Open AccessIran's Agriculture in the Anthropocene
Author(s) -
Maghrebi Mohsen,
Noori Roohollah,
Bhattarai Rabin,
Mundher Yaseen Zaher,
Tang Qiuhong,
AlAnsari Nadhir,
Danandeh Mehr Ali,
Karbassi Abdolreza,
Omidvar Javad,
Farnoush Hossein,
Torabi Haghighi Ali,
Kløve Bjørn,
Madani Kaveh
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
earth's future
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.641
H-Index - 39
ISSN - 2328-4277
DOI - 10.1029/2020ef001547
Subject(s) - agriculture , food security , water resources , agricultural productivity , anthropocene , water resource management , surface water , environmental science , geography , farm water , consumption (sociology) , agricultural economics , environmental protection , water conservation , environmental engineering , ecology , economics , archaeology , biology , social science , sociology
The anthropogenic impacts of development and frequent droughts have limited Iran's water availability. This has major implications for Iran's agricultural sector which is responsible for about 90% of water consumption at the national scale. This study investigates if declining water availability impacted agriculture in Iran. Using the Mann‐Kendall and Sen's slope estimator methods, we explored the changes in Iran's agricultural production and area during the 1981–2013 period. Despite decreasing water availability during this period, irrigated agricultural production and area continuously increased. This unsustainable agricultural development, which would have been impossible without the overabstraction of surface and ground water resources, has major long‐term water, food, environmental, and human security implications for Iran.