The Impact of New Inputs (drip irrigation technology) on the Production of Pomegranate and Factors Affecting Its Adoption (Case study: Khash City)

Abstract

Due to the limited water resources in arid and semi-arid areas, it is necessary to<br />utilize new high-efficiency irrigation systems to irrigate the horticultural crops. The<br />present study attempted to compare the productivity of pomegranate cultivation per<br />hectare after utilizing two drip irrigation and furrow irrigation methods and examined<br />some of the economic, environmental and managerial factors affecting the adoption of<br />the drip irrigation among pomegranate farmers in Khash city during 2015 crop year<br />using Logit models. Results of the model indicated that the<br />application of drip irrigation had both direct and indirect effects on increasing the<br />productivity of pomegranate cultivation. As the direct effect, the productivity of the<br />pomegranate cultivation increased by 32.28 percent per unit area without any change<br />in the consumption of inputs and as the indirect effect by changing the consumption of<br />inputs, the productivity of the pomegranate cultivation increased by 6.47 percent per<br />unit area. Generally, the use of drip irrigation in pomegranate orchards led to 12/28<br />percent change in productivity (kilograms per hectare) of the pomegranate cultivation.<br />On the other hand, the results of the logit model indicated that the farmer's age,<br />number of family labor force working on the farm and the accessibility to water<br />resources have a negative impact on the adoption to the drip irrigation technology.<br />Moreover, it was found that the farm size, level of education, farmer's job, land slope,<br />farmers income, type of land use, instructional and promoting classes, accessibility to<br />credit facilities have positive and significant effects on adoption to drip irrigation.