Why do farmers abandon agricultural lands? The case of Western Iran

Agricultural land conversion (ALC) and agricultural land abandonment (ALA) have a direct relationship with different economic, social, and environmental issues. The change in land management and land use, in addition to economic and social effects, has a major impact on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil, quantity and quality of water resources, and air quality. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the drivers of abandoning agricultural lands in Sanandaj county in Iran using a structural equation modeling method. A systematic random sampling method was followed by a proportionate strategy for the selection of 351 samples from a total of 4500 farmers. Data were collected through a questionnaire developed during a comprehensive literature review. The results showed that the causes of ALA can be categorized into five drivers: economic, social, political, agro-technical, and managerial-legal ones. These drivers have a two-way relationship, both direct and indirect, with each other. According to the farmers' views, the most effective cause of ALA was managerial-legal with a factor loaded value of 0.79. The most important issues in the legal-managerial factor were lack of a strong and efficient land use management for lands around cities, inhibition of land fragmentation Act during the legacy after the culmination of Iran's revolution in 1978, purchasing agricultural lands around the city for housing construction purposes, the problem of segmented farms, and not paying enough attention to establish and enforce agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, better support of legal management issues about agricultural lands leads to better control of land use change (LUC).