Agriculture
Elham Azizi; Shahin Farabi
Abstract
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) has been used as food and medicine for Iranians for a long time, from the ancient to the modern period, and several factors have influenced its production and consumption in different provinces, especially Razavi Khorasan. In order to investigate the trend of cultivated area, ...
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Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) has been used as food and medicine for Iranians for a long time, from the ancient to the modern period, and several factors have influenced its production and consumption in different provinces, especially Razavi Khorasan. In order to investigate the trend of cultivated area, stigma production and yield of saffron and also the effect of climatic parameters such as altitude above sea level, average temperature, and precipitation on the cultivation and production of this plant in different cities of Khorasan Razavi Province, a study was conducted by using data of Agricultural Jihad Organization during 1984 to 2020. Results indicated that the highest production and cultivated area in the province of Razavi Khorasan in the studied period were related to Zaveh, Torbat Heydarieh, and Roshtkhar, respectively. Zaveh and Torbat Heydarieh also had the largest portion of irrigated production in the province, with 13.3 and 9.4 %, respectively. Upon comparing the yield of saffron across different cities to the provincial average, it became evident that Gonabad and Torbat Heydarieh secured the first and second positions, respectively, in this comparison. Conversely, Kalat exhibited the lowest percentage in terms of cultivated area, irrigated production, and yield ratio compared to the provincial average. Further analysis revealed that elevation above sea level is positively correlated with both cultivated area and saffron production. Interestingly, there exists a non-linear inverse relationship between annual rainfall and cultivated area, production, and yield of saffron. Moreover, the study found that higher average temperatures are associated with increased saffron production, although the average yield of saffron tends to decrease. Regarding similarities across different cities in Khorasan-Razavi province, an investigation at a 75% similarity threshold indicated the possibility of classifying the province's various regions into five distinct clusters. The cities of Bakharz, Gonabad, Kashmer, Mahvalat, and Roshtkhar were in the first cluster, and the cities of Bajastan, Khaf, Torbat Jam, Neishabur, Bardaskan, and Taibad were in the second cluster, and each of the cities of Torbat Heydarieh and Zaveh also formed two separate branches. The rest of the cities were placed in a cluster. In general, the increasing trend of saffron cultivation and production in Khorasan-Razavi province indicates a greater desire to cultivate this plant by the farmers, considering the climatic and soil conditions of this province.
Other subject about saffron
hossein sahabi; fatemeh moallem banhangi
Abstract
In order to evaluate the trend of saffron yield and study the relationship between saffron yield fluctuations and various climatic parameters, research was designed and conducted in Mashhad, Torbat Heydariyeh, Kashmar, Birjand and Qaen during 20 years (1998-2018). According to meteorological data from ...
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In order to evaluate the trend of saffron yield and study the relationship between saffron yield fluctuations and various climatic parameters, research was designed and conducted in Mashhad, Torbat Heydariyeh, Kashmar, Birjand and Qaen during 20 years (1998-2018). According to meteorological data from the last 20 years, the average rainfall decreased by 33% and the average temperature increased by 0.5 °C . On the other hand, the regression results between yield and climatic parameters indicates that the pattern of temperature rise and decreased rainfall in all studied cities was significantly in line with saffron yield declining. In this period, the study's findings also revealed that over the last 20 years, an average of 112.3 hectares of saffron cultivation have been added to the areas under cultivation of saffron and at the same time, saffron yields have dropped by an average of 0.08 kg per hectare. Climatic indicators significantly affected decreased saffron yield in Razavi and South Khorasan. The results also revealed that the average and maximum temperature were the main variables influencing the reduction of saffron yield. For instance in Torbat-e Heydarieh, the variable of average temperature predicted 42 percent of the variability of the yield and in other cities studied, the maximum temperature variable predicted between 24 and 56% of the variability of the yield. Furthermore, the results of the time series analysis of saffron yield revealed that saffron yield will show a decreasing and negative trend by 2025 in all studied cities. Up to 2025, Mashhad and Kashmar with a slope of 0.09 and 0.07 kg/ha, had the highest and lowest decreasing trends, respectively.
Other subject about saffron
Hamid Reza Tavakkoli Kakhki; Hamidreza Sharifi; Zohreh Nabipour
Abstract
In order to investigate the effects of vegetation covering and shading on the economic yield of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) a split–plot experiment based on Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was conducted at the Gonabad station for two cropping years (2018-2019, 2019- ...
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In order to investigate the effects of vegetation covering and shading on the economic yield of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) a split–plot experiment based on Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was conducted at the Gonabad station for two cropping years (2018-2019, 2019- 2020). Experiments included main factor, density at four levels (90, 60, 120 and 150 corms per square meter) and sub-factors of crop residue management and shading at four levels (removal of saffron residues at the end of growing season as (control), presence of saffron residues at the end of the growing season, (control) + use of 2 (t.ha-1) barley straw and finally (control) + use of shading). Due to the nature of sub-factors, the data for the second year of growth were measured and analyzed. The results of analysis of variance showed that density and cover management had a significant effect (p≤0.01) on the vegetative characteristics of saffron (number, length and leaf area). However, the effect of density and the interaction effect of density × covering on vegetative traits had not significant effect. Also, the results of measured traits related to yield showed that the effect of corm density, covering management and the interaction of corm density × type of covering on number, flower weight and economic stigma yield were significant (p≤0.01). The highest amount of dry stigma yield and fresh weight of flowers with values of 5.16 and 411 (kg.ha-1), respectively, achieved from the treatment of 150 corms per square meter density and use of cereal straw covering and the lowest of these traits with values of 2.2 and 200 (kg.ha-1) was obtained from the density of 60 corms per square meter and control. Stepwise regression analysis for variables related to saffron economic yield showed that the number of flowers per unit area alone could explain 90.59% of the variation in saffron economic performance. Considering the positive effect of covering application on adjusting soil temperature compared to the maximum daily air temperature (at least 7%) and the simultaneous positive effect of this method of cropping management with induction of flowering stage in saffron, it seems that the use of different types of covering, especially cereal straw, is recommended to stabilize and improve saffron yield due to its low cost and easier access to covering saffron fields.
Agriculture
Moein Tosan; Amin Alizadeh; Hosein Ansari; Parviz Rezvani Moghaddam
Abstract
Saffron is cultivated in most part of Iran, because of low water requirement and well adaptation to diverse environmental condition. In recent years, for many reasons such as low water requirement, saffron cultivation areas has been increased especially in Khorasan Razavi province. Temperature is one ...
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Saffron is cultivated in most part of Iran, because of low water requirement and well adaptation to diverse environmental condition. In recent years, for many reasons such as low water requirement, saffron cultivation areas has been increased especially in Khorasan Razavi province. Temperature is one of the most important factors in saffron flowering phenomena. The aim of this research was to evaluate the response of saffron to temperature in Khorasan Razavi province counties (Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Gonabad, Nishabour, Sabzevar and Ghoochan). Climatic data (monthly minimum, average, maximum temperatures and diurnal temperature range) and saffron yield data were collected for past 20 years period. The stepwise regression methods were used to remove extra parameters and only keep the most important ones. By using these equations and ArcGIS software zoning, Spline method was find the best for saffron crop zoning. The results of linear regression in Gonabad showed that minimum, maximum and average temperature and also diurnal temperature range in March and April months had the greatest impact on saffron yield. For each of the four indices (the minimum, maximum and average temperature and also diurnal temperature range) the best area for saffron cultivation was the southern part of the province (particularly Gonabad); so by increasing distance from this area to north areas (such as Kashmar, Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Sabzevar, Nishabour, Mashhad and finally Ghoochan) saffron yield reduced by 30 to 50 percent. Therefore, the northern areas of the province had relatively low saffron yield. According to result of this research, saffron yield in Khorasan Razavi province was significantly influenced by temperature parameters. Flowering which basically is the most important stage of plant growth, is directly setting up with temperature.
