Organic Farming of Potato in Iran

Abstract

Organic farming is an alternative system to conventional agriculture. Organic farming tries to produce enough food with high quality, while maintaining stability and sustainability in long term in the entire world. Among other crops, potato has one of the most extensive distributions in food consumption after wheat, barley and rice in the world, and has been in core attention for improving quality and quantity of its production. Cultivation of organic potato is becoming one of the most important goals of agricultural policy. But statistics shows that farmers are facing many challenges to expand area under cultivation of organic products, especially cultivation of organic potato. Thus the main objective of this research is to study the development and acceptance of cultivation of organic potato in Iran using a descriptive survey. The statistical population of this study consisted of all potato planters in Friedan township (N = 14,000). Two hundred farmers have been selected based on Cochran formula. Q Data was collected by questionnaires, which validity was confirmed by expert opinion of the professors of the department of Agricultural Extension and Education of the University of Tehran. Reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha (0.77-0.91). SPSS statistical software has also been used for data analysis. Based on the results of factor analysis, effective variables on development and acceptance cultivation of organic potato are grouped in six general factors such as technical-training, marketing, creditability, supervision, training and participation; and these variables determine 66/56 % of total variance. Data show that potato cannot be cultivated organically in the studied region (Freidan township). Consumption fertilizer and pesticide for producing potato amounts to about three times the allowable rate. However organic cultivation of potato is feasible.