Analysis of Economic Impacts of Agricultural practices on reducing damages on rain fed fig orchards caused by drought in Estahban region, south of Iran

Estahban County is the greatest region of fig production in the world. About two millions of fig trees are exposed to death due to severe drought in the last five years. Moisture deficiency has reduced physiological indexes especially fig yield. The economy of this region is drastically dependent on fig production. Then reduction in fig yield has a very negative influence on the life of people. To prevent these damages, this experiment was accomplished on Green variety of fig trees to assess the effect of drought stress in Estahban region. The experiment consisted of 7 treatments and five replications and continued for three years. The goal of this research was to find the best treatments for damage reduction of drought in the rain-fed fig orchards. The best treatments with the best economic and technical characteristics were selected and recommended by TOPSIS method. The results showed, considering the yield of tree as the criteria for selecting the best treatment, the mechanical elimination of weeds is the most successful method against the drought. But the survey study showed that horticulturists also consider other factors such as skin color, size of fruit, time of ripening, fruit size, damage on tree and treatment cost. On the basis of these factors application of herbaceous mulch, severe branch heading back and weed elimination are the best treatments respectively, for reducing the damage of drought on fig orchards.