Study of Factors Affecting the Agricultural Land Use Change in Torbat Heydarieh County of Iran

The issue of land use change and land cover is directly related to the basic resources of water and land in the agricultural sector. Therefore the present research examined factors affecting the agricultural land use change in Torbat Heydarieh County of Iran. The required data were collected from completing 366 questionnaires in a stratified random sampling method among farmers in villages of the county in 2019 and analyzed by a multiple logit model. The study results showed that in small scale farms, in the case of decision to change the land use, the age variable had a significantly negative effect and the variables of education, non-agricultural income, cultivated area, extent of crop losses and the land being a rainfed one had a significantly positive effect on the land use change; in addition, in case of decision not to change the land use, the variables of age, work experience and livestock side job, product price, satisfaction with government support programs, agricultural income and the amount of loans received had a significantly positive effect. In case of medium and large-scale farms, increasing the cultivated area would increase the effects of the independent variables including extent of crop losses, work experience and livestock side job, satisfaction with government support programs and agricultural income and increase the variables of age, product price and the amount of loans received. Therefore, providing low-interest and long-term loans and agricultural insurance are suggested to increase income and reduce losses for farmers.