Inappropriate water governance, which has been known as a variable to explain the water crisis in many parts of the world, needs to examine the institutional structures and required reforms. In the present study, the effectiveness and possibility of applying of five rural local organizations, as intermediate organizations for water resources protection in Anar and Rafsanjan areas, Kerman province, Iran, were investigated. These organizations are included as;villagecouncils, Basij (non-governmental branch of Iranians military forces), agricultural production cooperatives, mosque board of trustees, and agricultural well curator. Here, in this research, we applied a survey method, and the research tool was two types of questionnaires which must be completed by farmers and organization managers. As the first step, the validity and reliability of questionnaires were determined. For first purpose, i.e., the determination of validity, the questionnaires were sent to a numbers of researchers, farmers, and organizations’ managers, and their received opinions were considered. For the second purpose, i.e., the determination of reliability of the questions, the Cronbach's alpha was calculated, which was about 0.83 (in a good and acceptable level). A sample of 1099 pistachio producers was selected. To measure the effects of socio-economic factors on rural local organizations efficiency, multivariate regression and the analysis of variances (ANOVA) were also applied. The final results indicated that none of these five organizations, solely, can be considered as an intermediate organization for water protection. Therefore, a formal or informal combination of the mentioned organizations might be enough efficient to improve the water resources protection factors. Manuscript profile

The required capital and liquidity for agricultural production are always a limiting factor in Iranian agriculture. Since, income is a combination of production and product price, one of the major problems of the country's pistachio industry is the high yield fluctuations and high price fluctuations. In the present study, the mean and yield fluctuations of four pistachio commercial cultivars (Kaleh-Ghoochi, Ahmad-Aghaei, Akbari, and Owhadi) were evaluated in the Anar and Rafsanjan orchards in Kerman province. The information used in this study was collected through a questionnaire from farmers. The orchards were selected by multi-stage random method. From the total number of villages in the two regions, some sites were selected based on random. Then, some farmers were selected randomly. By referring to the selected farmers, an orchard was selected from each cultivar. The number of studied orchards was 100 forms in each cultivar. To measure the yield per hectare, the amount of actual product that had achieved in the last six years. Finally, the mean and yield fluctuations of 4 pistachio commercial cultivars were analyzed. The results showed that the studied cultivars had a significant difference in the yield, profit net and coefficient variation at a probability level of 5%. The results indicated that the Ahmad-Aghaei cultivar was the best in average yield (1758.7 kg ha-1) and net profit per hectare (292530201 Rials ha-1) and then Akbari cultivar. However, performance fluctuations in the Owhadi cultivar (53.06%) was lower than the other three cultivars. Base on the results, the Kaleh-Ghoochi cultivar was minimum in average yield (1073.6 kg ha-1) and production fluctuations (73.14%) than the others. Therefore, if the aim is to minimize the income fluctuations of pistachio farmers, depending on the region, one of Ahmad-Aghaei or Akbari cultivars should be planted. It can be concluded that among commercial cultivars, prioritization and justification for planting and propagation were Ahmad-Aghaei, Akbari, Owhadi and Kaleh-Ghoochi, respectively. Manuscript profile

In this study, we first identified the existing knowledge about temporal management of pesticide consumption. Then the growers view and performance in this regard was estimated. Comparing growers’ knowledge with experts’ idea, the pistachio producers score related to temporal management of pests control was calculated. Pistachio producers of Anar and Rafsanjan areas in Kerman province, Iran were considered as our study population. Using stratified random sampling method, a sample of 100 growers were selected. Pearson correlation, analysis of variance and regression were used to investigate the socioeconomic factors affecting growers’ knowledge and the effect of this knowledge on growers’ performance. The results showed that in the field of temporal management of pesticide use, growers’ knowledge is low. Investigating the factors affecting growers’ knowledge level showed that research, education and extension activities have had the significant effect on increasing knowledge of inputs temporal management. The results also showed that knowledge of temporal management pest control did not increase land use productivity (pistachio yield) but enhanced pesticide productivity. The amount of pesticide usage decreased by 0.477 l/ha/year, with increasing of each score to pest control knowledge. In other words, with increasing knowledge of pest control, not only the costs of spraying will be reduced, but it will also have environmental benefits. In short, current conditions are not suitable for precision agriculture application in Iranian pistachio orchards, but with increasing knowledge of growers, these conditions will be created. Manuscript profile