Estimate the technical efficiency of fishing vessels operating in Chabahar region, Southern Iran

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of technical efficiency of fishery in the Chabahar region, Southern Iran. Chabahar is in the northern end of the Gulf of Oman, is an important case study, having access to 200km of unspoiled long coastline rich in different varieties of marine life, and fishery is one of the most important economic activities in the region. A Cobb–Douglas stochastic production frontier, including a model for vessel-specific inefficiencies was applied to obtain technical efficiency for a sample of 300 fishing vessels including 166 inshore operating vessels and 134 offshore operating vessels in the study area. Results provide key information on the relative efficiencies, output elasticities, returns to scale, and the economic performance of each fishing vessel

Effect of harvesting and drying methods of seedless barberry on some fruit quality

Barberry species (Berberis vulgaris L. var. asperma) is cultivated in arid and semi arid areas of Iran (Southern Khorasan) and it is widely used as a food additive. Harvesting time awareness and proper drying and harvesting methods can cause higher production quality and enhance the position of this fruit in internal and global markets. Barberry trees were harvested at different methods (branch-cutting, cluster picking and impact force) and times (mid September-late October-mid November) as well as barberry fruits were dried with different methods (shade-drying, sun-drying and industrial-drying) in order to study their effect on achieve optimal production conditions and production quality. The results showed that the bulk density of dried barberry as the criteria for puffy barberry fruits was affected by harvesting and drying methods. Branch-cut harvesting method led to yield production with the lowest bulk density (rate of 214.86 kg/m3) and thus causing more puffy fruits. Colorimetric parameter A that shows the redness of barberry fruits had the lowest rate in sun-drying method and first harvest date, and the highest rate in shade-drying method and third harvest date. The result also, shows that the sun-drying and industrial method caused damage to barberry pigments (color quality of production is reduced). This also was confirmed via the results of sensory tests, and the Panelists gave the most points to the taken samples during the second harvest date in cluster-picking approach and the shade-drying method. The lowest scores of the Panelists were belonged to the samples taken with impact force and the first harvest date in sun-drying approach

A comparison of energy use and productivity of wheat and barley (case study)

Comparison of energy productivity of different crops can be used as an effective tool to prioritize crops planting in each area. This study was conducted in order to compare wheat and barley farms of Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran in relation to various aspects of energy consumption at 2009. 100 wheat and 100 barley fields were selected randomly from main 11 cities in the studied region. Input data and yield of wheat and barley fields were collected in the form of questionnaires in a face-to-face interview. Results showed that total energy inputs of wheat and barley fields were 32492.97 and 25655.81 MJ ha−1, respectively. Total energy outputs for wheat and barley fields were 48517.24 and 49800.87 MJ ha−1, respectively. Based on these results the amount of energy use efficiency for wheat and barley fields were 1.49 and 1.94, respectively, and the amount of energy productivity for mentioned fields were 0.056 and 0.066. The share of renewable energy as one of the sustainability indexes of agricultural systems was 19.60 for wheat and 14.60 for barley fields. Therefore, it seems that barley production is more efficient from various aspects of energy consumption rather than wheat in the studied region

Assessing climate change impacts on wheat production (a case study)

Climate change is one of the major challenges facing humanity in the future and effect of climate change has been detrimental to agricultural industry. The aim of this study was to simulate the effects of climate change on the maturity period, leaf area index (LAI), biomass and grain yield of wheat under future climate change for the Sistan and Baluchestan region in Iran. For this purpose, two general circulation models HadCM3 and IPCM4 under three scenarios A1B, B1 and A2 in three time periods 2020, 2050 and 2080 were used. LARS-WG model was used for simulating climatic parameters for each period and CERES-Wheat model was used to simulate wheat growth. The results of model evaluation showed that LARS-WG had appropriate prediction for climatic parameters and simulation of stochastic growing season in future climate change conditions for the studied region. Wheat growing season period in all scenarios of climate change was reduced compared to the current situation. Possible reasons were the increase in temperature rate and the accelerated growth stages of wheat. This reduction in B1 scenario was less than A1B and A2 scenarios. Maximum wheat LAI in all scenarios, except scenario A1B in 2050, is decreased compared to the current situation. Yield and biological yield of wheat in both general circulation models under all scenarios and all times were reduced in comparison with current conditions and the lowest reduction was related to B1 scenario. In general, the results showed that wheat production in the future will be affected by climate change and will decrease in the studied region. To reduce these risks, the impact of climate change mitigation strategies and management systems for crop adaptation to climate change conditions should be considered

Analysis of the some effective teaching quality factors within faculty members of agricultural and natural resources colleges in Tehran University

Agricultural higher education institutions have a significant role in development of the agriculture sector and the effectiveness of higher education is dependent on the quality of teaching offered by its faculty members. The purpose of this study was to determine and classify factors related to teaching quality by members of a scientific board. The method of evaluation for this research was by evaluation of data from a descriptive survey taken with a researcher made questionnaire. The target population of the study consisted of 256 faculty members in agricultural colleges in Tehran University. A sample of 100 staff was selected through a randomized multi-stage sampling method based on the Koukran formula. The questionnaire, used as the research tool, was verified by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was verified through calculating the Crookback Alpha coefficient equal to 0/86 following a pilot study. Data was analyzed through SPSS15/Win and results of the explorative factor analysis revealed that five components explained 74/82% of the total variance. These factors were as follows; (1) lesson plan (19.52%), (2) teaching skill (17.97%), (3) communication skills (17.93%), (4) expertise related to lesson content (10.59%), and (5) individual capabilities of members (9.15%) respectively

Effect of communication channels on success rate of entrepreneurial SMEs in the agricultural sector (a case study)

The present research aimed at investigating the effect of communication channels on the economic success of early profitable and entrepreneur small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector. It was an applied research in which the descriptive-survey method was used. The research sample included 356 founders of entrepreneur small and medium enterprises (at the time of conducting the research) in the Markazi province, Iran, among which 100 founders were selected according to the Cochran formulation using the stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire was used as the research tool and its validity was confirmed as the face validity by a group of teachers and experts. The questionnaire’s reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.82). The results indicated that the information seeking facilities of most of the entrepreneurs were seen at a good level (53 persons, 53%) and acquiring information from other businesses and consulting contacts with the neighbors and relatives, product sellers and promoting factors were listed as the highest priorities of the respondents, respectively. Also, there was a meaningful relationship between rate of using information and communication resources with the variables namely age, duration of operation on the job, number of people operating the business and number using loans. The results of regression analysis indicated that seven communication channels, promoters, other producers, product sellers, group visit, training films, creditors, radio and TV in the order of significance have defined 78.4% of the dependent variable changes