چكيده لاتين :
1. Introduction
The economic structure of Iran is shaped by agriculture. Agriculture accounts for
more than 20% of the country’s both gross domestic products and employment.
There are many economic activities that are dependent on agriculture such as
marketing, processing industries, and agriculture product imports. The majority of
farmers in Iran possess small lands that yield small amounts of agricultural
products; therefore, these farmers have an insignificant share in the market and
subsequently, their gains are insignificant as well. Since 1960, the Iranian
government introduced two modern farming systems including rural production
cooperatives and Farming Corporation. By 2017, the number of these farming
systems reached 1369 rural production cooperatives with 402177 members and
3191507 acres of land along with 30 agricultural stock companies with 7847
members and 775321 acres of land.
2. Review of Literature
The farming system is a social organization consisting of a set of interconnected
elements that enable the production of agricultural products through unified
identity and administration under the social and natural conditions of its
environment. Adherence to the capacity of natural resources is the main condition
for farming system sustainability. In fact, sustainability analysis involves
specifying this capacity and can be considered as a logical criterion for indicating
environmental standards that control the extent to which resources should be
utilized. Sustainability analysis somehow indicates and expresses the extent and
criterion regarding the distance between the sustainable and new state of a natural
phenomenon. In sustainability analysis, resource capacity and economic
sustainability are examined, analyzed, and controlled simultaneously with respect to the intended production requirement. Sustainability evaluation is a complex
process and encompasses the complicated interactions among technologies, the
environment, and society. Sustainably refers to ecologic health or compatibility
which guarantees the preservation of the living forces present within agricultural
ecosystems. Agricultural sustainability can be analyzed through a variety of
dimensions including social (population, education), economic (economic growth,
investment, and employment), natural (land, water, and biodiversity), and
agricultural (cultivation and production patterns). There are five different methods
put forth for sustainability evaluation including prescriptive approaches, timeline,
various quantitative and qualitative indices, and system simulation. In general,
there are no comprehensive methods in line with analyzing or evaluating the
sustainability of all systems; however the only common technique among all
methods is the utilization of an all-inclusive sustainability assessment by taking
into account the environmental, economic and social dimensions.
3. Method
The present inquiry is a mixed, applied study in which data collection was carried
out using the descriptive method; it is also a survey study conducted using the
cross-sectional method. Total population of the study includes 242 operators and
members of the rural production cooperative, 635 operators and members of the
Farming Corporation, and 1025 smallholders. Sample population was calculated
using Cochran’s formula. Shannon’s entropy method was used for sustainability
analysis.
4. Results and Discussion
The entropy method was used to indicate the weight of each examined index.
According to the literature, the key effective indices in the sustainability status of
farming systems including smallholders, production cooperative and Farming
Corporation include economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Shannon’s
entropy method was employed to prioritize and indicate the weight of each
examined index through the perspective of each farming system.
5. Conclusion
The development and sustainability of the rural society is not only an essential
requirement, but also an inevitable end; results of studies suggest that such an end
would not be attainable unless via reforming the farming system in line with the
principles of sustainable agriculture, as the core of agricultural developments. In
this study, the required data to achieve robust answers were collected from farming
systems including smallholders, rural production cooperative, and Farming
Corporation. Given the obtained results, the Farming Corporation has a higher
relative sustainability compared to the two other systems in terms of economic and
environmental dimensions. In the social dimension, the smallholder farming
system enjoys relative sustainability as a result of high level of participation in
rural areas’ agricultural and public affairs, the extent of memberships in local
communities, high percentage of the employed household work force in agricultural activities, the extent of social agreements and solidarity, and the
presence of social capitals. The Farming Corporation system is at a semisustainable state in social and economic terms while in environmental terms, it is
found to be unsustainable. Increased use of nitrogen fertilizers, phosphates and
agricultural toxins have resulted in the unsustainability of all three types of farming
systems in environmental terms; however, the severity of this unsustainability is
lower in Farming Corporation compared to other systems due to adherence to the
technical principles of cultivation and maintenance, and more utilized application
of production factors. Subsequently, the following recommendations are presented:
Given how the index of the average total income produced by farmers is
considered as an unsustainable index in the examined region within the smallholder
farming system, the specification of a guaranteed price proportionate to production
costs can be effective in improving the income levels of the farmers.
Considering the unsustainability of the Farming Corporation in the social
dimension, it is recommended to adopt a participatory approach in the formation of
the new Farming Corporation. As the majority of agricultural activities are carried out by smallholders, then smallholder agriculture organization should be prioritized.
