Saffron Agronomy and Technology
Year:2020 | Volume:8 | Issue:1|Papers Count:9

A split-plot experiment including three irrigation intervals of 30, 50 and 70 days as main plots and three factors of vermicompost, Terracottem and Bolourab A, as well as control, as sub plots was carried out for three years (2014-2017) at the Saffron Research Institute, Torbate Heydarieh University in order to find and recommend a method for improving vegetative and reproductive traits and economic yield of saffron using organic compounds of soil amendment. The results showed that the effects of treatments on all quantitative and qualitative traits, were significant (p <0. 01). The highest leaf number (43. 9 leaves in colony) and daughter corm (346. 7 m2) were obtained in the treatment of 50-day irrigation intervals and combined use of vermicompost, Terracottem and Bolourab A. Moreover, the highest average yield of reproductive growth including flower number (474. 2 m2) was observed in the treatment of 50-day irrigation interval and combined application of Bolourab A, vermicompost and Terracottem, and fresh flower yield (2509. 2 kg. ha-1). Moreover, economic yield of dry stigma (24. 8 kg. ha-1) in the treatment of 30-day irrigation intervals and combined use of Bolourab A and vermicompost in the third year. The highest yield of crocin (13. 7%) and picrocrocin (6. 7%) active ingredients were obtained at irrigation intervals of 30 and 70 days, respectively, with combined application of vermicompost and Bolourab A. The highest content of safranal (2. 9%) active ingredient was obtained in the treatment of 30-day irrigation and combined application of vermicompost, Bolourab A, and Terracottem in the third year. The highest water use efficiency of 0. 0096 kg. m-3 was related to the treatment of 70-day irrigation intervals and combined use of Bolourab A and vermicompost in the third year. The lowest yield in all of the studied traits was observed in the control treatment. Generally, soil amendment organic compounds can be used in combination with 50-day irrigation interval to increase the efficiency of existing water resources and improve qualitative and quantitative yield of saffron plant in semiarid regions.

In order to study the effects of various additive intercropping series of saffron and cumin on their yields, and yield components, an experiment was conducted as split-plot arrangement based on randomized complete block design with three replications in a two years saffron research farm in agricultural faculty of Bardsir during 2016-2017. The experimental treatments were assigned to the main plot on planting dates (November 11, December 11, March 6 and April 4), and additive intercropping series (25, 50, 75 and 100% of optimum density of cumin (120 plant. m-2), sole saffron (50 plant. m-2), sole cumin) as subplot. The studied traits were including number of umbrellas per plant, essential oil percentage, seed, biological and essential oil yield, and also saffron flower number, flower yield, stigma yield, number of replacement corm, corm weight and number of infected corm. The results showed that delaying in cumin planting date led to a notable decrease in cumin yield and yield components, in all of the planting patterns. The reduction values of cumin seed yield in March and April planting dates compared to November were 39% and 64%, respectively. Cumin essential oil at November (2. 79%), December (2. 78%) and April (2. 83%) planting dates were higher than that of March (2. 42%). The experimental treatments had no significant effect on corm number, but cumin planting at spring had more infected corms than fall planting. The corm weight was declined as affected by delay in planting date and increase in cumin density. The saffron flower and stigma yield in fall intercropping was significantly higher than spring intercropping. Intercropping had negative impacts on saffron productivity, and the highest stigma yield (2. 97 kg. ha-1) was assigned to sole cropping. In general, the maximum (1. 51) LER was related to fall intercropping of cumin and saffron.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different organic amendments (cow manure, humic acid (Humax® 95– WSG), an organic-mineral-based emulsion (Omic® ) and unfertilized control) and mothercorm weight (0 to 4 g, 4. 1 to 8 g and 8. 1 to 12 g) on flower and corm yield of saffron. The experiment was conducted as factorial experiment in randomized complete block-design with three replications in the Research Complex of Medicinal Plants, ACECR of the Southern Khorasan Province, Iran in 2017-18. According the results, evaluating the main effects of nutrition factor revealed no significant impact on most studied traits in the first year. However, in the second year and during the 21-day period of saffron flowering, cow manure treatment increased stigma dry weight by 77. 3, 71. 7 and 58. 9% compared with the control, Humax and Omic treatments, respectively. By fitting the regression line between the cumulative dry weight of the stigma and days after flowering, it was found that stigma dry weight increased by 19. 1, 11. 43, 10. 92 and 10. 65 mg. day-1 in cow manure, Omic, Humax and control treatments, respectively. In addition, the highest flower dry weight with 2858 mg. m-2 was recorded in the cow manure treatment. The highest and lowest amount of the studied traits in both years belonged to big and small corm treatments, respectively. In the first year, stigma dry weight in the big corm treatment with 22. 28 mg. m-2 was about 190 times higher than that of the small one. However, the difference in the second year fell to less than 3 times. In addition, the highest number (466. 36 m-2) and weight (936. 559 g. m-2) of daughter corms were obtained in the big mother corms treatment. In the second year, however, by reduction of the differences between mother corm weight treatments, stigma dry weight, flower dry weight and number of flowers in big and medium corm treatments were not statistically significant. Overall, the results of this study showed that the advantages of using manure in saffron cultivation due to its unique characteristics, such as improving the physical conditions of the soil cannot be compensated by other organic amendments. Moreover, not planting mother corms less than 4g is of main importance in saffron cultivation because of their adverse effects on saffron yield and must be considered by farmers.

In order to investigate the effects of planting date and corm weight on flower characters and saffron (Crocus sativus L. ) yield, an experiment as a factorial was carried out based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications in research station of the South Kerman Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center at Sfadagheh during the 2017-2018 growing season Two factors, planting date (Jun, August and September) and corm sizes (6-8, 8-10, 10-12 and >12g) were evaluated in this experiment. The traits associated with flower, stigma and corm were measured during the growing season. Results showed that planting date has a significant effect on all of traits except of dry weight of stigma. Also, the effects of corm weight and interaction of planting date×corm weight were significant on all of the traits. So, the highest number of flower and stigma yield were observed in the planting date of June and the corm weight of more than 12 g. Therefore, for achieving high saffron yield, planting date of June and the use of corms with more than 12 g is recommended. Investigating the characteristics of the daughter corms in the first year of the experiment showed that all of the studied traits were influenced by planting date and the effect of the corm weight was not significant on the characteristics or the number of daughter corm over 6g, average weight of the daughter corm more and less than 6 g. According to the results of the traits related to the daughter corm, it can be anticipated that in the following year there is no difference in yield and its components among the different levels of maternal corm. The results in the second year showed that yield and yield components were only affected by planting date and the corm weight had the same effect on them. The planting date of June 5th was the best in the second year. According to the results and low price of saffron in June in Southern Kerman foothill areas, cultivation of saffron should be done on June 5th. Since in the first year of the experiment, the yield that is achieved even from great maternal corms, and given the fact that the mother corms of different weights in the second year have the same role in determining the stigma yield, in order to reduce the production costs, the 6-8 g recommended for cultivation.

An experiment was conducted in Shadmehr region as randomized complete block design with 10 treatments with four replication during two years (2014-2015 and 1015-2016) in order to evaluate the response of flower and corm yield of saffron to nanobiologic fertilizer application methods in comparison to cow manure and chemical fertilizer. The treatments were 1. Corm inoculation with nanobiofertilizer (Bioumik product of Biozar Company), 2. Corm inoculation+use in irrigation water, 3. Corm inoculation+ foliar application 4. Corm inoculation+ foliar application+use in irrigation water, 5. In irrigation water, 6. Foliar application 7. Use of chemical fertilizer (Urea, Ammonium phosphate and Potassium sulphate) 8. Use of cow manure 9. Use of chemical fertilizer +Use of cow manure and 10. Control. The traits studied were corm dry yield, flower dry yield, stigma dry, and fresh yield and flower number. Based on the results of the third year, the highest stigma dry yield (about 14 kg. ha-1) and flower number were achieved in Corm inoculation+ foliar application+use in irrigation water treatment (by 176 % increase in comparison to control) and the highest corm yield was seen in corm inoculation treatment (by 41 more than control). The results show that the best method for corm improvement was corm inoculation with nanobiofertilizer and for flower improvement it is recommend to use corm inoculation+ foliar application+use in irrigation water.

Saffron is a unique product of Iran and Saffron corm is one of the saffron producing ingredients that is produced annually in a high volume in the country. It is shown that saffron corm is a low-cost material which contains some extractable bioactive compounds. The extraction method affects the kind and amount of bioactive material extracted from the saffron corm. Therefore, this research study was carried out in order to produce high value-added materials from the waste saffron corm. First, the saffron onion was prepared, dried and completely ground. Extracting was performed using a solvent (80% methanol, 80% ethanol and water) and ultrasound (100% intensity, 0, 20 and 40 minutes at room temperature). The extracts were dried by rotary evaporation. In each case, extraction efficiency, determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), phenolic compounds, iron regeneration strength III, and free radical receptivity were determined. In order to investigate the independent effect (the type of solvent, ultrasound intensity) and interaction (solvent type and ultrasound intensity) on bioactive compounds of saffron onion extract, a factorial arrangement of 2 variables with completely randomized design was used in three replications. Mean comparison was done by the Duncan method. The results showed that Ethanol solvent extracted 85. 84 mg. ml-1 of phenolic compounds with the highest reducing power of FeIII (594. 7 μ mol. ml-1), radical receptivity (59. 42%), and ultrasound process at 100% for 40 minutes extracted the highest amount of phenolic compounds (82. 23 mg. ml-1).

Increasing the productivity factor in the agricultural sector is essential and by growing population rate, the need to invent more productive systems is highlighted. However, agronomic activities have always been accompanied by environmental impacts. Therefore, the two categories of productivity and agricultural sustainability should be considered simultaneously. The present study is aimed at identifying factors affecting the total productivity factor of saffron farms in the Gonabad County with an emphasis on the role of attitude towards sustainable agriculture. The study population consisted of all saffron farmers in Gonabad. In order to achieve the research objectives, 110 questionnaires were completed based on the random sampling procedure and after calculating the total factor productivity using the Tornqvist-Theil index, an Ordered-logit model was used to identify factors affecting productivity. The results indicate that attitudes toward sustainable agriculture and income have positive and significant effects on farmers' access to higher levels of productivity, while variable of participation in training courses significantly reduces the probability of achieving higher levels of productivity. Variables of sown area, agricultural insurance and main job do not have any significant effects on the probability of achieving different levels of productivity. Undertaking policies which improve attitude of saffron producers towards sustainable agricultural activities and informing them about the effects of unsustainable farming, a fundamental revision of the content of training courses, financial support of farmers for provision of agricultural inputs and reforming the structure of the agricultural insurance system are effective ways to improve the productivity of saffron production.

Risk in agricultural activities considerably influences agricultural products and production risk of farmers affects household economy and national economy. Thus, identifying the factors and major determinants affecting risk management of farmers is especially important. The present research study was conducted with the objective of identifying factors affecting risk of saffron farmers in the Ghayenat town. The statistical sample was collected using random sampling out of 120 saffron farmers in this town in 2017. The results using genetic algorithm for function approximation showed that out of 44 factors, factors of performance, irritation, sale time, expert guide, water quality, younger seed, and saving were positively associated with risk of saffron farmers in Ghayenat. In addition, factors of diversification of activities, dispute resolution, total sales, and cost of buying saffron bulbs have a negative relationship with risk of saffron farmers. To this end, it is suggested that expert guides are promoted in order to reduce the risk of saffron farmers so that the disputes among saffron farmers is reduced as much as possible. In addition, risk of saffron farmers can also be reduced by increasing the sales time and savings.

One of the alternative crops in the Kerman province is saffron. This study is aimed at investigating factors affecting Saffron cultivation in the Dashtkhak village during 2016. This is a practical and descriptiveinferential study. A questionnaire was randomly distributed among 164 people and the reliability and validity of the gathered data were evaluated using Cronbach's α (0. 76). Among logit and probit models, probit model was chosen based on the statistical results of Akaike and Bayesian-Schwarts criteria. The results of the study show that factors such as education, agronomic income, drought level-based crop replacement and replacement of crop based on the recommendation of other farmers have positive effects on farmers’ acceptance while dependency on ratio factor has a negative effect on accepting any kind of alternation in crop cultivation. Since water scarcity is one of the most important factors influencing the acceptance level of crop replacement, all of the strategies designed for dealing with water crisis should aim for optimal management of groundwater aquifers. It is hoped that in the future, Dashtkhak rural district will become a useful and effective cultivating change model for other parts of the Kerman Province, which are facing water scarcity issues in their agricultural industrial development.