AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS: IRANIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS (ECONOMICS AND AGRICULTURE JOURNAL)
Year:2019 | Volume:13 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:8

The opium poppy cultivation is one of the many problems that Afghanistan is facing nowadays. To address this problem, many strategies such as eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihood opportunities have been adopted. But, it is a well-established fact that these efforts have not been successfully proved as they were envisaged when started. It is believed that cultivation of opium poppy will automatically contract by enhancing licit livelihood opportunities. But, alternative livelihood development has failed to recognize the different motivations and factors that influence household's decision to cultivate illicit drug crops and ignored the fact that these motivation and factor differ across households from different socio-economic group in different areas of Afghanistan. The goal of this study was to examine opium cultivation alternative policies using positive mathematical programming (PMP) model at representative farm (RF) level. PMP has been improved to overcome normative character of optimization models. Therefore, PMP is highly practical for analyzing the consequences of agricultural policies as long as enough empirical data are available for calibration of the model. A linear programming model was used for the RF of homogenous groups when no empirical data was available. Farm level data were obtained from a sample of poppy farmers in the Kiti district of Daykundi province. A two stage cluster sampling was used to select the sample farmers. At the first stage, a cluster of seven villages. In the second stage, by a simple random sampling method, 132 poppy producers were chosen for interview and collection of necessary farm level data. The results showed that opium is the only cash crop in contrast with other crops which are cultivated primarily to meet subsistence requirements. The exclusion of opium had significant effects on farmers' income and decreased their gross margins by 34. 7 to 68 percents. Results also indicated that saffron is a serious alternative for opium poppy particularly at the representative farm of group 2 under current conditions. But, the retail margin for the poppy is very high and if a part of this margin assign to poppy farmers, none of the crop can compete against opium poppy. In other words, saffron cannot be an alternative crop if the farm gate price of poppy becomes eighty thousand Afghanis per Man (Approximately 1Man=5 kilos). Finally, it was found that price and non-price policies of wheat and corn can alleviate economic effects of poppy interdiction.

Saffron is on the export products and Iran is one the main and the largest producer and exporter of the saffron with 88% of the world production. A survey of the approach of global export shows that the increase or decrease in the amount of Iran export directly and abviously influences the global export of saffron and it is affected by the increase or decrease of Islamic republic of Iran export. Thus, in this study, the effects of the changes in products amount on the saffron export have been studied as a result of changes in cultivated area, relative prices and the currency fluctuations. For this purpose, the production fluctuations, export price, export supply of this product based on simultaneous functions using 3sls method for the period of 1351-1395 has been estimated and the obtained cofficients were modeled in the form of mathematical programs. The results show that factors such as the real prices of the currency, domestic production and relative prices affect saffron export of Iran. So that, the change of domestic production as a result of change in crop area and currency rate have positive and noticeable influence on the supply of saffron exports of Iran while the change of relative prices as a result of changes in internal prices negatively effects saffron exports.

In this study, we used a systemic approach to study the behavior of the water resources system in the Kowsar Dam basin. Generally, due to the complexity of the water system, one of the best tools for understanding the relationship between all components within a complex system is the system dynamic. System Dynamic is one of the methods that used to facilitate the relationships between separate systems but in connection with each other along with dynamic behavior. After modeling and calibrating the model, the behavior of the water system investigated over time. The results showed that during the simulation period, the water availability would be declining. While water demand, which is directly impacted by population growth, is rising. Under optimistic weather conditions (first scenario), the surface water inflow is improving, yet increasing evaporation and outflow of water causes the water supply system to be vulnerable. As the water security index is in a better situation in the early years, it is expected to reach even lower than one at the end of simulation period. The results also indicated that the lowest water security index is related to pessimistic climatic conditions (second scenario). Therefore, demand management policies can play a significant role in the sustainable management of water resources by reducing water use per capita or increasing irrigation efficiency and reducing water consumption per hectare of agricultural production.

Due to the scarcity of production factors, it is essential to enhance productivity as the best way of achieving agricultural sector’ s growth. In order to attain a proper level of productivity growth in economic sectors, it is required to have a clear image of the total factor productivity (TFP) growth and the productivity of every production resource in such sectors. So, the main purpose of the present study is to analyze total factor productivity in the Iranian agricultural sector and its four subsectors (crops and horticulture, livestock and poultry, fishery, and forestry) over the period 1986-2001. To this end, the partial and the total factor productivity were calculated by Tornqvist-Theil index based on input-output tables. In addition, the total factor productivity was decomposed into the productivity of four inputs, namely labor, capital, land, and intermediate factors. For this purpose, the input-output tables of the years 1986, 1991, and 2001 that have been published by the Statistical Center of Iran and deflated to constant price, were employed. Results generally showed that, although productivity of some inputs has increased during the study period, however, total factor productivity has declined in all agricultural sub-sectors, except in the livestock and poultry sub-sector. The highest and lowest annual growth of productivity has been 1. 47 and-1. 68 percent in livestock and poultry subsector and forestry sub-sector, respectively. Given that increase in productivity is essential for any growth in output and to offset any increase in product prices, a focus on the increase in productivity of low productivity inputs through the development of a comprehensive and long-term plan by the sector planners is recommended.

The present study was conducted to assess the environmental efficiency of cage culture fish farming system and to make suggestions for reducing the pollutants emissions into the aquatic ecosystem in Mazandaran province. In the production cycle of 2017-18, there were 9 active fish cage farms which the pollutants loadings from each farm were calculated based on an indirect method. According to the results, per ton of produced fish, an average of 73. 979 kg of nitrogen, 13. 893 kg of phosphorus and 488. 353 kg of carbon were released into the environment. Furthermore, feed conversion ratio (FCR = feed supplied/ body weight gained) varied between 0. 897-4 with an average of 1. 249 which indicates severe inefficiencies of feeding. Subsequently, the environmental efficiency scores of farms were evaluated based on an SBM-DEA model. The average environmental efficiency of farms was 0. 599, indicating that there is a high potential for reducing pollutants emissions and improving environmental efficiency. Based on study findings, weak technical knowledge of farmers, especially in choosing the right time for start and the end of production cycles, and feeding mismanagements will lead to an increase in the amount of pollutants released into the aquatic environment. Thus, it is suggested that successful farms be encouraged by incentive policies to transfer their experiences to other farms in order to improve the environmental efficiency of cage culture system. This can be done through training courses using well trained instructors and successful farmers.

The strong fluctuations resulting from crude oil exports, the increase in population and the end of oil resources have led policy makers to develop exports and get rid of the single-product economy. In this regard, paying attention to forest products, rangelands, medicinal plants, which are among the most valuable resources in natural resources, is very important. This research was conducted with the aim of determining the relative advantage of medicinal plants and the structure of the global market for medicinal plants and planning their exportation, during the period of 2017-2005. To determine the relative advantage, RCA and RSCA indices were applied, in addition to determine the structure of the market, the concentration ratio and HHI were applied and for the commercial mapping of medicinal plants TM index were used. The results showed that Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India and Indonesia possessed the most relative advantage in exporting medicinal plants, and Iran possessed relative advantage during the course of the study except the year 2015. The results of the market structure showed that the global market for medicinal plant exports is A closed multilateral monopoly and between open and closed multilateral monopolies. And in the discussion of the business map, the results showed that during 2013 and 2002, when the global market is declining, iran has appeared in some years as a winner. And during 2016-2014, when the global market is growing, it has often appeared as a winner. Also, calculating the TM index with regard to agricultural products shows that in all years it is the same as before.