Saffron Agronomy and Technology
Year:2019 | Volume:7 | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

The effects of applications of vermicompost and nitroxin on corm characteristics and flower yield of saffron were evaluated under field conditions in the research farm of Birjand University, Iran, during the cropping year 2015-2016. Treatments were of four levels of vermicompost (0, 5, 10 and 15 t. ha-1) and three levels of nitroxin (0, 5 and 10 L. ha-1). This experiment was carried out as factorial based on randomized completely block design with three replications. The results showed that vermicompost improved the corm vegetative indices (total weight of corm, average fresh and dry weight of cormel and diameter of cormel). The highest total weight of corm was obtained in plants treated with 15 t. ha-1 vermicompost. Also results showed that vermicompost improved the saffron flower characteristics (flower number and fresh total yield, flower length, stigma fresh and dry yield) in second year of study. The highest stigma fresh (1. 63 g. m-2) and dry (0. 41 g. m-2) yield were obtained in plants treated with 10 t. ha-1 vermicompost, while the lowest values (0. 77 and 0. 21 g. m-2) were recorded in the control. Application of different levels of nitroxin has a positive effect on flower number and fresh total yield, stigma dry yield in the second year of the experiment. The highest stigma dry yield was observed in 10 L. ha-1 nitroxin (0. 36 g. m-2), while the lowest value was recorded in control (0. 24 g. m-2). Application of different levels of vermicompost and nitroxin had a positive effect on the total weight of corm, average flower length and stigma fresh yield. Thus, the results showed that 5 L. ha-1 nitroxin and 10 t. ha-1 vermicompost had a significant impact on replacement corm characteristics and flower yield of saffron.

In order to study the effects of different weights of mother corm and sowing depth on flower and corm yield of saffron (Crocus sativus L. ), an experiment was conducted as a factorial layout based on complete randomized block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran during 2015-2016 growing seasons. The experimental treatments were all combination of four mother corm weights (4-6, 6. 1-8, 8. 1-10 and 10. 1-12 g) and three planting depths (10, 15 and 20 cm). In the first year, criteria such as flower and corms yield were evaluated, and in the second year only flower yield were recorded. The result revealed that in both years the interaction between corm weight and planting depths was significant on most traits of the studied flower. Flower, stigma and style yield significantly increased by increasing corm weight and planting depth. The maximum dry stigma yield was obtained in 10. 1-12 g corm weight and 20 cm planting depth which was 0. 1095 and 0. 5393 g. m-2 in the first and the second year, respectively. The interaction between treatments was not significant on daughter corm but the individual effects of each treatment was significant. The higher corm yield (1181. 6 g. m-2) was related to 10. 1-12 g corm weight treatment. Deeper planting (20 cm) produced the high corm yield (938. 86 g. m-2). Eventually, the high excellence of yield in corm weight and planting depth treatments of higher, we recommend corms with higher weight and deeper sowing depth for cultivating saffron.

In order to study the effects of salinity stress of irrigation water and different amounts of cow manure on morphological and physiological characteristics of saffron (Crocus sativus L. ), an experiment was conducted during 2015-16 in the Jalagh Rokh Torbat Heidarieh area. The treatments were consisted of four levels of irrigation water salinity as the main factor (1, 4, 7 and 10 dS. m-1) and cow manure (sub factor) in four levels including control (without fertilizer), 20, 40 and 60 (t. ha-1) that were split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The studied traits included fresh weight and numbers of flowers, fresh and dry weights of stigma, leaf chlorophyll content, proline content, diameter, fresh and dry weights of corm. The results of analysis of variance showed that the effects of different amounts of cow manure and salinity stress levels on all traits were significant at 1% level. In this experiment, the highest fresh weight and numbers of flowers, fresh and dry weight of the stigma were obtained in the control salinity treatment (without salinity) and 60 (t. ha-1) of cow manure. With increasing salinity levels up to 7 dS. m-1, chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll increased and then decreased sharply. The results showed a significant increase in proline with increasing salinity levels. In addition, diameter and fresh and dry weights of the corms decreased with increasing salinity levels, so that their maximum and minimum values were obtained in salinity control (without salinity) and 10 dS. m-1 respectively. The results showed that the use of cow manure reduces the effects of salinity stress on corm yield and yield of saffron flower.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-known and accurate methodology for comparison of environmental impacts of activities including different agricultural management systems. Since the used inputs have an important role in environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, LCA have been extensively applied for crop species. This study was conducted to assess the environmental impact of saffron production systems based on field area (<0. 5, 0. 5-1 and >1 ha) in the Khorasan-e Razavi province using LCA methodology. The amounts of utilized agricultural inputs from the first year to the sixth year were collected by means of a questionnaire (13 fields from each area). In this regard, four phases, which are goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation, were designed to assess life cycle index with ISO14044 procedure. Functional unit were considered as one kg of flower. Three main categories as impacts on environment including global warming, acidification and eutrophication (terrestrial and aquatic) were defined. Finally, an index-called environmental index (EcoX) was calculated. Cronbach's alpha was used assessing the reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that the Cronbach's alpha was computed with α =%84. The average values for global warming, acidification and eutrophication terrestrial and aquatic categories were calculated with115. 41± 53. 41 kg CO2 equiv. / one kg flower yield, 0. 35± 0. 16 kg SO2 equiv. / one kg flower yield, 0. 58± 0. 27 kg NOx equiv. / one kg flower yield and 0. 20± 0. 09 kg PO4 equiv. / one kg flower yield, respectively. The largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the global warming category was related to CH4. The maximum emission of pollutants in acidification, eutrophication terrestrial and eutrophication aquatic categories was related to NH3. The results revealed that, field area affected the amounts of utilized agricultural inputs and environmental impacts as flower yield. Eutrophication and climate change categories had more sensitivity and affected as intensification based on field area. Therefore, one of the appropriate approaches to mitigate and decline the environmental impacts of agricultural production is achieving higher economical yield per unit of area by increasing resource use efficiency.

In order to improve saffron yield and modify crop pattern in arid areas, a split plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replications in a research field in Charkhab village of Yazd province during 2013-2016. The main plots included; irrigation in three levels (100%, 75% and 50% of ETc), and sub plots were seven fertilizer management including; control (zero fertilization), applying 10 t. ha-1 cow manure(10M), 10 t. ha-1 vermicompost by spreading(10V), 10 t. ha-1 vermicompost buried under planting corm rows (10RV), 5 t. ha-1 vermicompost buried under planting corm rows (5RV), and pouring 10 L. ha-1 Humaster Saffron fertilizer for 1 (SH) or 2 (CH) times after flowering. The results showed that as irrigation volume decreased from 75% to 50% ETc, leaf dry weight, highest corm weight, total corm weight and effective corm number decreased significantly. The differences among irrigation treatments increased year by year, So that, there were no significant difference among treatments at the first year while the flower number (100. 76 flower per plot in average) at 100% irrigation treatment was significantly more than the other two treatments. Also, as irrigation volume declined from 100% to 75% of ETc, total corm number decreased more than 40% while total corm weight diminished less than 30%. Among fertilizer managements, 10RV and CH treatments showed better performance in the second and third years. So that, maximum flower number was observed in 10RV treatment by 71. 78 and 98. 22 flower per plot at the second and third experimental year, respectively, although, the pure gain of CH treatment was about 13. 5 times more than the best treatment (10RV). In general, the results showed that using Humaster-Saffron fertilizer had more relative advantages in comparison with other treatments. However, it is recommended to test more amounts of this fertilizer in future research studies.

In recent years, in order to produce organic products and reduce environmental problems, organic and biological fertilizers are used to increase soil fertility, eliminate the nutritional needs and to improve of plants growth. In order to evaluate the effect of organic and biological fertilizers on qualitative and quantitative traits of saffron, a field experiment was carried out as split plots based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Farm of Ardebil Agricultural Research Center during two growing seasons of 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. Treatments included three levels of organic fertilizers: vermicompost (10 t. ha-1), manure (25 t. ha-1) and control in the main plots, and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria in four levels including, control, Azotobacter sp. PTCC 1658, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Bacillus subtilis and the combination of biofertilizer (A. sp. PTCC 1658+ B. subtilis+ P. aeroginosa( in sub plots. Bio fertilizers were inoculated on the saffron corms before sowing in the first year and were applied mixed with irrigation water in the second year. The results indicated that the interaction effects of organic and biological fertilizers increased the fresh weight of flowers, dry and wet yield of stigma and style and qualitative compounds including crocin (Color factor), picrocrocin (Taste factor) and safranal (Perfume factor) compared to control. So that, the application of manure and vermicompost in combination with the total of bio-fertilizers (A. sp. PTCC 1658+ B. subtilis+ P. aeroginosa), increased the dry matter of stigma from 0. 86 kg. h-1 to 2. 93 and 2. 7 kg. h-1 respectively. By using manure fertilizer with biofertilizers, picrocrocin, safranal and crocin, were increased 73, 77 and 83 percent compared to the control respectively. Based on this experiment results, the combined use of organic and biological fertilizers in addition to reducing the environmental pollution, can enhance qualities and quantities of yield of saffron through synergistic effects.

The production of saffron as one of the most expensive agricultural and pharmaceutical products in the world has a high comparative advantage. Considering the importance of producing this product in Iran as an important non-oil export commodity and its role as a strategic, the estimation of the indirect environmental costs associated with the emission of its pollutants is necessary. The purpose of this study was to calculate the environmental costs of greenhouse gas emissions in Saffron farms in the Torbat Hadiriyah township. In order to collect data (such as chemical fertilizers, irrigation, labor, animal manure and gasoline) a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were used in the crop years 2017 and 2018. To investigate the relationship between good and bad output, the distance function is used as a parametric form of the translog. The results show that global warming potential (GWP) was calculated to be 369/24 kg equivalent to CO2 per kilogram of saffron straw. Also the environmental cost of greenhouse gases, methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide per hectare, according to a seven-year period, are: 77/888/700, 212/742/820 and 76/289/200 Rials, respectively. In total, the production of saffron over a seven-year period imposes an expense of 366/920/720 million Rials on the environment regarding the emission of greenhouse gases. This is equal to 52/417/240 million Rials for a crop year in per one hectare. About 21% of the income earned per hectare. In the end, it is suggested that the tax policy on fertilizers and soil tillage systems be reviewed and analyzed to reduce the environmental impacts of the saffron production system.

Gonabad township in the Khorasan Razavi province is one of the largest saffron producers in Iran. Unfortunately, the yield of saffron farms in Gonabad has decreased drastically in recent years. Evidence and the opinions of agricultural engineers suggest that high-density planting can be considered as one of the main reasons of yield decrease. With high-density planting, the operation period of saffron farms will start sooner. However, it will decrease the length of operation period tremendously. Furthermore, the farm will not be suitable for saffron cultivation for a long time. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of high-density planting on yield of saffron farms and determining the socio-economic factors affecting unsustainable system of high-density planting. Data of the first 6-years of farms (2011-2016) were collected and in order to analyze the data, a two-stage Heckman model which include a Probit model and a linear regression model was used. Our study findings show that farmers' age, awareness towards factors that reduce yield of saffron farms, and attending training courses are three factors that have a negative and significant impact on planting density. In other words, these three factors could prevent planting of saffron in high density. Farmers' income and their level of education are two factors which are considered to have a positive and significant impact on planting density. Finally, crop insurance does not have a significant impact in either one of the two models. Therefore, we strongly recommend that farmers should be warned of factors that cause yield decreases throughout training courses. Also, we recommend using of the experience of old and experienced farmers in order to prevent planting saffron in high densities.

Job security and improving the quality of work life are among the factors that can affect the job satisfaction of saffron workers and increase their productivity. The present study aims to analyze the social psychological effects (job security and quality of work life) on increasing job satisfaction of saffron Farmers in Bafgh city, which is done using correlation analysis. The statistical population consists of all saffron Farmers in Bafgh city. Using Morgan table, a sample of 205 individuals is selected through simple random sampling and tested by job security, work life quality and job satisfaction questionnaires. Data are analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression. The results show that job security and quality of work life have a significant relationship with job satisfaction (p <. 01). Also, job security and quality of work life significantly predict job satisfaction (p <. 001). The results of the research indicate that these two variables (job security and quality of work life) are important variables for optimal job satisfaction among saffron farmers. Therefore, it is suggested that the relevant agricultural organizations try to create a safe, interesting and stimulating working environment to increase commitment, creativity and hard work.