Application of Safety-First Approach to Measure Risk Behavior of Wheat Farmers in Reclaimed Lands in Iraq for the Season 2019 (Wasit province as an Applied Model)

This study aimed to investigate the application of safety-first approach to measure the risk behavior of wheat farmers in unreclaim land. A random sample of 105 farms in Wasit province for season 2019 were used. The analysis was divided into three stages. The first stage was to estimate the production function (Cob-Douglas) of wheat using the regression method of the Robust M-Weighted Estimator (R.M.W) to represent the functional relationship between quantity of produced wheat and the independent variables (seed, fertilizers, pesticides, number of mechanical and human).The second stage included an analysis of farmers' behavior towards risk based on safety-first standards. It was found that the number of farmers affording high, medium and natural risks were 46, 24 and 33, respectively, representing 43.8%, 24.76%, 31.34% of the total farmers, respectively. Third stage analyzed the factors affecting the farmers' behavior towards risk, using a multiple logistic regression model. The results indicated that farmers having normal or medium salinity soil, long experience (more than 25 years) and those owning their agricultural lands bear the risks more than their counterparts with high salinity soils, shorter experience and tenants of agricultural lands. Therefore, the study recommends conducting maintenance operations on the main and secondary drainage networks to ensure low salinity levels to obtain high productivity.