Search

Introduction: In addition to destroying agricultural land and turning it into residential and industrial areas, urbanization is accompanied by a decrease in the population of people working in the agricultural sector (Wastfelt & Zhang, 2016). Following the development of urbanization and the migration of villagers to cities, a large population settled in cities in search of suitable jobs and an opportunity to be absorbed in the urban economy. These urban populations needed to provide food, and most did not know any other activity or profession except agriculture; therefore, some forms of agriculture A city was formed in the suburbs (Zasada et al., 2011). One of the challenges of urban agriculture is that it is traditionally neglected in urban planning because agriculture is not the norm of urban life (Bazgeer et al., 2019). Removing agricultural land from the use of the city has led to the weakening of economic, social, and ecological sustainability. The environmental costs associated with urban sprawl can be enormous. Therefore, policymakers and city managers must take necessary measures to protect the natural environment of cities (Glaeser, 2013). According to the mentioned cases and the increasing growth of the urban population and related environmental challenges, urban agriculture has been proposed as a flexible use in cities that can help as a sustainable solution to provide sustainable food, strengthen social connections, and improve citizens' quality of life. Methodology: This article is a review article. Review articles provide a new platform to provide a conceptual framework and the possibility of creating a more general and comprehensive picture of related issues that experts have addressed so far. The library method has been used to collect information. This research will use the content analysis method to review and analyze relevant texts and documents. Content analysis is a method used to analyze achievements in documents, written documents, or even speech, such as interviews. Among the practical tools that can be used in this research is MAXQDA software. This software analyzes documents using content analysis coding techniques (open, axial, and selective coding). In the first stage, after reading the texts, he extracted the main axes as open coding, which indicates the direction of analysis according to the purpose of the research. In the next stage, coding is done axially. In this part, by reading the texts in the main axes of the research more closely, the sub-axes of each are also extracted. In the last stage, the categories will be classified selectively, and their relationships will be extracted. Results: Using urban agriculture can cause flexibility in exploitation or functional mixing to provide enough attraction for citizens. Therefore, it is better to know the different types of agriculture in the city, and they are suitable for each urban environment and the prevailing uses of land in the environment. The city chose the right type of agriculture to provide a lively, flexible, and attractive environment for the citizens and improve their quality of life. ... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objective: The main purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model for integrated management of irrigation network based on water, food and energy linkage (Nexus). This requires identifying the main concerns related to irrigation networks, introducing and reflecting important decision variables and interactions between them, which explains the dynamics of water, food and energy chains within the boundaries a unit (irrigation network) of a catchment. This approach has received less attention in the management of irrigation networks, which is expected to solve some of the problems of irrigation network management. The method used in this research is based on a review of the Nexus chain management literature, the concepts of sustainability and security of water, food and energy resources in irrigation networks, and a practical approach to system dynamics. The major part of the research relied on field activities, including inspection to irrigation networks and interviews with provincial experts, specialists and technicians, Agricultural water users. Important variables affecting the integrated management of irrigation networks, which have been used in designing the framework, analyzing and determining behavioral patterns, were identified. Material and Methods: The eight main concerns of irrigation networks as important mechanisms of system dynamics for both levels (network management and field management) were identified as follows: - Subsystem of water resource limitation in the domain of an irrigation network that affects the growth of the most important economic loop in the region (Limit to growth Archetype). - The combined subsystem in the face of the weakness of the equity index in the network (the success to the successful archetype in obtaining more water resources, the shifting the burden archetype in providing the water needs of the downstream farmers and the escalation archetype in the increase in the amount of water needed as a result of changes in the cultivation pattern in general Agriculture of the region). - The set of personal and managerial actions in the face of the shortage of water volume available in the network resulting from the adoption of decisions without long-term consequences (combined archetypes of fixes that backfire in meeting water needs from groundwater resources, allocation of more water resources to meet network obligations and changes in the cultivation pattern to obtain more yields). - The set of individual decisions of farmers and the symptomatic solutions of managers in the face of unsupplied water demand in the agricultural sector (a combination archetypes of fixes that backfire for unauthorized access to groundwater resources and the archetype of shifting the burden in the face of network managers with the problem of illegal harvesting activities by providing a solution for choking wells). - Product performance subsystem (problem of using agricultural inputs) (combined archetypes of fixes that backfire in farmers' use of agricultural inputs and the its consequences on land salinity, as well as increasing the farmed area to achieve more yield). - The subsystem of facing the most important problem of the agricultural sector (water productivity in agriculture), (the archetype of shifting the burden in dealing network officials with improving water productivity through improving network efficiency versus the fundamental solution of improving water productivity at the agricultural block level and archetype of fixes that backfire of the development of the arrangement delivery plan with the tools of educating to farmers in front of the long-term side effects of more management of water delivered to farmers). - The subsystem of noticeable decrease in the utility of the network (the archetype of eroding goals in accordance with the pressures on the network managers and ultimately the downgrading of the initial goals of the irrigation network plan, which requires a review of the structural infrastructure and managerial empowerment in the irrigation network). - The explanation subsystem of the Nexus index as the main combined index from the point of view of water, food and energy (providing a fundamental solution to improve the utility versus increasing the farmed area as an ineffective symptomatic solution in this field). Results: According to the main concerns, behavioral patterns were explained and identified based on the decision mechanisms of water users and network managers, in the short and long term, and their side effects. Six system archetypes were identified that represent the dynamics of the irrigation network and predict the future utility of the network based on the water, food and energy chain (Nexus). These archetypes include: "Limit to Growth", "Fixes that Backfire", "Success to the Successful", "Escalation", "Eroding goals" and "Shifting the Burden". Conclusion: Three strategies for controlling the above mechanisms as regional Solution (local strategies) are proposed as follows: a- Water Distribution Improvement Schemes, b- Determining the Crop pattern and Irrigation density in proportion to the network capacity and c- Groundwater Extraction Control. As a result of this research, a conceptual model has been developed whose main achievement is to recommend the modification of the existing process of distribution schemes along with the modification of the crop pattern in accordance with the primary design and the water need of farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives: Use of intensive fattening capacity and lessen the dependency of stocks on natural lands is one of the solutions to reduce the pressure on rangelands (overgrazing). This fattening method is one of the important methods to increase red meat production without increasing the number of animals. If the fattening operation is done correctly, the county will not need to import red meat. The aim of this study was to determine the influential factors affecting the acceptance of fattening by pastoralists in the Kaiser area. Methodology: The sttrdied area is located 70 kilometers south of Sari city and at the altittrde of 1378 meters above sea level. The rangelands of this area are summer grazing lands and are used communally both by villagers and nomads' herds. This sttrdy was conducted by answering the questionnaire items asking from the users, in 2018. A total of 85 questionnaires were disttibuted among the statistical population. The main variables were determined and the final questionnaires were completed by random sampling in the study area. In these questionnaires, various variables were examined, including socio-economic characteristics of the pastoralists, technical characteristics of the rangelands and other related questions, which were asked in the form of a Likert scale and open questions. The content validity of the questionnaires was determined by professors and experts. Also, in order to calculate the reliability (reliability) of the questionnaire, the pre-test questionnaire was used and the reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) was calculated. To investigate the factors affecting the acceptance / non-acceptance of fattening by rangeland users was used through Logit Model. The logit model parameters were estimated using maximum resolution and Shazam software. Results: According to the results, about 40% of rangers have welcomed intensive fattening and were ready to change their livestock system. The corrected prediction percentage index of the estimated model is over 83%. This shows a favorable figure and indicates that the estimated model has been able to predict a high percentage of dependent variable values according to explanatory variables. In other words, approximately 83% of respondents correctly were assigned. The results showed that the child education variables, type of exploitation, rangeland level, having a forttme, use of reforestation of farms, duration of manual feeding, the variables of the occupation, knowledge of the benefits of fattening and having a sufficient level of rangeland for animal husbandry are effective factors on willingness of sheep fattening system by pastoralists in Kiasar area. According to the weight elasticity of grazing license variable (-0.67), assuming other factors constant, an increase of one percent in the exploitations with of grazing license reduces the probability of adoption of fattening by 0.67%. On the other hand, an increase of one percent in the area of agricultural land increases the probability of lhe willingness to fattening by 0.34 percent. In the case of the variable of knowledge about the benefits of fattening, a one percent increase in this variable increases the probability of wanting to fattening by 1.22%. Conclusion: Therefore, according to the results of research, cultivation of forage plants in agricultural lands and drylands, increasing the awareness of rangers about the benefits of fattening and traditional livestock damage on pastures through holding promotional-educational courses, encouraging incompetent rangers, immigrants and without a grazing license to fattening in addition to supporting organizations related to providing low-interest facilities are operational and scientific solutions to encourage ranchers to fatten in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resource limits, missing a developed irrigation program and undesirable water quality are the basic parameters that affect agricultural development of Iran. This research focus on irrigation amount water and its duration in other to increase crop yield of wheat on Hamedan-Bahar and Razan-Ghahavand plains. To this regard, three wheat farms located on different area of the plains were selected during agronomic year 2011. Consumption water amount (W) and crop yield (Y) were measured in order to calculate the water use efficiency (WUE) of the farms. The results showed that wheat yield significantly was increased (21.6%) by training of proper planning program of irrigation. This increasing yield resulted decreasing on using water content (23.1%) and increasing of water use efficiency (55%) in all farms of the experiment. The farmers training also showed that tensiometer is a simple and favorite instrument for optimal water using compared with gypsum blocks.