Investigating the effects of changing the cultivation pattern from rice to kiwi in the development of rural areas, a case study of Guilan province (Rural households perspective)

Agriculture plays a key role in empowering the government to achieve and maintain food self-sufficiency. Sustainable agricultural growth significantly depends on its transformation process, which in turn is associated with changes in cultivation patterns (Pattanaik & Mohanty, 2017: 121)

The agricultural sector is one of the most important economic sectors and is the first economic sector of the country due to the added value of production. About 25% of GDP and foreign exchange earnings from non-oil exports and about 80% of the food needs of society and about 25% of employment are generated through the agricultural sector (Azizi et al., 2013)

Agriculture, as the dominant activity of villages over time, has experienced numerous structural changes in the form of changes in cultivation, cultivation system, cultivation type and cultivation pattern. Although the pattern of cultivation refers to the cultivation of a variety of crops relative to the allocation of arable land, each of them has specific economic, social, and technical structures at its heart. Now, if these patterns are changed, they will create changes at the micro and macro levels of society (Poor Taheri et al. 2014, 2). Determining the optimal cultivation pattern is one of the most important issues in agricultural economics. The purpose of determining the optimal cultivation pattern is to select a combination of crops for cultivation in a specific crop unit according to the characteristics of cultivation of different crops, forecasting their market price, volume of demand, available water and soil resources, manpower, capital , Agricultural equipment and other similar items in order to maximize the profit of the unit, which finally by observing this model by farmers can affect the poverty in rural and agricultural areas (Bani Asadi, 1389, 209-183). Problems in the agricultural sector, especially in Gilan province in recent years and its inexhaustible trend to date, have led rice farmers and tea growers to cultivate their fields and orchards instead of these two important crops, if during Over the past few years, this trend has been on the rise. The country's rice product faces many problems from different stages of production to supply in the markets. Northern farmers say that kiwi cultivation is less troublesome and its income is better than rice, so kiwi cultivation has flourished in Gilan province and farmers and gardeners have turned to kiwi cultivation and production due to the good income of this product compared to other horticultural products.

Research method and statistical population

The research method is descriptive-analytical. In this research, data and information have been collected, field and library and from combined methods (quantitative and qualitative). Its purpose is practical. The statistical population of this study is all farmers in the villages of Talesh, Rudsar and Astara in Gilan province. Most of the cultivation pattern change has occurred in areas. Out of 56,480 households in 361 villages with more than 20 households, with the highest level of cultivation pattern change, 390 households and 76 villages were selected as the sample through Cochran's formula and purposive sampling method. The names of the villages in question are given in Table 2. To explain these questions, what are the economic, social and environmental effects of changing the cultivation pattern from rice to kiwi in rural areas of Guilan province? The economic dimension of 35 items in the form of 6 indicators, the social dimension of 26 items in the form of 4 indicators and the environmental dimension in the form of 4 indicators and 21 items were examined. Among the 21 items reviewed, it was examined. The index items were analyzed before and after. The data obtained from the questionnaire after coding and entering SPSS software were tested by Wilcoxon non-parametric test statistics. In order to ensure the validity of the questionnaire from the experts' point of view (face validity) has been used. Also, for the reliability of the research questions, a figure above 0.7 was obtained using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

Assessing the social effects of changing cultivation patterns in rural areas

The study of the social effects of changing the cultivation pattern through 26 items with Wilcoxon test shows (Table 6) that knowledge of insurance services and knowledge of banking services in the period of change could not change and the trend and status of these two items in both periods of rice cultivation And kiwi is the same. In other words, changing the cultivation pattern to kiwi had no effect on the awareness of insurance services and banking services. The level of significance obtained for these two items is equal to 0.672 and 0.390, respectively. The number of negative and positive rankings does not show a significant change after changing the cultivation pattern. Reported averages also point to this point.

The three items of human activity and labor in rural development, formation of production cooperatives as well as participation in agricultural affairs are at a significant level less than 0.05. But the study of the mean and its rankings show that the situation has not improved with the change of cultivation pattern. For both human activity and labor force in rural development and participation in agricultural affairs, the conditions were better in the period before the change of cultivation pattern. The heaviness of the number of negative ratings from positive ratings refers to such a thing. Although these differences are small. The conditions are almost the same for the formation of production cooperatives in each period, but a slight difference can be observed with the change of cultivation pattern in the formation of cooperatives. However, the weight of the number of ranks equal to the statistical test does not indicate such a point.

Other social items examined and the level of significance calculated for them indicate the trend of changes after the cultivation pattern. As population stability and life expectancy have improved, farmers' knowledge of pesticides, markets, irrigation, as well as education and health services, access to commercial services, and the development of related activities, has also improved.