The Impact of New Inputs (drip irrigation technology) on the Production of Pomegranate and Factors Affecting Its Adoption (Case study: Khash City)

Due to the limited water resources in arid and semi-arid areas, it is necessary to utilize new high-efficiency irrigation systems to irrigate the horticultural crops. The present study attempted to compare the productivity of pomegranate cultivation per hectare after utilizing two drip irrigation and furrow irrigation methods and examined some of the economic, environmental and managerial factors affecting the adoption of the drip irrigation among pomegranate farmers in Khash city during 2015 crop year using Bizaliya and Logit models. Results of the Bizaliya model indicated that the application of drip irrigation had both direct and indirect effects on increasing the productivity of pomegranate cultivation. As the direct effect, the productivity of the pomegranate cultivation increased by 32.28 percent per unit area without any change in the consumption of inputs and as the indirect effect by changing the consumption of inputs, the productivity of the pomegranate cultivation increased by 6.47 percent per unit area. Generally, the use of drip irrigation in pomegranate orchards led to 12/28 percent change in productivity (kilograms per hectare) of the pomegranate cultivation. On the other hand, the results of the logit model indicated that the farmer s age, number of family labor force working on the farm and the accessibility to water resources have a negative impact on the adoption to the drip irrigation technology. Moreover, it was found that the farm size, level of education, farmer s job, land slope, farmers income, type of land use, instructional and promoting classes, accessibility to credit facilities have positive and significant effects on adoption to drip irrigation.