Journal of Agricultural Science and Sustainable Production
Year:2019 | Volume:29 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:22

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses that affect crops production in worldwide. In order to investigate of genotype, environment effect and interaction effect of genoytpe×environment on barley grain yield under salinity stress, 18 promising lines with two checks were evaluated at three salinity affected agricultural researche stations include Isfahan, Birjand and Yazd using Randomized Complete Blocks design with three replications for two cropping seasons (2012-2014). Results of combined analysis of variance of grain yield showed that the genotype and year×genotype×environment interaction effect were significant. AMMI model was used to investigate of interaction effect and identify stable genotypes. Analysis of variance of additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) showed that four IPCAs were significant and explained 92% of the total yield variation. In the base of results of mean comparison, AMMI stability value and genotype stability value, line No. 8 (L. 527/NK1272//JLB70-63/3/1-BC-80320) introduced as stable line with appropriate grain yield which could be used as new cultivar in salinity affected condition or for using in future breeding program and Khatam cultivar is identified as most unstable genotype.

In order to evaluate forage quantity and quality in 15 domestic population of vetch, a field experiment was carried out based on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at the faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh in 2015. The species included domestic populations of Vicia sativa L. (2, 7, 29, 30, 16, 15, 10, 36, 33 and 23), Vicia hyrcanica (24 and 22) and Vicia villosa L. (12, 28 and 35). The results showed that the highest (530. 8 g. m-2) and lowest (91. 16 g. m-2) dry forage yield were obtained in the 30 and 36, respectively. Also, the highest seed yield (43. 43 g. m-2) was related to population 28. In addition, the highest total digestible nutrients (TDN), dry matter intake (DMI), digestible dry matter (DDM), relative feed value (RFV), net energy of lactation (NEL) and metabolisable energy (MED) was achieved in 28 (Vicia villosa L. ) population. In addition to, the lowest content of acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) was obtained in the 28 and 30, respectively. The cluster analysis categorized the quantitative and qualitative traits of the populations into three groups. So that, in terms of the quantitative and qualitative, the 30 and 28 populations were assigned to one group, respectively. Generally, based on quantitative and qualitative traits, the 28 (Vicia villosa L. ) and 30 (Vicia sativa L. ) were recommended as suitable species for cultivation in rainfed conditions.

The current study was carried out in three locations of Fars province included Eghlid, Shiraz and Lar which have a cold, mild and hot-dry climate, respectively. The General Circulation Model HadCM3 under three emission scenarios A2, B1 and A1B in three future periods (2011-30, 2045-65 and 2080-99) was applied. APSIM crop model was also used to simulate the growth and yield of wheat. The Averaged across locations, scenarios and periods in the future, a rising trend was simulated for biomass and grain yield compared with the baseline largely owing to the increasing carbon dioxide concentration (531 ppm). As an example, the highest biomass and grain yield was observed with 2786 and 1051 g. m-2, respectively in Eghlid in 2080-99 under the A2 scenario. Furthermore, considering that the rate of photosynthesis will be increased by increasing the carbon dioxide concentration in the future period, it will have the rising trend compared to the baseline period. According to the result of simulations, the highest increase in LAI was obtained under A2 scenario for 2080-99 in all of locations (23. 23%) while the lowest increase in LAI under A2 and B1 observed for 2011-30 (10. 83%). The growth and relative growth rates will be increased by increasing of photosynthesis rate and biomass in the all future periods under different emission scenarios. Overall, the results showed that increasing the carbon dioxide concentration in the future resulted in increased NAR. Accordingly, the highest and lowest NAR was simulated for 2080-99 and 2011-30, periods.

In the production of medicinal plants, it is a global approach toward sustainable agricultural systems and use of agricultural practices such as intercropping, application of biofertilizer and mulch to enhance the quantitative and qualitative performance of medicinal plants. Thus, two experiments were conducted with factorial arrangement based on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at the Research Farm of University of Tabriz in 2015 and 2016. The first factor was included sole cropping of purslane, sole cropping of dragon’ s head, additive intercropping of dragon’ s head + purslane (20, 40, 60 +100 %), and the mulch application as second factor including wheat straw mulch and no mulch; two types of fertilization including application of 100% chemical fertilizer and 50% chemical + biological fertilizers as third factor. Results revealed that the highest values of oil content and unsaturated fatty acids were observed in D20 + P100 intercropped plants, while the highly saturated fatty acid of palmitic content was observed in sole cropped. Mulch application had the highest yield and growth traits. Also, quantity and quality of dragon’ s head was not significantly affected by replacing biofertilizers with chemical fertilizer. In other words, it can be used 50% chemical + biological fertilizers. The highest land equivalent ratio and relative crowding coefficient were obtained from dragon’ s head with purslane intercropping (D40 + P100), wheat straw mulch application, and combinative application of chemical and biological fertilizers in second year. It seems that intercropping system (D40 + P100) and application of biofertilizers and mulch can be suggested as an appropriate agricultural method to reduce the consumption of chemical inputs and increase yield of dragon’ s head.

In order to evaluate the effect of vermicompost, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers on yield and yield components of four chickpea cultivars under terminal drought stress, a field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station of Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina, university during 2014 growth season. Experiment was designed as split factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Irrigation treatment inclued two levels, without drought stress (full irrigation) and drought stress at podding stage (terminal drought) in main plots and fertilizer treatments including four levels (100 percent of vermicompost, 100 percent of chemical fertilizer, 50 percent of chemical fertilizer + 50 Percent of vermicompost and Without fertilizer) and four chickpea cultivars (Bivanig, Arman, Azad, Hashem) were used in sub-plots. The result showed that interaction between irrigation and cultivar was significantly in the number of pods per plant, economic yield, biological yield and harvest index. Also all studied traits were significantly affected by interaction between irrigation and fertilizer. Drought stress at podding stage decreased grain yield of Hashem, Arman, Azad and Bivanig cultivars about 41, 43, 37 and 33. 7 percent, respectively. At the podding stage steress, application of 50 percent of chemical fertilizer + 50 percent of vermicompost increased number of pods per plant, 1000 grain weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index about 20, 19, 47. 6, 23. 8 and 16 psercent respectively under stress condition. It’ s notable that application of 100 percent of vermicompost improved above-mentioned traits by about by 29. 7, 14. 5, 39, 20 and 4. 8 percent respectively. According to results, in all cultivars especially Hashem using 50 percent of chemical fertilizer + 50 percent of vermicompost for enhancing chickpea under full irrigation and drought stress at podding stage is recommended.

In order to study the effects of integrated application of organic and bio-fertilizers on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L. ), an experiment was conducted as randomized complete blocks design with six treatments and three replications at research field of Agriculture Company of Ran in Firouzkuh of Iran in 2013. The treatments were 4 t/ha vermicompost, 8 t/ha vermicompost, nitroxin biofertilizer, integrated application of 4 t/ha vermicompost and nitroxin, integrated application of 8 t/ha vermicompost and nitroxin and control (without fertilizer). The results showed that treatments had significant effects on studied traits, as the highest dry weight of plant (109 g/p), dried yield of flower (720 kg/ha), essential oil content (0. 4%), essential oil yield (2. 9 kg/ha) and chamazulene percent in essential oil (24. 7%) in treatment of integrated application of 8 t/ha vermicompost and nitroxin were obtained. Also, the highest bisabolol A percent in essential oil (44. 4%) in treatment of application of 4 t/ha vermicompost and the highest bisabolol B percent in essential oil (12. 4%) in treatment of application of nitroxin were obtained. Generally, the highest yield and quantity and quality of essential oil in treatment of integrated application of 8 t/ha vermicompost and nitroxin were obtained.

The effect of organic and chemical fertilizers, application as well as nano and common micronutrient on yield, yield components and essential oil of fennel were investigated by experiment as factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh in 2017. The first factor was application of organic and chemical fertilizers including control (without fertilizer), vermicompost, urban waste compost and chemical fertilizer, and the second factor was foliar application of Fe, Zn and Mn (control, common and nano forms). Results showed that the highest number of umbels per plant was obtained by using chemical fertilizer, the highest number of grains per umbelet and grain yield were obtained by chemical fertilizers and urban waste compost application, and the highest biological yield was obtained with all three types of fertilizers application. Regarding the application of micronutrients results indicated that, the highest number of grains per umbelet, 1000-grain weight and grain yield were obtained by foliar application of common micronutrients and the highest biological yield was obtained by application of both types of common and nano micronutrients. The analysis of variance results showed that the interaction of organic and chemical and micronutrients was significant on the number of umbelet per umbel, essential oil percentage and essential oil yield. So that the highest number of umbelet per umbel (12. 9) was observed in chemical fertilizer + nano micronutrients application by 39. 6% increase compared to control (no application of any fertilizer) and the highest percentage of essential oil (2. 78%) and essential oil yield (4. 53 g. m-2) were obtained in chemical fertilizer + common micronutrients by 54. 5% and 98. 7%, respectively. In general, the results of this study showed that the application of organic fertilizers of urban waste compost and vermicompost to replace the chemical fertilizer, as well as foliar application of common or nano-micronutrients for improving the yield components and qualitative and quantitative yield of fennel are effective.

Phosphate solubilizing and nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi play an important role in the supply of nutrients in plants. To evaluate the efficacy of plant growth promoting bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on physiology traits of Tareh Irani a field experiment in a randomized complete block design with 10 treatments and 3 replications was conducted. In this experiment tareh Irani seeds, (Tabriz landrace) inoculated with bacteria 1) P. putida P13, Pantoea agglomerans P5 (the biofertilizer Barvar2), 2) Azotobacter sp. (in biofertilizer Nitroxin), 3) bacteria Azospirillum sp. AC46 I, Azospirillum sp. AC49VП , 4) bacteria P. fluorescens Chao, P. putida Tabriz 5) two species of AMF, Glomus versiforme, G. intraradices. Results indicated that the colonization percent, percentage of chlorophyll, vitamin C content, total poly phenoles, phosphorus and nitrogen (p ≤ 0. 01) and pyruvic acid, soluble proteins, (p ≤ 0. 05) were affected by biofertilizers. Combination of mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Azotobacter sp. ) was better than other biofertilizer treatments in aspect of improving of quantity and quality traits in Tareh Irani. So that the bacteria can increase the efficiency of mycorrhizal fungi treatments were combined because of better nutrition and more food is especially phosphorus and nitrogen.

In order to study of some flax characteristics under nitrogen and organic fertilizer, a field experiment was conducted in experimental farm of Agricultural Faculty of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz at 2015-2016 growing season. Experimental design was randomized complete block as factorial arrangement with three replications. The first factor was different nitrogen fertilizer sources, control (no nitrogen fertilizer), 150kg. ha-1 urea, 75 kg. ha-1 urea+Nitrocara biological fertilizer and 100 kg. ha-1 Slow Released Urea). The second factor was different organic fertilizer sources as control (no organic fertilizer application), 5 tones. ha-1 vermicompost, 2. 5 tones vermicompost+ humic acid and humic acid). The results showed the highest crop growth rate (CGR)(2. 28 g. m-2. day-1) and leaf area index(LAI) (4. 35) in nitrogen treatments were related to 150 kg. ha-1 urea fertilizer and in organic fertilizer treatment, the highest CGR(22. 8 g. m-2. day-1) and LAI (4. 15) were conducted at 2. 5 tones/ha vermicompst+humic acid treatments on GDD=737 at capsuling phonological stage. The highest relative growth rate (RGR) were obtained at urea fertilizer (0. 09) and humic acid (0. 02) at GDD=527 (flowering stage). The highest grain yield (2706. 67 kg) was obtained at vermicompost(2. 5 tons. ha-1)+ humic acid +urea fertilizer. The results of this study indicated that application of organic and biological fertilizers alone or in combination with chemical fertilizers have a positive effect on improving the quality and quantity of flaxen. In this experiment, application of organic fertilizers showed good effect than nitrogen fertilizer and it was significantly more than control treatment.

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses which has several negative effect on plant growth. The high levels of sodium which is toxic to most varieties of plants species, and more importantly affect plant growth and limit the plants yield cappcity. In order to investigate the effect of vermicompost and salinity stress on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of (Dracocephalum moldavica L) the greenhouse experiment was conducted in 2016 at research greenhouse, agricultural sciences of University Maragheh. The study was conducted in a completely randomized block design. Experimental factors comprised salinity levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl) and vermicompost (0, 5, 10 and 15 %(v/v)) with four replications per treatment. The results showed that application of vermicompost increased plant height, leaf number, chlorophyll content index, dry weight per plant, fresh weight per plant and protein content. Most soluble carbohydrates were found at the 150 mM salinity and 15% vermicompost. Furthermore, the lowest amount of proline (1/444 μ g/wt) related to the control plants and 15 %(v/v) vermicompost. The results showed that all studied traits were affected by different fertilizer treatments. Therefore, using vermicompost can be a suitable method for reducing the effects of high sodium chloride concentration on growth of this plant in saline soils.

For sustainable development and optimized water use, effect of drought stress on two groundcovers namely mose rose and ice plant was studied. Irrigation treatments were field capacities of 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent which were applied for two months on the established one month old plants. After the mentioned period of time vegetative traits were measured and in case of mose rose number of flowers were counted and ANOVA was conducted. The results indicated that the plant type (species), treatments (the applied drought stress levels) and their interactions had significant effects on the traits of shoot length, leaf number, fresh weight, dry weight, chlorophyll index and flower number (in case of mose rose). The ice plant was more efficient than mose rose for the most of measured traits. Also significant differences were observed for these parameters in applied irrigation levels. The flower number in mose rose was significantly affected by irrigation level. Although the sever stresses caused significant decrease of growth rate in these groundcovers but they tolerated and survived even at 25% FC of irrigation and in some cases there was not significant differences between 50 and 75 percent of FC. So in order to water conservation and have a landscape with healthy and acceptable plants from landscape users’ viewpoint the irrigation amount could be reduced to 50% of field capacity for these plants.

Today, sustainability of agricultural operations is inevitable in the process of sustainable development. The altogether improvement of Stability and efficiency can increase economic growth in agriculture. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the efficiency and sustainability of potato cultivation in Kaboudarahang. For this purpose, the data from 154 potato cultivators were gathered by completing the questionnaire in the 2015-2016 crop seasons. To determine the sustainability, the Senanayake’ s approach and to determine the efficiency of the method, a Stochastic Frontier production function was used. Estimates of technical efficiency of farmers also indicate that the cultivation fields of this product range from 53 to 96 percent of the technical efficiency and their average efficiency is 84 percent. Also, the results from the Senanayake approach indicate that 2. 6% of the farms are under the class of completely unstable, 9. 8% of the farms are in the unstable class, 72. 1% in the middle class, 13. 6% in the sustainable class, and 9. 1% in a very stable class. Finally, the results of the regression model showed that there is a significant relationship between agricultural sustainability and efficiency. Meanwhile, variables like the farmer's age, literacy level, number of attendances in the educational classes, the type of ownership, and technical efficiency had a positive effect and the main occupation of the cultivator had a negative effect on agricultural sustainability. Therefore, since efficiency has a positive impact on the sustainability of agriculture, adopting measures such as paying attention to ownership, education, participation in educational classes, and experience can strengthen the sustainability of the production system.

One of the most important problems in agricultural production is water shortage. Application of absorbent materials can help usage of sporadic rain fall and cause more maintenance of water storage. This research was conducted as factorial based on a randomized complete design with three replication and four levels super nano-absorbent consisted of 0 (control), 0. 2% super nano-absorbent (2 gram super nano-absorbent per kg of soil), 0. 4% super nano-absorbent (4 g super nano-absorbent per kg of soil), 0. 6% super nano-absorbent (6 gram super nano-absorbent per kg of soil) and three levels of irrigation; I1: FC-0. 85FC, I2: 0. 85FC-0. 65FC, I3: 0. 65FC-0. 5 FC, was evaluated on the some physiological and morphological traits of rapeseed. These traits were affected significantly by super nano-absorbent. The highest stem diameter, plant height, chlorophyll index, number of pods and panicles, fresh and dry weight of the aerial part and 1000-seed weight were obtained with the use of more super nano-absorbent. (6 g super nano-adsorbent per kg of soil). Depending on the results, super nano-absorbent reduced damages caused by drought stress. The highest fresh and dry weights of the aerial parts of the plant using super nano-absorbent showed its role in drought stress conditions. In this study, it was found that although the growth indices decreased by reducing the amount of water, but by adding super nano-absorbent, the reduction was less than the non-use of super-adsorbent.

In order to investigate the effect of salicylic acid, humic acid and harvesting numbers on morphological characteristics and essential oil of German chamomile, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in agricultural sciences and natural resources university of Khuzestan in 2015. The treatments consisted of four levels of humic acid (control, 200, 400 and 600 mg. L-1) and four levels of salicylic acid (control, 200, 400 and 600 μ M) as foliar application in vegetative growth stage flowering and the flower harvest times including one and three harvest (after 20% flowering at intervals of 10 days). The results showed that the highest number of flowers (87. 6) was obtained in three times harvesting and increased by 45% compared to one time harvest. Also, in treatments with humic acid in terms of three harvest, compared to one harvest, the yield increased by 70%. The use of salicylic acid (400 μ M) and humic acid (600 mg. L-1) resulted in an increase of 18% and 38% in the number of flowers compared to control treatment. In addition, the best treatment for the highest flower yield, essential oil content and yield was related to 400 mg salicylic acid with 400 or 600 mg. L-1 humic acid in three times harvesting, which showed significant and considerable increase compared to control in these traits.

The effect of salicylic acid and glycine betaine foliar application on morpho-physiological characteristics of Carla (Momordica charantia L. ) under water deficit stress, were studied by an experiment as split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications in 2017 at Zanjan University Research Farm. The treatments consisted of three levels of irrigation, 50, 75 and 100% of field capacity as the main factor and two levels of salicylic acid (2 and 4 m M), two levels of glycine betaine (50 and 100 m M) as Sub factors were used. The results showed that the increase in water deficit stress significantly reduced the total chlorophyll content, vitamin C content, seed weight, plant length and number of fruits per plant. But increasing in water deficit stress caused a significant increase in the amount of proline and Ion leakage. The application of salicylic acid and glycine betaine increased the Ion leakage and total chlorophyll content, vitamin C, proline, plant length, number of fruits per plant, but did not have a significant effect on seed weight. In general, due to the fact that the use of salicylic acid and glycine betaine have ability to improve the morphological and physiological traits of treated plants. It seems that application of these treatments can increase Carla tolerance to water deficit stress.

One of the most important steps toward sustainable development is to protect agricultural lands. Every year some parts of the country’ s best agricultural lands due to various reasons, face kinds of using changes and convert to non-agricultural lands. Dismissing of such lands causes irreparable damages to agricultural and horticulture production processes. In this respect, the purpose of this study is to examine the factors that affect agricultural land use changes. Since Tabriz County is one of the areas in which agricultural land use change have been conducted, it is chosen as the studied area in this research. Data for this study was collected through questionnaire which was conducted by 200 farmers in Tabriz County. To reach study’ s aim, first, the effective factors on land use change besides farmers’ beliefs and attitudes that are likely to show an increasing effect on agricultural land use change, are classified, moreover, the effective factors are prioritized based on Coefficient Variation (CV) Criterion. In order to investigate the influenced factors on land use change, the Logit Regression model was applied. Results indicated that 107 respondents have changed the use of their land. According to the model results, factors like age, main occupation of farming, work experience, quality and productivity of agricultural land, having livestock besides farming, and positive attitude toward agricultural lands, significantly reduce the probability of land use change. While the level of respondents’ education, their total annual revenue, and possessing rain-fed lands have positive and significant effect on land use change.

In order to study the different levels of methanol foliar application on spring potato under experimental fertilizer management in 2016 in a training farm in Hirmand, split-plot experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Experimental treatments consisted of 7 levels of fertilizer including 100% NPK fertilizer vermicompost manure nano fertilizer a combination of 50 percent NPK + 50 percent vermicompost 50 percent NPK + 50 percent manure Manure and 50% NPK fertilizer + 50% of nano fertilizer were the main factors and different levels of methanol at four levels (0 10 20 and 30 volumes) as a minor. The results of analysis of variance of the test data showed that the interaction of fertilizer management and methanol foliar application had a significant effect on all traits except day to 50% flowering day to day full coverage day to tuber mature and carbohydrate of the tuber. The results of the comparison of the mean interactions showed that in the application fertilizer and nano of combined with 20% volumetric methanol consumption the highest large tuber and total yield (28. 05 t. ha-1) were obtained. Also highest amount of carbohydrates and the lowest amount of catalaze and peroxidase were obtained from this treatment. It can be concluded that for increasing and improving the quantitative and qualitative properties of potato the use of fertilizer and nano of combined with 20% volumetric methanol solution is recommended.

Regarding to limitation of water resources and the consequences of chemical fertilizers in terms of the environment, recognizing the affecting factors of crop production in limited water conditions is very important. In order to investigate the effect of chemical and biological phosphoric fertilizers on yield and yield components of safflower under different irrigations, an experiment was conducted as split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural College of Zabol University. The irrigation treatment included normal irrigation, discontinuation of irrigation intervals before and after flowering as the main factor and types of phosphorous fertilizers in 4 levels: control (no fertilizer), 100% chemical phosphorus fertilizer, 50% chemical phosphorus fertilizer + 50% biological phosphate (combined fertilizer) and 100% Biological phosphate fertilizer were sub factor. Based on the results of analysis of variance, plant height, number of main and minor branches and harvest index were significantly affected by different fertilizer treatments. Comparison of means showed that the highest amount of traits were belong to the combined treatment of chemical and biological phosphoric fertilizers which increased 1. 2, 1. 7 and 1. 6 and 1. 55 times, respectively. The results also showed that number of heads per plant, 1000 seed weight, biological yield, grain yield, chlorophyll and carotenoids were significantly affected by different fertilizer treatments, irrigation and interaction. The highest amount of these traits was observed in the combination of biological and chemical fertilizer under normal irrigation conditions, which increased 2, 2. 4, 2. 12 and 2. 59, respectively, compared to the control fertilizer treatment, respectively. Also, the results showed that the application of pure fertilizers to improve the effective traits in safflower yield was lower than pure fertilizers in all irrigation treatments. The highest amount of carotenoids (5. 57 mg. g-1FW) belonged to the combination of biological and chemical fertilizer in irrigation treatment after flowering. According to the results, it seems that the combination of chemical and biological phosphorous fertilizers in tolerance to drought conditions can play a significant role in safflower plants.

Water management particularly in agricultural sector has been shown as an extensive debate which primarily depends on the holistic assessment of water resources combined with due attention to other involved aspects. Therefore, to address this issue a holistic way was regarded which crystalized in development of the Agricultural Water Poverty Index. . In line with this, a survey study was conducted to measure the agricultural water poverty in Dezful County. The study population consisted of all the irrigated wheat growers located throughout the County (N=5000). Using a systematic random sampling method a sample of 205 farmers based on Krejcie & Morgan table was selected. The main data was collected using a questionnaire and some other data including farms’ geographic information and water EC were gathered using GPS and Ecmeter devices, respectively. The validity of the study questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. . Data Analysis was carried on by using a combination of software including SPSSv20, Super Decisions, and ArcGIS. Hence, the indicators of the index were weighted based on an analytical network process. After that, the agricultural water poverty was calculated for individual respondent farmers using a special formula. Results revealed that the causes of water poverty included the low farmers’ capacity to optimum water usage, low value of the environment component as well as the low rate of access to available water among farmers. Moreover, surface water resources (35. 25), farmer’ s access (51. 85), human capital (40. 67), and chemical herb-pesticides (90. 74) ranked at first place among the other sub-components of resources, access, capacity, and environment, respectively. To recognize the hotspots dealt with water poverty, an agricultural water poverty map was provided. This map was regarded as a useful tool to reveal the water poverty causes in the study area. The study followed on the conclusion part in which the AWPI was regarded as an efficient and helpful tool to diagnose the water problems and to develop the appropriate policies and plans by decision and policy makers.

The effect of marigold-faba bean intercropping on population of Aphis fabae, was studied by an experi-ment as rhandomized complete block design with seven treatments including Vicia faba sole cropping, Ca-lendula officinalis sole cropping, 50 percentage Calendula and 50 percentage faba bean intercropping, 35 percentage Calendula and 65 percentage faba bean, 35 percentage faba bean and 75 percentage intercropping Calendula, 25 percentage Calendula and 75 percentage faba bean intercropping and 75 percentage Calendula and 25 percentage faba bean in three replications. The results revealed that nymph densities in examined treatments range from 15. 4 nymph on 35 percentage faba bean and 75 percentage intercropping Calendula to 125 nymph on Vicia faba sole treatment. Adult density was evaluated in which the highest population of adults in faba bean sole cropping and the lowest population in T3 tratment were recorded. The result as well indicated that the most of population of natural enemies were shown in intercropping treatment. Results showed that species richness of crops is an important strategy to increase the species diversity of insects. Maximum seed yield were achieved at sol cropping with 250. 2 g. m-2. Highest seed yield were achieved at 25 percentage Calendula and 75 percentage faba bean intercropping with 234. 2 g. m-2. The greatest land eqiuva-lant ratio (1. 32) was obtained in 75 percentage Calendula and 25 percentage faba bean treatment. Land eqiuvalant ratios for all intercropping patterns were greater than 1, showing the higher efficiency and profit-iability of intercropping compared to sole cropping.