Climate is numbered amongst the most significant factors which have been considered throughout the history and almost most of agricultural activities deal with a few meteorological factors diurnally (Mohammadi and Moghtaderi, 2005, 163. Therefore, one of the most important and effective factors in human activities especially in the agrarian section, is climate so that nearly all cultivations should be done in connection with climatic conditions, otherwise it might simply fall through the cultivation process. Limitation and boundaries of the agricultural crop productions is highly depends on the climatic conditions (Mohammadi, 2007, 89). This research aims to examine the climatic conditions for Saffron cultivation in MARVDASHT city.

Background: Complete and fast diagnosis, registry and treatment programs are the main effective strategies for controlling infectious diseases. In addition, an organized and extended infectious disease surveillance system is crucial in designing and monitoring communicable diseases control programs. The quality of the surveillance system can be evaluated by several indices such as timeliness, completeness and sensitivity. This is an evaluation study to measure the mentioned indices for 3 zoonotic diseases (leishmaniasis, brucellosis and rabies) surveillance system.Methods: The indexes such as completeness, timeliness and sensitivity of surveillance system were measured using the data obtained from population based (door to door) interviews and recorded data obtained at each level of health and medical sectors or administrative centers within the diseases reporting system.Interviews were conducted for 5969 participants and the required information was obtained.Results: The total completeness, timeliness and sensitivity of case reporting for leishmaniasis were 26.9%, 103.2 days and 11.1%, respectively. These indexes forbrucellosiswere14.3 %, 58 days, 12.1% and those for suspected rabieswere100%, 83.4 days and 48.2%, respectively.Conclusion: It seems that so called immediate communicable diseases reporting system is not providing reliable, complete and timely information to the health authorities. Program monitoring and personnel training, especially physicians, are recommended to improve the quality of the surveillance system and the related indexes.

This study was performed to determine limitation issues concerning virtual water. For this purpose, the optimum pattern was investigated first based on land and water constraints. Then, we adjusted the model by forcing it to take into account new constraints such as the current level of employment and improving employment. The results indicated that relying on maximizing virtual water we to determine a pattern is expected to bring negative effect on employment, and so, retaining the current level of employment should be consider besides maximizing import water to adjust such negative outcomes. In general, imposing the model to optimize a single objective such as maximizing imports of virtual water, minimizing fertilizer and water consumptions lead to patterns that are optimum just with regard to the specified objective but not really for all basic goals in the region. Therefore, despite the importance of models used in determining cultivation pattern based on virtual water, we need to consider the possible unwanted outcomes of such models.

Background and Aim: Leishmaniasis is one of the most common epidemic diseases in tropical regions of the world. The disease is affected by economic, social, cultural, environmental and climatic factors. Fars province is one of the areas with high prevalence of this disease. Due to the occurrence of climate change in recent years in the country and in this province, the present study was conducted to evaluate the epidemiology of cutaneous Leishmaniasis in MARVDASHT city in 2017. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on the epidemiology of cutaneous Leishmaniasis in MARVDASHT city in 2015. Accordingly, demographic data of all patients registered in the Marijuana Medical Center's Marijuana Infection Unit were extracted and analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t test, and Kruskal Wallis using SPSS version 16 software. Results: The incidence of disease in the whole population was 13. 44, in men 14. 4 and in 12. 4% in 10 thousand people. Most cases were in the age group of 21-30, housewives, and villagers. The hands had the most lesion and most people had more than 5 lesions. Also, the incidence of illness in the fall season was higher than in other seasons. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of disease based on gender (p <0. 05). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the incidence of cutaneous Leishmaniasis in the city of MARVDASHT is high and there is no significant difference in gender-related illness. The incidence of illness was higher in housewives and residents of the city. As a result, appropriate health Proceedings, including controlling the vector and the reservoir of the disease, should be carried out by the authorities through the spraying and optimal treatment of patients, so that the spread and spread of the disease and the subsequent prevention of disease can be prevented.

After years of excavations and surveys in Kur River Basin and in Fars province, there are still major problems and huge unanswered questions in the local chronological sequence. Archaeological excavations and surveys showed that the number of settlements was greatly reduced after the Tall-i Malyan urban phase (Middle Banesh phase, late 4th and early 3rd millennia B. C. ) whereas few evidences illustrate the subsequent Late Banesh phase. There are discontinuities in the chronological sequences of most of the sites excavated up to now between middle Banesh and Kaftari epochs. Considering archaeological surveys, soundings and C14 dating, it seems that the Kur River Basin consequently faced a remarkable population reduction in the middle of the 3rdmillennium B. C. Sumner proposed to consider the mid-3rd millennium B. C. as a gap between late Banesh (2800-2600 B. C. ) and early Kaftari (2200-1900 B. C. ) phases, suggesting that during this interval, most of the inhabitants of the Kur River Basin turned to pastoralism, explaining the sparsely occupation of this territory. This view relied on evidences from ABC trench cultural layers in Tall-i Malyan, on C14 absolute dating, on the discontinuity between Banesh and Kaftari surveyed settlements and on an obvious recess in the pottery sequence in the Kur River Basin. Recently published evidences from trench H5 and new excavation in H1s sounding in Tall-i Malyan, however slightly modified this scenario and pointed on a certain continuity between Banesh and Kaftari periods in Tall-i Malyan. Regarding the current archaeological information, it seems necessary to excavate sites with both Banesh and Kaftari periods to explore the 3rd millennium B. C. in Fars. Through visits and surveys in the Kur River Basin, the authors decided to open trenches in Toll-e Gap Kenareh in order to get more information about this crucial period. Toll-e Gap Kenareh is located 5 Km southwestward of Persepolis and 3 Km northeastward of MARVDASHT in the Kur River Basin. Covering around 0. 5 hectare, it is situated 1629 m above the sea level and is 4 m higher than the current surrounding plain. Toll-e Gap was firstly excavated by L. Vanden Berghe in the 1950s for two days while Alizadeh presented the site as belonging to Shogha, Iron Age III, Achaemenid, Sasanian, and Islamic periods. The first season of excavation at Toll-e Gap was conducted in Sept/Oct 2012 to identify the cultural stratified sequence of the site and to get relative and absolute dating for the 3rd millennium B. C. Fars. Two trenches (A and B) were excavated during this season of excavation on the east and west sides of the site and reached the virgin soil at 5. 3 m depth. Recovered materials include potsherds, bone fragments, metal, stone, glass objects, tokens, and so on. According to the recovered potsherds and comparing them to the other sites of the Kur River Basin, it can be inferred that the chronological sequence found in Toll-e Gap Kenareh displays early Islamic, Sasanian, early Kaftari, and Banesh (early, middle, and late? ) periods. Toll-e Gap Kenareh open then new horizons in the archaeology of Fars during the 3rd millennium B. C, above all for the transition between the well-known Banesh and Kaftari periods. Above Kaftari Period layers, there is a Sasanian Period settlement, which shows that this site has been used temporarily during the Sasanian Period. The more recent artifacts in this site belong to the 9th and 10th centuries A. D., and as the site is close to Estakhr, its function could have been related to this city.

Introduction: With almost 870 million people worldwide chronically undernourished in 2012, the number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably high. Reducing food insecurity and achieving sustainable food security are within reach, if such holistic actions as the quantification of food security at the household level are taken. Food security is defined as the permanent access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all people, in order to have an active and healthy life. Improving food security is about more than just increasing the quantity of energy intake, it is also about improving the quality of the food .The main objectives of the study were (i) to conduct a quantitative analysis of food security in MARVDASHT county and (ii) to determine factors affecting sustainable food security in the study area.Materials and methods: This study was performed in MARVDASHT county, a county of Fars province in southwestern Iran. Accordingly, 500 rural and urban households were randomly selected from the study area and a descriptive-survey method was applied. Demographic, social and economic information was collected through general questionnaires and household food security was assessed by an 18-item Household food security questionnaire as recommended by USDA. The relation between parental education, household income and household size with household food insecurity status were determined by the Spearman correlation test. The state of household food insecurity in urban and rural areas as well as the relationship between household food insecurity and parental job(s), were determined using a chi-square test.Results and discussion: According to the results obtained from USDA questionnaires, the most important experiences of food insecurity in households were a concern that food would run out and that they could not afford to eat balanced meals and relied on only a few kinds of low-cost foods. The results of this study showed that food insecurity in MARVDASHT was 73.8% (Food insecure without hunger was 35%, Food insecure with moderate hunger was 23%, Food insecure with severe hunger was 15.8%). Food insecurity in rural households was greater than in urban households. One of the reasons is the lower economic ability of rural households compared with urban households for food supply. In addition, the higher rates of illiteracy and unemployment in rural areas can be other reasons. Also, food insecurity in villages located far from cities was not significantly different from those located close to cities, reflecting that there is no difference between an unpleasant diet for everybody and the distance from the city. Food insecurity reduced with increasing level of parental education and household income. Food insecurity in households with children was more than in childless households and, in households with an unemployed father and a housewife mother, was greater than in other households.Conclusion: Overall, the findings showed that food insecurity was largely related to social, economic and cultural factors. Poverty eradication and changing unsustainable and promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production are vital for access to food security for all. Hence, development of appropriate programs for improving the socio- economic situation of households could reduce food insecurity in the study area.

During 2005, a faunestic study was carried out to identify the thrips of wheat in MARVDASHT, Fars Province. A total of 13 species belonging to 6 genera and 3 families of Thysanoptera were identified. After making microscopic slides gathered samples were recognized by known keys. Thrips species are listed as follows:Terebrantia,Thripidae, ThripinaeChirothrips manicatus Haliday, 1836Frankliniella pallida (Uzel, 1895)F. occidentalis (Pergande, 1895)Odontothrips confusus Priesner, 1926Thrips meridionalis (Priesner, 1926)T. tabaci Lindeman, 1889T. vuilleti (Bagnall, 1933)Terebrantia, MelanthripidaeMelanthrips fuscus (Sulzer, 1776)Tubulifera, Phlaeothripidae, PhlaeothripinaeHaplothrips (Haplothrips) cerealis Priesner, 1939H. (Haplothrips) iraniensis Priesner, 1954H. (Haplothrips) knechteli Priesner, 1923H. (Haplothrips) reuteri (Karny, 1907)H. (Haplothrips) tritici (Kurdjumov, 1912)The richest species was related to Haplothrips genera and H. reuteri has the most quantity between gathered samples. The identified species were confirmed by Dr. R. zur Strassen from Frankfurt Museum, Germany. All species are new records from MARVDASHT.

In Iran, there are many investigations about landuse change which usually mention negative side. In this research landuse/land cover change trend investigate with use of landsat image and Markov chain in IDRISI Andes V15 software at the period of 1990, 2004 and 2018, and predicted changes for 2032 in MARVDASHT region. There are about 196000 ha, equal to 91%, that used for cultivation, while range land, bare land and urban area are about 20000 ha, respectively 4. 9, 2. 7 and 1. 6 percent of region area. In 28 years, from 1990 to 2018, agricultural and range lands decrease about 9%, while bare lands and urban area increased. At this period bare lands increased from 2. 7% to 11. 29% of the total region area. In general, the results of this study indicate that in the long-term, agricultural lands are declining and bare land is increasing, Hence immediate management plans are necessary to prevent the destruction of agricultural land.

Background & Objective: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) still remains and expands as a major health problem in many parts of the world, including Iran. The study was carried out to determine the epidemiological status of disease in MARVDASHT, a county of Fars province, in 2008-09.Material & methods: This cross-sectional study has been done on cases referred to MARVDASHT health center which their disease has been diagnosed and approved using clinical and parasitological methods. The data were gathered from epidemiologic forms and were analyzed using STATA version 9, and by Chi-Square, Fisher exact and Mann-Whitney test.Results: Out of 2627 cases, 1377 and 1290 were diagnosed in 2008 and 2009, respectively. The disease was found frequently in male (60.3%), autumn (53.8%) and in 15-30 years old group (40%). Also, the most of patients were resident in city (57.5%) and new buildings (72%). There was significance relationship between number of lesion and gender, type of building and season of disease start.Conclusion: Regarding to more occurrence of the disease in male and 15-30 years old cases and also in city and new building residents, it is important these factors to be considered in designing and implementing of prevention and control programs.