Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Water Engineering,Department of ِResearch Group of Drought and Climate Change Faculty of Agriculture,University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
2
Department of Water Science and Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran Department of Research Group of Drought and Climate Change, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran Department of Research Group of Drought and Climate Change, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
4
Department of Plant Production and Genetics and Research Group of Drought and Climate Change, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
5
PhD Student in Water Resources, Department of Sciences and Water Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
Abstract
Water is one of the major limiting factors in agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions. Water productivity, assessed through physical, gross economic, and net economic indicators, is a key measure of the efficiency with which this scarce resource is used. This study aimed to statistically analyze and compare these indicators for eight major field and horticultural crops (wheat, barley, cotton, pistachio, jujube, barberry, pomegranate, and date palm) across eight counties in South Khorasan Province, Iran, over three consecutive growing seasons. Data on cultivated area, crop yield, market prices, and production costs were obtained from the provincial agricultural statistics yearbooks, while gross irrigation water requirements were derived from the national Soil and Water Research Institute’s irrigation water requirements database. Based on 135 crop–county–year observations, a rank-based factorial analysis of variance revealed significant effects of crop (F = 34.33, p < 0.001, partial eta-squared = 0.664) and growing season (F = 97.5, p = 0.003, partial eta-squared = 0.092) on net benefit per unit of water (NBPD), whereas the county effect was not.
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