Study of agroecosystem heath in western provinces of Iran

An agro-ecosystem could be defined as a special ecosystem with various functions which is usually used for production special crops. In recent years, due to unsuitable management and increasing pressures on agro-ecosystems, their functions and structures have been destroyed and so it is necessary to monitor the health of these ecosystems. In order to evaluate agro-ecosystem health in nine western provinces of Iran (i.e. Ardebil, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Zanjan, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Hamedan and Ilam Provinces) the current study was conducted during 2002-2011. Total agro-ecosystem health and its components (namely, structural health, functional health and organizational health) were determined by use of 13 indices for structural health, 11 indices for functional health and six indices for organizational health. Based on the results, agro-ecosystem health in all of the studied provinces was judged weak. The highest and lowest values of structural health were calculated for Kurdistan and Ilam Provinces, respectively. In the case of functional health, the results were different and the highest and lowest values were observed in Kermanshah and Ilam Provinces. For organizational health, the pattern was totally different with highest value calculated for East Azerbaijan Province whereas the lowest value was observed in Kurdistan Province. Finally, total agro-ecosystem health was calculated using the summation of structural, functional and organizational health values. Based on results, Hamedan Province has the best condition of total agro-ecosystem health and Ilam Province has the worst condition in this regard.