A Comparsion of Forage Production of Summer Quarter Ranglands and Exploitation Performance by Migrant, Planned and Volunteerily Settled Groups of Nomads

The most prevalent way of rangeland utilization in Iran is sheep and goat grazing. Rangeland
utilization has been performed in 3 forms ; nomadic, seminomadic and rural type. Each form
affects rangelands in a particular way.Increase in sheep-fanner population and decrease in
Fanner's income on the one hand and the poor conditions of the rangelands on the other hand
have caused severe disturbances to the balance among livestock, rangelands and the
beneficiaries. This has caused a shortage of forage on the rangelands , therefore, through force
of circumstances the sheep fanners have to use other sources of forage. In order to improve
the situation , the government considered a plan to settle the nomads in some suitable areas as
from 1993. This plan aimed at persuading the nomads to settle in a permanent ecosystem to
have their life conditions improved. One of the sites selected by the government for this
purpose is a summer quarter named Bakan Plain located on the north of the Fars Province. A
group of nomads including 4 tribes was persuaded by government to settele in this area
(Planned Settelement). Two other groups of nomads,the volunteer setteleres (Unplanned
Settelement) including 2 tribes , and the migrants including 1 tribe used to live in this area from
many years ago. This research which was commenced in 2001 and ended in 2003 aimed at
studying forage production and exploitation as well as a comparison of the three mentioned
groups as regards their effects on the rangeland. Using the previous studies, field visits, filling
up quest ionaries , as well as interview with the nomads, the indices of production and
exploitation of the rangeland were assessed. The obtained data were analayzed statistically
using Excel and Spss softwares. The results showed that not only there is a significant
difference in production and exploitation effects on rangeland for the 3 groups but also there is
a significant difference among the tribes within each group. The results also showed that the
condition of production and exploitation of the rangeland is better in the voluntreered setteler
nomad ones than the other two groups; the migrants and the planned settlers. It seems this is
due to decrease in number of livestock, supplementary feeding of the herds with crop remains
as well as long duration of the volunteered settelment