Journal of Land Management
Year:2019 | Volume:6 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:8

Conservation of agricultural land use as the basis for agricultural activities is a most important decision-making component in both national and agricultural development schemes. This is because current and future food security in all communities, whether small or large, relies heavily on the conservation and protection of existing agricultural lands to ensure sustained and effective production. Hence, optimal land utilization and protection to guarantee human survival on earth is an important responsibility of policy makers and sustainable development planners. Governments in the Eastern Block have been mandated to develop plans as their priority agenda for prohibiting land use change and land fragmentation in order to secure consolidated land farms with enhanced productivity via optimized use of land. In these countries, large allocations are dedicated annually to the execution of such plans in order to protect their farms and agricultural production. The present study aims to survey the experiences gained in Iran and some Asian countries in enforcing the pertinent laws and executing schemes in the field of land use management in order to gain an insight that can be exploited toward developing the relevant measures for improving the present conditions in Iran and to achieve a desirable land use management system.

One of the most important challenges facing agricultural crop production for the growing population of the world is the declining fertility of agricultural lands. Based on this recognition, the present quantitative study was designed, as an applied and non-experimental one with no control over the variables, and implemented to determine the users’ and farmers’ training needs in the areas of soil and soil fertility. Covering an area of 5422 ha, the study area was the civil district 1 on the eastern side of Ramshir Township. The statistical population comprised all the farmers across the study area (n = 382). Using the Cochran’ s formula, the statistical sample size was estimated at 110. However, 124 individuals were randomly selected as the statistical sample in order to achieve enhanced measurement accuracy. Our findings show that the most important training needs of the farmers include: the root causes of soil degradation and the relevant control methods, application of microorganisms for enhancing soil fertility, and hybrid farming methods. In addition, it was found that participation in training and extension courses has significant contributions to elevating farmers’ professional knowledge of agriculture. Finally, farmer’ s age and professional background were found to be directly and significantly related to farmers’ professional understanding.

This survey was carried out to investigate the attitudes of rural communities living in the vicinity of forest areas toward forest land use change. For this purpose, 364 inhabitants in villages from eight counties in Golestan Province were surveyed. Using the survey method, a questionnaire was prepared and administered as the data gathering tool whose validity was confirmed based on expert judgment by university academics and experts working in the field of natural resources. Its reliability was evaluated against the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Results revealed that the participants’ attitude toward and their readiness for changing forest land use were slightly above average. Moreover, no significant relations could be established between either age or education level and attitude toward land use change. Meanwhile, no differences were detected between sex and marital status with respect to the research question. This is while farmers and livestock growers showed the highest but civil servants showed the least positive attitude toward changing forest land use. Based on these results, a serious need is felt for improving the villagers’ attitude toward forest lands. In this regard, their knowledge of the economic, social, and environmental functions of forests needs to be elevated. Local NGOs and associations are recommended to be established in order to promote group activities in support of forests among villagers.

This manuscript is an effort to compile and review the laws and regulations at the state level related to forests and rangelands. This was accomplished by collecting the laws adopted by the National Consultative Assembly (prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979), the Islamic Consultative Assembly (after the Revolution), the Council of Ministers, the Supreme Administrative Council, and the Supreme Council on Urban Development and Architecture of Iran spanning the period from 1962 when the forests and rangelands were nationalized up to the present. Initially, the topics and areas related to forests and rangelands covered in these documents were identified. These included issues concerning nationalization of forests, natural woodlands, and rangelands; the procedures for the nationalization process; protection, rehabilitation, and exploitation of forests and rangelands; penalties and compensations related to offences and encroachments; and assignment of forests and rangelands to other land uses. The Forest and Rangeland Nationalization Act of 1962 brought decisive changes in the legal and management system of renewable natural resources at the state level while it gave their ownership, save for exceptional cases, to the national government. The Law on Conservation and Exploitation of Forests and Rangelands of 1967 passed by the National Consultative Assembly is the most important Act that developed a legal framework for the management of natural resources at the state level. The laws formulating methodologies and procedures for dedicating forests and range lands to development schemes account for the greatest portion of the laws adopted after the Act of 1962. There are, however, some shortcomings in the existing legislation such as the neglect of indigenous knowledge and its effects on the restoration, development, and protection of forests and rangelands. On the other hand, the laws on natural resources and lands overlap in certain areas as they lead to ambiguities on whether a certain land should be considered as nationalized or deserted. Legal definitions of forests and rangelands may be generally solicited in the adoptions and acts by the National Consultative Assembly and the Council of Ministers.

Nano-sensors are of extreme precision and reactivity, properties that make them delicate, precise, and sensitive instruments for identifying and responding to physical, chemical, and biological stimuli. Application of nano-sensors in agriculture and, especially in soil science, is a great help toward accurate measurement of soil temperature and moisture. Being equipped with wireless communication systems, they are more economical, easier to use, and user-friendly than other similar instruments. Carbon nanotubes and graphene, wireless sensors, and nanotechnology-based microelectromechanical systems are some of the nanosensors used in soil investigations. This review study explores the feasibility of using nanotechnology-based, cheap, wireless devices consisting of microcantilever beams for the simultaneous measurement of soil temperature and moisture. The system relies on the principle of shear stress for measuring water vapor, in which a micro-sensor chip is combined with a proprietary nanopolymer sensing element and the Weatstone bridge piezoresistor circuit to deliver two DC output voltages that are linearly proportional to relative humidity in the range of 0% to 100% and to temperature from ‒ 30 to 100 ° C. The graphene quantum dots may be alternatively used to measure soil moisture; these remain stable for about 4 months exhibiting negligible changes in their resistance with time. The response time of the sensor is quite fast (around 2– 3 minutes) and the graphene quantum dots are found appropriate for quick and accurate measurement of soil moisture.

The advent of nanotechnology has led to new achievements in the different fields of science and technology. The minified size of materials under this technology discloses certain novel or hitherto ignored features and properties of these materials. It is true that nanotechnology has helped enhance certain features of fertilizers as evidenced by a number of studies reporting their positive effects on different plants. However, it should be noted that most of these studies were performed under laboratory conditions and considered only short periods of plant life, in many cases only up to germination. This is while there are many reports showing the adverse consequences of using nano-materials. For example, nanoparticles of aluminum, iron, zinc, titanium, nickel, and silver or hydroxyapatite nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes have caused reduced growth in onions, vetch, rye, rice, beans, corn, cucumber, sorghum, and tomato plants. These inconsistent reports call for exhaustive investigations to determine the interactions between nano-materials and plants and their final fate in the plant and food chain before they can be used as fertilizers. Since plants stand at the beginning of the food chain, introduction and accumulation of nano-materials inside them might help transfer these materials to higher levels of the chain to end up in the human body. This paper studies the effects of high concentrations of nano-materials on plant growth in certain species, the associated damages, and the uptake and accumulation of nanoparticles in plant.

The area under citrus cultivation in Mazandaran Province amounts to 120, 000 ha. The soils in the area contain calcium carbonate (lime) that increases as we move from the central to the eastern stretches of the province. Moreover, the citrus rootstock in the region (sour orange) is sensitive to the CTV disease. These considerations require a substitute rootstock that is not only tolerant or resistant to the disease but is also adaptable to calcareous soils. The present study was conducted to evaluate the vegetative and nutritional responses as well as tolerance of Troyer citrange to different levels of calcium carbonate (lime) in the soils in this region. More specifically, the study was conducted in a randomized complete block design to determine the response of Satsuma mandarin on Teroyer Citrange rootstock to the calcareous soils in eastern Mazandaran. The highest average dry shoot and root weights were obtained for soils with total and active lime contents of 14% and 5%, respectively. The highest leaf chlorosis levels were recorded for soils with active lime contents of 14% and 16% and total lime contents of 30 and 45%, respectively. Also, the highest and lowest increments in diameter were obtained with soils containing 9% and 25% lime, respectively. Soils with total lime contents of 14% and 30% yielded the highest total iron concentrations in the root. Mean total iron, manganese, and zinc concentrations, respectively, in the root were about 12. 5, 8, and 4. 6 times their concentrations in the leaves, indicating their accumulation and precipitation, especially iron and manganese, in the roots. Average leaf Mn concentrations were less than adequate in all the plants grown in all the soils, while available manganese in most soils was higher than optimal for citrus trees. Based on the results obtained, calcium and magnesium from among the high consumption elements recorded the highest while sulfur and phosphorus exhibited the least root to leaf transfer efficiencies. From among the low consumption elements, iron and manganese exhibited the least root to leaf transfer efficiency. In general, Teroyer Citrange is a semi-tolerant rootstock for calcareous soils and may not be recommended for cultivation in soils with total and active lime contents beyond 20% and 10%, respectively.

Wastewater reuse for farm irrigation has a long history around the world. Population growth, influx of rural communities into cities, the ensuing over-urbanization, elevated living standards, and industrialization are among the many factors that have led to the production of escalating volumes of wastewater and industrial effluents beyond the self-purifying capacity of the surrounding limited land areas where they are produced. However, this devastating challenge may be transformed into an opportunity by reusing the wastewater as a source of water, materials, and energy. The recent technological developments in wastewater treatment have offered ample opportunities to obtain effluents of a wide range of qualities for a wide array of uses including drinking water. The availability of such technologies makes it possible to imagine every possibility for wastewater reuse toward agricultural irrigation. The question that remains, however, is whether the effluent quality thus obtained can be economically matched with the quality requirements of a given water reuse. This requires practicable water quality standards, guidelines, and criteria provisioned for different water reuses in compliance with environmental quality standards. Treatment effluent reuse for irrigation should in any case be envisioned as part of an Integrated Sustainable Waste Management System in which the different stages of waste production, separation, collection, transfer, and treatment are accomplished in cooperation with stakeholders. Concepts such as reduced waste production, reuse, and recycle playing special roles in this integrated system should be based on waste viewed as a renewable resource rather than one to dispose of.