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 Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) have played a significant role in the growth and advancement of the Chinese agriculture sector. However, these enterprises often face challenges in navigating local distribution networks, complying with regulations, and procuring local consumer products, which can hinder the marketing environment and impede economic growth. To address these issues and promote continuous business development, Chinese agriculture enterprises require effective modeling techniques that facilitate transformation to meet evolving requirements. This study proposes a game-theoretic approach, specifically the Mixed Strategy Game-Theoretic Approach (MSGTA), as a decision-making tool for enterprises facing pre-emptive changes. By analyzing oligopoly firm behavior, the MSGTA approach identifies enterprise outcomes, cooperation patterns, and price-fixing strategies, providing decision-making options and incentives within the enterprise structure. The MSGTA approach assists SMEs in the Chinese agriculture market by systematically analyzing product development stages and ensuring the effective adoption of pre-emptive changes. The efficiency of SMEs implementing the MSGTA approach is evaluated by examining statistical relationships between enterprise growth and requirements. By integrating effective modeling techniques, Chinese agriculture SMEs can adapt to changes proactively, enhance their ability to navigate local distribution networks, comply with regulations, and procure local consumer products more effectively, thereby improving the marketing environment and fostering economic growth.
 

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The Ministry of Agriculture Jihad in Iran implemented contract farming (CF) for wheat in 2021 to address marketing issues. This study compares agricultural sustainability for farmers participating in and not participating in CF. Agricultural sustainability was assessed by applying a combined index approach that considers economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The required data came from 620 wheat farmers in Golestan province, sampled using the multi-stage randomization technique. The data were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and clustering methods. The findings indicated a significant difference in the performance of economic and environmental sustainability dimensions between two groups of wheat farmers. For the participants, 14.2% were deemed unsustainable, 47.7% were considered partially sustainable, and 38.1% were classified as sustainable. For non-participants, the figures were 38.7%, 47.7%, and 13.5%, respectively. Therefore, it is suggested to provide more opportunities for participation in this program and expand it to other key crops. Additionally, authorities should provide more information about the benefits of the CF plan.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of occupational accidents among farmers with an emphasis on the role of extension and education in reducing these incidents.
Methods: This study was conducted through a literature review. For this purpose, we investigated books, documents and articles related to research topics in the period of 2000 to 2017.
Findings: Various factors are effective on the incidence of occupational accidents as well as on the type, amount and severity of injuries resulting from accidents at work. Farmers and agricultural workers are not excluded from occupational accidents. The affecting factors on occupational accidents in agriculture are classified in three categories: farmers’ characteristics, agricultural environment, and agriculture technologies.
Conclusion: Occurrence of incidents in agricultural occupation is inevitable. Identifying the factors affecting the incidence of accidents can help to reduce the occurrence of incidents among farmers. The agricultural extension and education according to the abilities and talents in the field of agriculture and rural society can reduce accidents and work-related risks and improve the farmers’ occupational health.

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Aim: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and protective behavior of farmers in relation to the application of chemical pesticides in the fields and the factors influencing their behavior.
Methods: This quantitative and survey research was conducted in Mahidasht County, Kermanshah Province, in 2016. The population consisted of 170 farmers (N=200) Mahidasht County, who were determined by randomly method. Questionnaire used as a research tool. Validity and reliability of the tool were confirmed by a panel of experts and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Correlation coefficient and statistical test was used for analyzing the data by SPSS20.
Findings: Most people have poor performance in the use of protective equipment when spraying pesticides. There was positive correlation between safety behavior of using pesticides, work experience, economic status, attitudes toward the correct application of pesticides, and participating in training.
Conclusion: Due to the farmers' inappropriate performance in safety and protection actions and significance relationship between participation in the training programs and safety behavior, it is necessary to design education programs to improve their knowledge.

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The present study has been carried out in order to determine the entomofauna of four different agroecosystems from the study area, northwestern Algeria. Regular sampling was done using the Barber pitfall trap and the sweep net in addition to visual observations in the field. Nine (09) taxonomic orders of insects was identified from the four studied environments. It varies from one agroecosystem to another. Coleoptera and Orthoptera were the most represented in terms of both species and numbers. Entomofaunal diversity was more important in un-cultivated fields (diversity index = 4.15 bits, equitability = 0.89) than in arable fields (index ranging from 1.68 to 2.87 and a equitability between 0.41 and 0.72). Limited biodiversity in cultivated areas was the consequence of insect communities’ interactions disturbances caused by agricultural practices in these environments. Therefore, it is important to reduce these disturbances in order to enhance food resources, habitats and overwintering sites for insects. This will ensures sustainable entomological diversity, thereby increasing the role of biological control in pest management systems.

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Aims: Water is a basic demand of sustainable development in every region of the world. Hirmand catchment is one of the most important cross-border of Iran basins affected by the recent drought periods from water scarcity and caused severe crisis in the Sistan region. Fuzzy theory is able to convert most incorrect and enigmatic concepts, variables and systems into a mathematical form and set the context for reasoning, deduction and decision making at uncertainty conditions. The aim of this study was to simulate the Hirmand catchment by Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP) model and prioritization of the implementation of agriculture development projects in Hirmand catchment.
Materials & Methods: In this analytical-computational study, water development projects in the study area were predicted. The effects of the water development projects predicted using WEAP model and the projects according to the economic criteria was evaluated and prioritized with Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Situation (TOPSIS). Ten water development projects and criteria including 5 economic indexes were considered.
Findings: Water transfer project to agricultural field called Zehak and Sistan were the first priorities which is needed for noticing target population to these projects. Irrigation efficiency (70%) was in the third rank among the options.
Conclusion: The remarkable thing in the ranking of scenarios is that the current account scenario (SC₁) is lasted ranking that shows Sistan region's water status, according to the study criteria is not good. 

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Monetary and fiscal policies are the main macroeconomic instruments, so the most important step in programming for national development is to know how they affect economic variables. On the other side, agricultural sector is the main sector in economic growth and development and a strategic sector for supplying food for growing population, so this sector has a great importance in development programs. In this research, the effect of monetary and fiscal policies on the major factors of agricultural sector in Iran i.e. added value, price, and export are investigated by using Vector Auto-regressive Model (VAR). Results show that monetary and fiscal policies have positive effect on added value, price and export in agricultural sector but negative effect on investment in this sector. Furthermore, short-run effect of monetary policies on added value, export and investment is more than that of fiscal policies but long-run effect of fiscal policies on the added value, export and investment in agricultural sector is more than that of monetary policies. Furthermore, a one-S.D. liquidity innovation has a positive decreasing effect on the added value and price in agriculture sector but its effect on investment is positive in the first year and will be nearly consistent in the next years. In addition to that the effect on the export is positive in the first year and negative in the next years. Each government budget innovation has a positive effect on added value, export and price in agriculture sector but its effect on investment is positive in the first year and negative in the next years.

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The lack of statistics has hampered attempts to estimate fixed capital for the agricultural sub-sectors of Iran. Giving a non anonymous agreement on the depreciation rate of capital in machineries and constructions, an indirect method of estimation is employed using capital consumption statistics in different sub-sectors of input-output tables. In this study, capital stock is estimated in agricultural sub-sectors of Iran using the perpetual inventory method. According to the results of this paper, the capital stock in 2006 is estimated to be 53374.9 billion rials in cropping and horticulture, 24334.6 billion rials in animal husbandry, 4982 billion rials in forestry and rangelands and 16374.2 billion rials in fishery sub-sectors at constant 1997 prices, respectively. The findings based on the five year development plans of the country revealed that over the third development plan, the total agricultural capital stock, both in machinery and equipment and constructions, experienced the highest growth while during the second development plan, the machinery and equipment capital stock experienced the lowest growth. Moreover, during the first development plan and over the eight year war, the construction capital stock experienced the lowest growth.

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of producer cooperatives (PCs) on rural development in Fars, Khorasan, Semnan, Golestan and Hamadan provinces of Iran in 2007. More specifically, this paper focuses on the economic aspects and social changes occurred in rural area concerning the cooperatives development. In order to measure quantitatively the effectiveness of economic and social changes, we included per capita income, factors productivity, expansion of rain irrigation, technology changes as economic indicators and the rate of participation in social activities, rate of migration and job creation as social indicators in the model. The findings based on 212 Producers Cooperative sampling data in the selected provinces show that the PCs have played a positive role in preventing migration to urban area. Moreover, the PCs have statistically significant and positive effects on the production, employment and labor productivity in this sector. In addition, in some areas they contributed to develop commercial agriculture.

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Most areas of the world where rainfall is limiting are characterized by low agricultural output and, ironically, high population growth rates that generate increased food de-mand. Arid and semi-arid regions permit a range of vegetative biomass production, from rainfed crops to native pasture, and sparse steppe shrubs to true desert. Given the harsh climatic conditions in areas such as West Asia-North Africa, where less than 10% of the land area is amenable to rainfed cropping, soil resources are fragile and cropping condi-tions precarious. Yet with appropriate manipulation of soil fertility and crop management within a systems context, including breeding of improved cultivars, conservation tillage, and rotations, substantial production increases can occur at the farmer's level. While irri-gation has increased considerably in the past few decades, having a major impact on crop yields, surface and ground water sources remain limited. Applied research specific to the region has shown that crop output can be considerably enhanced with adequate nutrition, most of which has to be added as commercial fertilizer. The substantial yield increases that have taken place in several countries of the region have been attributed to three fac-tors: water, fertilizers, and improved varieties. Technologies that potentially produce such high yield increases include identification of nutrient stresses and taking corrective action, and, where appropriate, adapting the plant to the soil conditions. If managed properly, innovative cropping systems to overcome these constraints can improve rather than de-grade soil conditions. Regardless of the advances in biotechnology, crop adaptation, and integrated cropping systems, chemical fertilizers will, in future, play an even greater role in the nutrition of both rainfed and irrigated crops in Mediterranean agriculture. Crop nutrition research will have to keep pace with agronomic developments. The future chal-lenge in soil fertility-crop nutrition lies as much in overcoming obstacles to technology transfer as in the generation of new knowledge. This selective review is based mainly on the author’s research experiences in the field of soil fertility and crop nutrition in the WANA region for the past 32 years. It seeks to highlight research developments within the context of the region's crop production constraints, culminating in a perspective on future research challenges within the framework of cooperation between international in-stitutions and the region’s national research and development programs.

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Intercropping is defined as the simultaneous cultivating of two or more crops together at the same time within a field. It has many advantages like pest population reduction, which increases crop yield. This study compared the impact of additive intercropping kidney bean Phaseolus vulgaris L. with some aromatic plants on Thrips tabaci Lindeman, 1889 population. The treatments included kidney bean sole crop, 100 + 50 kidney bean + coriander Coriander sativum L., 100 + 50 kidney bean + ajwain Carum copticum L., 100 + 50 kidney bean + basil Ocimum basilicum L., and 100 + 50 kidney bean + dill Anethum graveolens L. There were six sampling dates at weekly intervals after onion thrips emergence on the leaves. Kidney and bean leaves were collected on each sampling date, and the number of thrips larvae or adults was recorded. Results showed that the intercropping system significantly influences the onion thrips population. The minimum and maximum thrips per leaf were recorded in kidney bean + basil mixed and kidney bean sole crop treatments (0.208 and 0.540 Thrips/leaf). Moreover, there was a significant negative relationship between the number of thrips and kidney beans yield. The highest yield was recorded in kidney bean + basil treatments (2756 kg/ha). Besides, intercropping increased the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) of bean monoculture. For instance, all intercropping treatments had higher LER than kidney bean monoculture. Among the intercropping treatments, the kidney bean + basil treatment had the highest LER (1.433). Finally, intercropping kidney beans with some aromatic plants could be an eco-friendly strategy in integrated pest management.
 

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Aims: There are few studies on the effectiveness of this type of management on soil properties of Golestan province as the main agricultural pole in Iran. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of limited tillage on improving biological soil quality indicators.
Methods: Three types of operations which include No Tillage (NT), Minimum or Occasionally Tillage (OT or MT) and Conventional Tillage (CT) were selected. From each management, 30 samples were taken at depths of 0-30 cm. Microbial respiration, microbial biomass, urease, acid and alkaline phosphatase, dehydrogenase and cellulase activity were measured.
Findings: Conservation tillage (ST) which include both MT and NT increased acid and alkaline phosphatase by 1.6 to 2.5 times. The reverse trend was observed for cellulase, which showed a decrease from 37.5% in MT to 25% in NT. Urease and dehydrogenase increased by 14 and 18% in MT and decreased by 5.7 and 10% in NT. Microbial biomass and microbial respiration increased by 1.8 and 2.5 times in MT and in no tillage, operation decreased by 15 and 44%.
Conclusion: The emphasis is on the advice of ST, However, it seems that some points related to the promotion of this method in agricultural lands should be considered.  It seems that MT has a better condition for enzyme activity than NT. Low enzyme activity in NT conditions may reduce the availability of nutrients and thus reduce the yield, then extension experts should be inform the Farmers.

 

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The West Asia-North Africa region, which is characterized by a typical Mediterranean climate, is the center of origin of cereals, notably wheat (Triticum spp.) and barley (Hordeum spp). However, cereal production, which is primarily rainfed, is mainly constrained by drought due to the low rainfall accompanied by high temperatures. Cereals have been tradi-tionally grown following a fallow period in order to achieve acceptable yields on stored soil moisture, but they are increasingly grown either continuously or in rotation with legumes, either food or forage. Barley is grown throughout the Mediterranean region, generally in the drier zones and often on shallow soils and with application of minimum or no fertilizers. The medium-rainfall zone of central Morocco (200-500 mm yr-1) is typical of the region as a whole. In order to provide a rational basis for barley fertilization, especially as regards ni-trogen (N), a field trial was established near Settat, involving five barley varieties (ACSAD-60, Tessaout, Asni, Arig-8, and ACSAD-176), along with four N application at four levels (0, 40, 80, and 120 kg N ha-1), grown on a shallow soil (Petrocalcic Palexeroll) for two growing seasons that varied in terms of total rainfall (Year 1, 261mm and Year 2, 302 mm) as well as within-season distribution. There were considerable differences between crop years, with significantly higher yields in the second growing season when rainfall was heavy at the criti-cal tillering and stem-elongation growth stages. Nitrogen consistently increased dry matter and grain yields in either year, generally being significant up to 80 kg ha-1. There were sig-nificant differences observed among varieties, as well as interactions of varieties with years. The six-row variety Arig-8 was consistently the best while the two-row Asni, the lowest yielding variety. Where an economic analysis was done on yield data (Year 1), N fertilization up to at least 80 kg ha-1 was considered as profitable. Crop N uptake varied with varieties and increased with increasing fertilizer. N Recovery was variable and generally less than 50%. In contrast to many other fertilizer trials with barley in the region, this trial from cen-tral Morocco showed highly significant yield increases in response to applied N for barley varieties, most of which performed similarly. Therefore, N fertilization of barley in Mo-rocco’s semi-arid cereal-producing zone on shallow soils, where root growth and moisture-holding capacity are limited, should be promoted.

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Estimates of technical inefficiency in agricultural production are suspect so long as variations exist in production technology among the sampled farmers. Traditional methods of dealing with these technological differences risk attributing "technology gaps" to technical inefficiency between farms, pointing to the need to undertake a metafrontier analysis that allows technology gaps to be distinguished from technical inefficiency. Using farm-level data on the production of three different varieties of pistachio trees in Iran, we outline two criteria to justify its use: an inability in farmers to switch between production technologies except in the long term, and satisfaction of statistical tests on metafrontier coefficients. The application of metafrontier analysis enabled technical efficiency scores to be corrected for differences in production capacity imposed by tree variety. Results reveal that there is very little difference in technical efficiency between farms growing the different tree varieties. But they show that ignoring the production constraints imposed by variety choice could overstate the scope for farmers to improve their technical performance by adopting better farming practices. The results also indicate that it is misleading to compare the performance of different tree varieties on the basis of yield per hectare alone.

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The aim of study it was carried out survey investigation of consumer attitudes toward organic agriculture. The study was a kind of applied and descriptive –correlational method. The research population was consumers of agricultural products in Alborz Province. Sample size was determine by Cochran's formula (n= 250). Proportional stratified random sampling method was used. Data was collected through an instrument that developed by researcher. Validity estimated by a panel of experts in University and Agriculture experts’ of jihad-e- keshavarzi department of Karaj city. Reliability was conducted by a Pilot test and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient assumed (0/75) which show its suit for research conduct. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software package. Research findings show that there is a significant difference between responces in diploma and graduate & post graduted level at the 0.05 level. Also there is positive relation between consume obstacle and factors affecting to use of organice agriculture with responcendents attitude.  

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In the light of the 2008 World Development Report, this paper revisits the impact of agriculture on overall economic growth, in the case of an oil producing country, using indices of intersectoral linkages. To this end, four input-output tables of Iran’s economy are utilized. The results support the importance of the agricultural sector in stimulating the economic growth of Iran, but also show that the manufacturing sector has a higher potential to increase domestic production through its intersectoral linkage effects. Consequently, the results provide a caveat to the recommended general policy of the World Bank that the agricultural sector can be considered a key sector for the economic development in developing countries, at least in an oil producing country like Iran.

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Nanotechnology has been shown to have promising roles in the development of various industries including the agricultural sector. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the researchers’ attitude and the obstacle hampering the development of nanotechnology in the agricultural sector of Iran. The population of this study consisted of researchers in national research centers/institutes (N= 187) during the biennium, 2009-2010. Proportional stratified random sampling was used for sample selection in the study (123). A questionnaire was developed and its validity was evaluated by a panel that consisted of the experts in the Nanotechnology Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, Iran, and the faculty members of Tarbiat Modares University. A pilot test was conducted to determine the reliability of the questionnaire and Cronbach Alpha coefficient was confirmed for the scales of the questionnaire (α= 0.92). The results of this study showed that the respondents’ attitude toward the significance of nanotechnology was in the range of adequate to excellent level (92%, accumulatively). On the other hand, among the 37 obstacle variables investigated, 5 factors were found to account for 69.89% of the variance of obstacle variables. These included budget hindrance, instructional difficulties, management problems, research problems, and relative-informative hardships.