The impact of reduced water resources on agricultural production and increased pest damage, especially in pistachio orchards

Subject Areas :

عباس Parvar ¹ , najmeh azimi zadeh ²

1 - Department of Agriculture, Faculty Member of Jiroft Branch, Islamic Azad University, Jiroft, Iran
2 -

Received: 2025-01-31 Accepted : 2025-02-17 Published : 2025-02-28

Keywords: Micro-irrigation systems, pest damage, drought, production reduction,

Abstract :

Water is a limited but essential resource for human societies and the ecological system dependent on it, and it is one of the important basic resources for the development of the country and the most important factor of production in agriculture. The agricultural sector, as the largest consumer of water, faces the challenge of producing more food with less water. Drought and reduced rainfall have the greatest impact on this sector, and reduced production in this sector leads to increased losses in other economic sectors and reduced income of production factors. Considering that drought and drought are natural and climatic characteristics of Iran and the amount of rainfall in our country is on average close to one-third of the world average, the production of pistachio in its main production centers faces the problem of water shortage. The amount, frequency, and method of irrigation have a great impact on pistachio production. On the other hand, the prevalence of diseases and pests that attack pistachio trees, the amount and quality of crop, and the growth of the tree are all affected by the irrigation of the pistachio tree. Micro-irrigation systems (surface drip irrigation, subsurface irrigation, and micro-sprinkler irrigation) are able to provide irrigation water to the plant with full efficiency, provided that they are properly operated and managed. If proper moisture is created and irrigation management is implemented, in addition to increasing tree tolerance, suitable conditions are provided for the activity of natural enemies, which reduces the population of pistachio pests and increases pistachio crop production.

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