• فهرس المقالات agro-ecosystem

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        1 - An Assessment of the Sustainability of Agricultural Systems in Golestan Province, Iran
        مجید رستمی Hoda Mohammadi
        Sustainable agriculture is a holistic approach to produce food, fiber, feed and fuel in a way that does not damage the environment and also must meet the needs of the present and future population of the world, while considering agro-ecosystem health, social and economi أکثر
        Sustainable agriculture is a holistic approach to produce food, fiber, feed and fuel in a way that does not damage the environment and also must meet the needs of the present and future population of the world, while considering agro-ecosystem health, social and economic equity and profitability. Therefore, the sustainable agriculture cannot be isolated from the concept of sustainable development in any country or region. The current survey was conducted in order to study the sustainability of agricultural systems in Golestan Province in the north of Iran during the period of 2002-2011. The required data were obtained from formal statistical database. The total numerical value of sustainability was calculated for individual years using 21 different indexes. Because of the diverse nature of the selected indexes and their wide range, they were normalized to facilitate their comparison. The results show that the agricultural sustainability has been increased significantly over the studied period. The lowest value of sustainability was observed in the first year of the studied period (i.e., 2002) but the highest value was calculated for 2009 and thereafter the sustainability of agro-ecosystem has decreased slightly. The improvement of sustainability could be attributed to the application of less chemical inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers, higher water and nitrogen use efficiencies, higher yield of different crops, especially dry land crops and the higher cultivation area of nitrogen fixing species. تفاصيل المقالة
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        2 - Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Olive Fruit Production under Different Orchard Size and Upon Organic and Conventional Agro-Systems
        سعید فیروزی امیرحسین بازیار
        The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental impacts of olive fruit production under different orchard size and upon organic and common agro-systems through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in northern Iran. The data were collected using a self-made أکثر
        The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental impacts of olive fruit production under different orchard size and upon organic and common agro-systems through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in northern Iran. The data were collected using a self-made questionnaire and face-to-face interview with 305 olive growers in the study region. Six environmental impact categories (IC) including depletion of fossil fuels, global warming, acidification, terrestrial eutrophication, depletion of phosphate and potash resources have been investigated. One tone of olive fruit was set as the functional unit (FU). Results showed that the large olive orchards (≥5ha) had the highest negative environmental impacts in all studied IC. Overall, acidification, terrestrial eutrophication, and depletion of phosphate resources have been identified as the most important environmental challenges of olive fruit production with final indices of 1.58, 2.68, and 3.12, respectively. The results also revealed that the organic olive orchards are more environmental efficient than those of conventional orchards. Substituting a certain portion of chemical fertilizers used in the large olive orchards with the biological alternatives such as farmyard manure has been suggested to provide the nutritional requirements of olive trees. A regional strategy should be also planned to move to an appropriate integrated farming system to cut down the environmental hazards of olive fruit production in large orchards in the studied region. تفاصيل المقالة