Iran faces environmental challenges such as erosion and extreme events, namely droughts and floods. These phenomena have frequently affected the country over the past decades and temperature rise has led to a more challenging situation. Iran started to implement national and provincial policies in the 1950s to cope with these phenomena. To provide an overview of Iran’s efforts to tackle land degradation and climate change, this paper examined through literature since 2000 the stakeholders’ policies, their interventions and obstacles to the mitigation of these environmental challenges.
The purpose of this study is to develop a robust, rigorous and replicable methodology that is flexible to data limitations and spatially prioritizes the vulnerability of agriculture and rural livelihoods to climate change. The methodology was applied in Vietnam, Uganda and Nicaragua, three contrasting developing countries that are particularly threatened by climate change. We conceptualize vulnerability to climate change following the widely adopted combination of sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity.
The role of genetically modified (GM) crops for food security is the subject of public controversy. GM crops could contribute to food production increases and higher food availability. There may also be impacts on food quality and nutrient composition. Finally, growing GM crops may influence farmers’ income and thus their economic access to food. Smallholder farmers make up a large proportion of the undernourished people worldwide. Our study focuses on this latter aspect and provides the first ex post analysis of food security impacts of GM crops at the micro level.
Despite substantial research on the economic effects of transgenic insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton, there is still limited work on this technology’s impacts on human health. Due to the inbuilt insect resistance, Bt cotton requires fewer pesticide sprays than conventional cotton, which is not only advantageous from economic and environmental perspectives, but may also result in health benefits for farmers.
Productivity growth in smallholder agriculture is an important driver of rural economic development and poverty reduction. However, smallholder farmers often have limited access to information, which can be a serious constraint for increasing productivity. One potential mechanism to reduce information constraints is the public agricultural extension service, but its effectiveness has often been low in the past.
The main purpose of this study was to institutionally map nanotechnological innovation system of Iranian agriculture by investigating current state of hard and soft institutions regarding functions of the system. This study consisted of qualitative and quantitative phases. In the qualitative part, a thematic content analysis was used to compare the current and desired states of high level laws and documents. The quantitative phase was a descriptive survey.
Recently, innovation has become a very important issue, as it provides a strategic advantage for organizations to outperform competition and remain agile in the environment. Additionally, knowledge management is considered to be a strong support for innovation. However, few studies examine the role of human resource management in fostering knowledge capability which leads more innovation in the organizations. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of knowledge management components in organizational innovation among agricultural extension experts in Khuzestan Province.
Agricultural professionals play an important role in informing and educating farmers about biofuel through teaching or extension work. One of the questions commonly asked is if they are knowledgeable and possess positive attitude towards renewable energy sources. The aim of this article is to investigate Agricultural professionals' attitude and willingness towards biofuel using a random sample of professionals (n = 180) in a survey conducted in Zanjan province in Iran
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.
Agricultural extension, as an informal educational system, is one of agricultural development tools that lean on human capitals. Inefficiency of public bureaucracy on the one hand, and managerial problems on the other hand, as well as neglecting real needs of beneficiaries in planning, have determined responsible to transfer administrative tasks to the private sector and reduce government's tenure. This survey was conducted in Kerman as the first ranked province of pistachio production in Iran to investigate attitudes about extension private services among pistachio farmers.