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 toutilize new high-efficiency irrigation systems to irrigate the horticultural crops. Thepresent study attempted to compare the productivity of pomegranate cultivation perhectare after utilizing two drip irrigation and furrow irrigation methods and examinedsome of the economic, environmental and managerial factors affecting the adoption ofthe drip irrigation among pomegranate farmers in Khash city during 2015 crop yearusing Logit models. Results of the model indicated that theapplication of drip irrigation had both direct and indirect effects on increasing theproductivity of pomegranate cultivation. As the direct effect, the productivity of thepomegranate cultivation increased by 32.28 percent per unit area without any changein the consumption of inputs and as the indirect effect by changing the consumption ofinputs, the productivity of the pomegranate cultivation increased by 6.47 percent perunit area. Generally, the use of drip irrigation in pomegranate orchards led to 12/28percent change in productivity (kilograms per hectare) of the pomegranate cultivation.On the other hand, the results of the logit model indicated that the farmer's age,number of family labor force working on the farm and the accessibility to waterresources have a negative impact on the adoption to the drip irrigation technology.Moreover, it was found that the farm size, level of education, farmer's job, land slope,farmers income, type of land use, instructional and promoting classes, accessibility tocredit facilities have positive and significant effects on adoption to drip irrigation.