Analysis of Factors Affecting the adoption of Lands' Leveling and Consolidation Plans: the Case of the villages of Zarghan District

Due to the limited fertile land in the country, increasing population growth and increasing demand for food, land consolidation and crop integration are essential for more efficient use of fertile land. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the adoption of land leveling and land consolidation plans in Zarghan district of Fars province. The study was conducted through survey and proportional stratified random sampling. Required information was collected from 72 adopters and 118 non-adopters land leveling and consolidation plans. Data were collected using a questionnaire whose face validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient for different parts of the questionnaire (from 0.82 to 0.86). Data were analyzed using SPSSv23 software. The results showed that the most important differences between adopters and non-adopters of land leveling and consolidation plan were age, literacy level, agricultural precedent, number of farm plots, distance to service center, use of communication-information factors, technical-extension services, participation in rural institutions, access to credit, land insurance coverage, size of land owned, agricultural income, production performance. Other findings of the study also indicated that the discriminant analysis function could accurately classify adopters leveling and land consolidation farmers as non-adopters. From the total variables entered the model, variables named participation in institutions, use of communication-information factors, agricultural income, area under cultivation, amount of land owned, distance to service center, land insurance coverage are the most important distinguishing variables of two adopter and non-adopter groups of land leveling and consolidation plans

Analysis of Barriers and Obstacles of Lands Consolidation and Production Cooperatives Formation: the case of Zarghan County

Given the importance of land consolidation plans in the development and improvement of agricultural status in terms of increasing agricultural production, improving income levels of farmers, and production cooperatives formation, it is necessary to identify barriers and obstacles to implement this plans and to remove them. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze the barriers and obstacles of land consolidation and production cooperatives formation in rural areas of Zarghan County. The study population was Zarghan regional farmers located in Fars province that 38 of them were selected by purposeful and snowball sampling. Research data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed in three stages: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding with the help of MAXQDA software and classified into four main barriers. These include agricultural barriers, administrative barriers, economic barriers, and socio-cultural barriers. Finally, according to the results, suggestions were made to develop this project

Agricultural land use sustainability in Southwest Iran : improving land leveling using consolidation plans

In recent years, sustainability has always been one of the most important approaches in policy making and program development in general, especially in the agricultural sector. On the other hand, land leveling and consolidation programs are usually implemented as the development programs of the agricultural sector in different regions of Iran. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the agricultural sustainability in two different regions (with and without land leveling and consolidation) in Zarghan District, Fars Province, Iran. In this research, a quantitative research approach has been used, and data were collected in two phases using a researcher-made questionnaire. The results of the first phase of the study showed that in the leveled and consolidated lands, the ecological dimension is potentially in a good status of sustainability, but social and economic dimensions are in a moderate status. In the unleveled and unconsolidated lands, the ecological dimension is potentially in a good status, while the social dimension is in a moderate, and economic dimensions are in a potentially weak status of sustainability. In addition, comparing the results of the two groups of lands demonstrated that there is a significant difference between them in terms of ecological and economic sustainability, and in consolidated and leveled lands, ecological and economic sustainability are in a more favorable status. Furthermore, the results of the second phase of the research indicated that agricultural activities in both categories of land are beneficial. However, the net present value of agricultural activities revenues in the leveled and consolidated lands is higher than those of the areas outside the coverage of this plan. Therefore, it can be concluded that agricultural activities in leveled and consolidated lands, not only have a better status in terms of sustainability but also have a higher economic justification