The Analysis of driving and inhibiting factors affecting the admission of changing cultivation pattern of potatoes to sugar beet )case study: Friedan county(

ABSTRACT: Changing cropping pattern is a strategy for crop rotation and reducing wastes and soil erosion, which is, nowadays, widely used in Iran and the world. Therefore, to decrease the excessive cropping of potato which makes a lot of problems like soil erosion, increasing waste and decreasing production in Friedan county, changing the cropping pattern of potato has been suggested as a major inevitable solution, and the production of sugar beet which is considered to be a strategic production for Iran as the new cropping pattern is suggested. However , considering the advantages and necessity of conducting changing the cropping pattern, this plan has always been confronted with severe challenges and barriers which in turns lead to a decrease in the number of the farmers who change their cropping pattern form potato. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze the driving and inhibiting factors affecting the admission of changing cultivation pattern of potatoes to sugar beet. The subjects of this study includes the farmers of Friedan city who had accepted to change their cropping pattern from potato to sugar beet, and during the past years had changed their cropping patterns and cultivated sugar beet but they have changed their mind and initiated cropping potato again (about 160 people). Using the Morgan table, 110 persons were chosen as sample. A questionnaire was used, which its face and content validity was already confirmed by a panel of lecturers of Tehran university, and its reliability was confirmed by performing a pilot study with Cronbachʹs alpha of 0.79. The results showed that there was a significant correlation between family size, income, personal ownership of land, the amount of irrigated land, and participation in rural Affairs with the desire to change the pattern of cultivation of potatoes to sugar beet. Furthermore, there was a significant negative relationship between the variables age, farming experience, dry land and the cultivation of potatoes per hectare with the desire to change the pattern. The most important barriers to changing patterns of cultivation from potato to sugar beet were delay in giving money to the farmersʹ products by factories, lack of governmental support and lack of cultivation of sugar beet industries in the region.