum tillage. For this, the first step of the research to answer the first research question was all the indices were gathered and a total score was obtained for each person. In fact, this score represents the application and observation of the principles of sustainable agriculture and for each farmer. The aforementioned data was entered into the cluster analysis and the subjects were classified into five groups and the obtained clusters were named according to their scores. The results of this classification are presented in Table 3. Table 3. Agricultural Sustain ability status among farmers Sustainability Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Very Unsustainable Unsustainable Somewhat Stable Sustainable Quite Sustainable After this stage of the research, to identify the status of the indices of sustainable agriculture in the region, all 16 indices were entered into the cluster and were analyzed in five classes. Results from Table 4 show that indices of minimum tillage use, use of agro forestry and not use of chemical fertilizers in very unsustainable group, index of better qualitative and quantitative protection of water in unsustainable group, indices of using fallow land rate, not use of chemical pesticides, use of micronutrient fertilizers, planting green manure to enhance the fertility of the land, rate of integrated fight use, accurate and proper use of recommended fertilizers, and changing the planting and harvesting for pest control in somewhat unsustainable group, indices of the use of animal manure to improve soil, use of integrated method of animal and plant and use of proper seed rate per unit are aim sustainable group and indices of crop rotation implementation at farm level and tillage perpendicular to the slope in order to prevent erosion in quite sustainable group. As stated, the continuous nature over the time is implicit in the concept of sustainability. Thus, the positive or negative trend of changes of each index is necessary to be assessed so that more accurate assessment of indices could be obtained. Table 4. Clustering of subjective indicators stability indicators Very unstable Quite stable Somewhat stable Sustainable Quite stable Use of minimal tillage Use of agro forestry methods Not use of chemical pesticides Better qualitative and quantitative water protection Rate of fallow land use Not use of chemical pesticides Rate of fallow land use Planting green manure to enhance the fertility of the land Rate of integrated fight use Proper and accurate use of recommended fertilizers Proper and accurate use of recommended fertilizers, Changing the time of planting and harvesting to combat pests, Use of animal manure to improve soil Tillage perpendicular to the slope to prevent erosion, Crop rotation implementation at farm level This assessment was performed using the Wilcoxon test and its results in the cases of being meaningful at the level of 1 % were shown by two stars (**) and in the cases of being meaningful at the level of 5% were shown by one star (*). Findings from Table 5 showed that indices of crop rotation implementation at farm level, proper use of seed rate per unit area, use of animal manure to improve soil, use of integrated method of animal and plant, use of micronutrient fertilizers, proper use of recommended fertilizers, and use of minimum tillage had positive trend over the time. Although index of not using chemical pesticides was in somewhat sustainable status, it had a negative trend which was due to the increase of accessibility to and communication with the urban areas and also farmers unstable and improper conditions. 31

5 Table 5. Comparison of current subjective indices of sustainable agriculture status and their changes regarding the past Test rate Subjective indices of sustainable agriculture changes trend** Significance level Crop rotation implementation at farm level Tillage perpendicular to the slope to prevent erosion* Use of proper amount of seed per unit area* Use of animal manure to improve soil Use of integrated method of animal and plant Use of micronutrient fertilizers** Rate of fallow land use Planting green manure to enhance the fertility of the land Proper and accurate use of recommended fertilizers** unchanged Changing the time of planting and harvesting to combat pests Negative Not use of chemical pesticides** Rate of integrated fight use Better qualitative and quantitative water protection Not use of chemical fertilizers Use of agro forestry methods Use of minimal tillage* * Sig<0.05 ** Sig <0.01 In line with the process for investigating whether four villages of Gorgan city had the same condition in having tendency towards sustainable agriculture or not, then on parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used which is usually applied to compare the means of several societies. The significance level of the test (Table 6) is equal to 0.048, so the claim of equality among four village son tendency to sustainable agriculture is denied. Results from Table 7 show that the three villages of ( Ghorogh), (North ) and ( South ) are in almost identical circumstances but (Anjirab) village in Gorgan city of is in less favorable condition than the other villages of Gorgan. Table 6. evaluating the equality of respondents' tendency to sustainable agriculture in four villages of Gorgan city Type of Test Chi- Square Degree of Freedom Significance Level Kruskal- Wallis *sig <0.05 Table 7. average rating of the villages based on their attitudes towards sustainable agriculture Village Number of Average Rating Observation North Ghorogh South Anjirab Table 8. Comparison of subjective indices of sustainable agriculture in four villages of Gorgan city Average rating Chi So Sign Subjective Nort - uth ifica indices of h Gh An Sq Est nce sustainable Este oro jira uar era Lev agriculture raba gh b e ba el d d Better qualitative and quantitative water protection Use of proper amount of seed per unit area qualitative and Not use of chemical fertilizer Sig< 0.05 ** Sig <

6 Table 8 shows comparison of subjective indices of sustainable agriculture in every village of Gorgan city using Kruskal-Wallis test in the cases of being significant. Based on the results of this test it can be said that better qualitative and quantitative protection of water among the four villages of the study at the level of 1 had a meaning full difference. This index is in an unsustainable condition and in (Anjirab) village the condition was weaker than the other villages. Also, there were significant differences between indexes of the use of proper amount of seed per unit area and not use of chemical pesticides at the level of 5% among villages of Gorgan city. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS In the study, in order to assess the farmers' attitudes towards subjective indices of sustainable agriculture, a list of the16indiceshasbeen studied in rural areas of Gorgan city. After the performed reviews and analyses, the following conclusions can be pointed out: To evaluate the application and observation of sustainable agriculture principles in the villages of Gorgan city, all the indices were added together and a total score for each person was obtained. In fact, this score represents the application of the principles of sustainable agriculture and for each farmer. Thus, the aforementioned data were entered into the cluster analysis and people were classified in to five groups and the obtained clusters were named according to their scores. The results of cluster analysis show that the activities of 10.8% of farmers were in a very unsustainable group, activities of 3% of farmers were in the unsustainable group, activities of 30.4 %of farmers were in somewhat unsustainable group, activities of 15.%of farmers were in sustainable group and activities of 11.6% of farmers were in quite sustainable group. To achieve the second goal of the study i.e. evaluation of the sustainability rate of each sustainable agriculture index in the region, these indices were classified in five homogeneous categories using cluster analysis. The results indicated that 1.5% of the indices (crop rotation implementation at farm level and till age perpendicular to the slope to prevent erosion) were in the quite sustainable group, 18.75% (using animal manure for soil improvement, use of integrated method of animal and plant, use of proper amount of seed per unit area) were in the sustainable group, 43.75% (rate of fallow land use, not use of chemical pe sticides, use of micronutrient fertilizers, cultivating green manure to enhance the fertility of the soil, rate of integrated fight use, proper and accurate use of recommended fertilizers and changing the time for planting and harvesting for pest control) were in somewhat sustainable group, 6.5% (better qualitative and quantitative water protection) were in unsustainable group and % (use of minimal tillage, use of agro forestry methods and not using chemical fertilizers) were in very unsustainable group. Therefore, according to the obtained average score from each index, it can be said that crop rotation implementation at farm level (with an average of 4.1 from maximum 5) was the most sustainable index and use of minimum tillage (with an average of 1.77 from maximum 5) was the most sustainable index in the area. To compare status quo of the indices with that of their past, Wilcoxon test was used. The results indicated that only index of not using chemical pesticide had negative trend among the studied indices. This index was significant at the level of 5% and currently farmers use chemical pesticides more than before. Moreover, in this study, indices of crop rotation implementation at farm level, use of micronutrient fertilizers, and proper and accurate use of recommended fertilizers at the level of 1% and indices of animal manure use to improve soil fertility and use of proper amount of seed per unit area at the level of 5% indicated a significant positive trend. Thus, it can be argued that these indices have tended towards sustain ability. Given that the use of minimum tillage, use of agro forestry and not use of chemical fertilizers indices were in quite unsustainable conditions, it is essential to inform on losses arising from excessive consumption of chemical fertilizers and to take the action for the use of minimal till age and sub-structuring for agro forestry application. In this study, some indices showed positive attitude towards sustain able methods at farm. So, it appears that the provided trainings in the area were in line with the sustain able agricultural development. Therefore, enhancing quantity and quality of educational and promoting programs and elevating the level of knowledge, insight and skills of farmers are essential. Index of not using chemical pesticides had a negative trend in this study; therefore, it is necessary to find a suitable alternative by performing scientific accurate researches to present to the farmers. Otherwise, seeing a greater use of chemical pesticides and low quality products in the future would be inevitable. Regarding (Anjirab) village is in weaker condition than the other villages; therefore, it should be paid special attention in order to avoid regional imbalances and mismatches. This issue, especially in better qualitative and quantitative protection of water index in this village shows huge difference comparing to other villages. Thus, sub-structuring in the direction of pressure irrigation systems expansion in the region especially in ( Anjirab) village and developing and promoting irrigation services and presenting farmer s training on effective economic management irrigation networks including proper time, amount, and frequency of irrigation... can be a useful step towards sustainable agriculture. Moreover, providing required facilities and funding for the farms that need drainage and providing the necessary training to operate properly from drainage system should be particularly noted. Finally, it is suggested that instead of encouraging the farmers with high performances, those farmers and farms who have high performance both in terms of yield in a unit area and sustainability agriculture factors should be introduced as a model farmers. So that, through 33

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