AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS: IRANIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS (ECONOMICS AND AGRICULTURE JOURNAL)
Year:2007 | Volume:1 | Issue:3 (SELECTED PAPERS OF THE 6TH IRANIAN CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS)|Papers Count:42

This research has conducted in order to investigation of water and soil salinity affecting on wheat yield and income in north regions of Golestan province by using production function procedure. Result showed that quantity, salinity (Ec) and SAR of irrigation water and soil salinity have significant effects on wheat yield and income.Their marginal production (MP) are 1.06, -37.5, -27 and -217 kg/ha and also value of marginal production (marginal productivity) are 1802, -64090, -45900 and 368900 rials/ha respectively. Optimum level of irrigation water salinity is 5.2 ds/m that the best yield of wheat is available in this salinity level. Results of this research showed that application of saline water has positive effects in wheat cropping of north regions of Golestan province.

Agriculture is an economic activity that has substantial share in gross domestic product because of its role in food security. Also agricultural activities have environmental externalities.Most of economics analysis emphasis on increase the economical welfare of farmers and don't consider to environmental problems, therefore, an efficient manager should pay attention to several goals including economical and environmental for choosing agricultural activities.The main aim of this study is applying a lexicographic goal programming model to determine the optimum cultivation pattern and compare them-for simultaneous accessing to economical goals of farmers and environmental goals. The results of this study have shown that application of this model make easy the decision process by farmers in unsuitable condition, the condition of cultivation pattern is improved relatively and resources and inputs are utilized better.

This paper has examined the convergence of wheat's total productivity factor (TFP) in 8 provinces of Iran. Inputs include seed, labor, fertilizer and pesticide. The period began from farming year of 1985 to 2006. Non-parametric frontier production function method was used to measure the productivity growth. Results have shown that Fars province had the most productivity growth both in dry and irrigation. Also, in years of 2001 to 2002 the productivity growth was more than the rest of the years. Over all, TFP in aquaculture is less than dry farming. The convergence tests show that, however the productivity growth in a short-term in different regions was various, but in long-term this trend in all regions was convergent.

In this study, the presence of scale economies, an important production technology characteristic, in shrimp farming industry, is examined jointly with the input elasticity of substitution and factors price elasticities. To this end, a dual Tran slog cost function was estimated, using data from 51 shrimp farms in southern province. of Iran. Results revealed that scale economies exists in the Iranian shrimp farming industry, meaning that there is a good potential to reduce the unit cost of production by choosing an appropriate size for the shrimp farms in Iran.

we need to design to optimal cropping pattern as respects to important and preemptive goals of managers. Therefore it is important that we can choose through different models.This model could be get multiple objective of managers (howbeit these objectives are conflict) and managers conduct to optimal goals. The goal programming model is a suitable and flexible model among different other planning models for these objectives.In this paper we are using goal programming model for designing optimum cropping pattern in the Dasht-E-Naz Sari. We applied 3 structures preemptive of goals basely important of goals and for choose best structure, we using Euclidean Distance Function for optimum cropping pattern. Results show that in area of Dasht-E-Naz Sari exist potential of resources that could be improving reach to goals of agricultural sector managers, as optimum cropping pattern for exist products including wheat, rice, seed corn, forage com, grain com, canola, spring soybean, summer soybean we can increase gross margin about 336100 rials for one hectare.

Traditionally linear programming was used for feed formulation, which has optimized the least cost combination of ingredients. Now, with exploring for the lowest possible cost, other aspects like minimizing unacceptable damage to environment or other aspects is followed.In this study, we use interactive multiobjective goal programming (IMGP) for obtaining three goals: economical, environmental and nutritional criteria together. Then IMGP was compared with goal programming (GP). The results show IMGP has preference to GP, because it produces a balance diet with lower cost and lower excess Phosphorus.In the diet that was written by IMGP, all nutrients were used. On the other hand, Unlike GP, the cost of diet that was produced by IMGP is 24 Rials lower than the cost of diet that was produced by GP for each Kg diet.

The relationship between farm and retail prices provides insights into marketing efficiency and consumer and farmer welfare. Because of that, agricultural economists have focused on the farm-retail price transmission process.In this article, we analyze the behavior of test for asymmetry according to the conventional Houck and error correction model (ECM) approach. We also estimate the short-run and long-run elasticities of price transmission between the farm and retail levels of the marketing channel for potato and tomato. Results indicate that price transmission in potato market from retail to farm is symmetric but in potato market from farm to retail is asymmetric, retail prices adjust more completely and less rapidly to increases in the farm price than to decreases.

Intra Industry Trade (IIT) -simultaneous export and import of same product groups-has entered in international trade literature since about three decades before. This phenomenon cannot be essentially described by traditional theories, may be explained and predicted by IIT models. Thus, considerable IIT may have also significant policy implications.The purpose of this paper is to estimate and study intra industry trade (IIT) types of Iran's agricultural products. For this, important indices of Grubel & Lioyd and Fontagn'e & Freudenberg's trade types in 6-digit level of HS international classification are used for estimating agricultural IIT during time period 1997-2003. Results indicate low but increasing IIT types for agricultural products of Iran. Specifically, two way trades of Iran's agricultural products is estimated about 2.73-5.98 percent during the time period.Furthermore, an important part of this IIT is devoted to Vertical Intra Industry Trade (VIIT).Then, it seems that foreign trade in agricultural products of Iran is based on comparative advantage currently. With respect to this result, trade liberalization probably has considerable adjustment costs in Iran's agriculture sector which can be reduced by increasing IIT in this sector. Furthermore, regarding the importance of IIT in nonoil exports, it is proposed to put an emphasis on agricultural IIT determinants, as well as taking care of existing comparative advantages.JEL Classification: F12, F17, Q17.

The economical growth of agriculture and the improvement of its export as fundamental objectives in the country economical plans on one hand and unemployment and expectations of generating employment by economical sectors including agriculture on the other hand have caused simultaneous attention to the three sensitive an important abovementioned variables in regulating the agricultural policies and the way these variables are related is also of importance. For the very same purpose, in this study by using the statistics related to agricultural sector from 1971 to 2004 and by drawing on methods of econometrics, we have inspected the effective factors on economical growth in agricultural sector, its employment and export and the prevailing link between them. The resulting indicates the effect of employment, capitals and productivity of producing factors on economical growth of agriculture, the effect of agriculture capitals and export on employment and finally the effect of agriculture growth, relative indicator of agricultural export price and supportive and exchange policies on agricultural export.According to the results, the necessity of investment increase, depreciation decrease and the productivity improvement of producing factors for the realization of higher economical growth, concentration on investment development through raise in capital stock and regulating strategies related to export development in order to develop employment generation in agriculture and also following policies of producing competitive products in agricultural sector, reform of exchange rate and keeping and expanding supportive policies (giving out export prizes) in order to expand agricultural export must be taken into account by governors and politicians.

Optimal design of agricultural futures contracts specifications has an undeniable role in success or failure of these contracts. This paper investigates the effects of the changing expiration interval on the behavior of the futures prices of the agricultural products, for determining the best length of the averaging period for futures contract's settlement. In this study, the choice of expiration interval of com futures contracts has been concerned, because of high level of traded spot contracts in Iran Agricultural Commodity Exchange (IACE). By this purpose, first, a cash settlement index has been introduced and identified in order to calculating the futures prices. The com trading data on IACE and traditional market in the period of 9/11/2005 to 19/3/2007 are used to calculating this index. Next, in order to determining the best expiration interval, a GARCH (1, 1) model has been applied to estimate the conditional volatility structure of calculated futures prices, in different scenarios. The results show that increasing the expiration interval leads to decreasing the volatility and increasing the level of com futures prices. Therefore, the choice of lengthy expiration intervals causes to increasing hedging performance and hence induces com producers and speculators to contribute in the futures market.

The strategy for targeting products to unique markets - relatively small groups of Customers-rather than mass markets is called "niche" marketing. Niche marketing focuses on getting the right product to the right person at the right place at the right time. Niche marketing responds to the unique preferences and individual needs of specific customers-giving them what they want rather than trying to convince them to accept what everyone else seems to want. The more unique the product, the higher will be the potential premium in value over similar products available in mass markets. Niche markets focus on -value rather than cost, thus, avoiding head-to-head competition with mass marketers. Small enterprises (cooperatives, for example) survive and grow only if they can sell their products and services. Niche marketing usually refers to small or moderate size businesses or farms that produce a specialty product or service for a limited segment of the market.This paper describes rural and agricultural cooperative potential in niche marketing and identifies the niche products and niche market in Iran.

The existence of saline water in some parts of Esfahan province is an issue which has endangered agricultural sustainability. The lack of enough quality water and the existence of saline and alkaline soils annually cause us not to harrest anything on some parts of the lands we have cultivated and thus render our industrious efforts fruitless. This bitter fact can be felt in difference places of cultivated lands. There fore, if agricultural techniques and production efficiency of fields do not logically and appropriately improve, noncompliance between income and the costs of cops production agriculture on these lands. The conservation and survival guarantee of agriculture in saline regions thus entail, on a long term basis, basic investments in agriculture. In this direction, the project of mixing soft and saline waters, especially in saline regions which enjoy the favor of rivers soft water, such as Esfahan, can support agricultural authorities as the most effective strategy. Based on this, in the present study conducted on the farms sampled from saline lands east of Esfahan city, the project of mixing wells water with canals water to supply suitable quality water and its application in sprinkler irrigation using the cost - benefit theory & the budgeting method and considering functional treatments and facilities interest rates were economically tested and assessed. Relevant results showed that in all functional treatments under study, the performance of the above mentioned project enjoys the required economic justification and that the project benefit-cost ratio with an 8% interest-rate loan will be followed by an investment yield return of up to 200%.

This research will discuss an assessment of the preservation value of Golestan National Park, and estimate an individual's willingness to pay (WTP) for preservation benefits obtained, based on contingent valuation and dichotomous choice. For determination of individual's willingness to pay Logit Regression model was employed, the estimation parameters being based on methods of maximum likelihood. Results show that 79.1% of individuals are willing to pay for preservation of the Golestan National Park. The mean WTP of individuals for preservation value of Golestan National Park was estimated RLs.14400 per household per month. Also, the preservation annual value was calculated 172800 RLs (19.2 US$) for this Park. Results revealed that National parks had considerable preservation value. Thus, this value provides enough justification for policy makers to maintain the quality of National park.

In this study, the timber factories in Gilan province were evaluated applying indices of cost benefit ratio (B/C), internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) to collected data of typical factories for a period of 50 years. The results indicated that NPV for the studied factories are positive, their B/C is close to one and the corresponding IRR is more than 20%.Despite economic justifications of such factories, MDF producers recently compete with them and there fore they might be weakening in the close future in term of their revenues. In this context, some policy implication has been provided at the end of this article.

Theory of the firm investigates the behavior of individual producers; however, in many cases researchers inevitably use aggregated data in empirical studies since disaggregated data are not available or are costly to collect In addition, working with aggregated data in modeling producer's behavior is easier and more desirable, particularly in policy analysis.Despite the attractive features of aggregated data, using these data in aggregate econometrics models results in biased parameter estimates and depicts unrealistically producers' behavior and consequently lead to unreliable inferences. In this study, we examine the aggregation consistency condition for price and quantity aggregation across 6 large paddy producer provinces and also 24 wheat producer provinces, resorting to the Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem (GCCT). Results indicate that group quantity and price indices are respectively independent from relative quantities and prices for wheat and paddy across all provinces. Consequently, consistent geographic aggregation was supported for each price and quantity data at the country level.

The paper focus on the time adjustment path of the agricultural prices in response to unanticipated monetary shocks following model developed by Saghaian et al. (2002).To get the objective we employ Johansen's co integration test along with a vector error correction model to investigate whether agricultural prices overshoot over 1350-1382 (1971-2003) for iran. The variables of the study are monetary supply, exchange rate, agricultural and industrial commodities price index. The empirical results indicate that agricultural prices adjust faster than industrial prices to innovations in the money supply, i.e. confirming the hypothesis of overshooting of agricultural prices.

About two third of wheat cultivated lands in Iran are rainfed. Difference of climate and changes of rainfall are reasons for research activities on breeding and releasing new varieties of dry wheat. Awaring of rate of return to investment in researches activities is effective for increasing efficiency of authorities' decisions related to breeding research.This research was executed in 3 provinces in order to determine innovation acceptance and calculate the investment rate of return evaluation indicators in Sardari and Azar2 wheat varieties.For this research 273 samples by cluster sampling method were chosen from farmers in provinces: Azarbayjan gharbi, Kermanshah and Markazy. The required data were collected through completing questionnaires and experts in those provinces and also from the available data in Cultivation Assistance of Agricultural Jihad Ministry, Agricultural Organizations, Program and Budget Office of Agricultural research Organization and finally Country dry farming research institute.Data analysis performed for determining of innovation grads-by innovation matrix and calculation the investment return by economic engineering including: benefit-cost ratio, internal rate of return and net present value.According to basic scenario assumption that benefit and costs discount discounted with 16 and 20 percent and stability period of varieties would be 10 years after releasing and annual increasing harvested area would be 20 percent after 1381.The results showed average grades of innovation acceptance for all exploiters used improved characters were higher than others. The product yield average was also more in three ply class of innovation acceptance grades. Data analyzing in determining investment rate of return indicators based on indicated criterias (B/C, NPV, IRR) with discount rates 16, 20 Precent under different conditions have acceptable values from the point of economical indicators.

Since agricultural sector plays an important role in Iranian economic and monetary and fiscal policies have important impacts on this sector, this study investigates the impacts of these polices on value added of the agricultural sector. For this purpose short run and long run impacts of these policies on the value added, a logarithm function, co-integration approach as autoregressive -distribution lag and error correction model are used for the analysis.The data were collected for period of 1977-2004. The Results show that government expenditures have positive effect on agricultural value added. By one percentage increase in government expenditures, agricultural sector value added increases by 5 percentages. But monetary policies have negative impacts on value added of agriculture sector. One percentage increase in liquidity agricultural sector decreases the value added by 23 percentages. Results of error correction model shows that in short run, one percentage increase in government expenditures, results in 4.5 percentage in agricultural value added. By one percentage increase in liquidity, value added of agriculture sector, decreases by 19 percentages.

Use of Machinery could increase the Production and Farmers' Income as well as the Income of the agricultural sector. To study the effect of mechanization on the growth of the agricultural sector, serial data during the years 1354-1385 have been used. Dickey-Fuller Test is used to determine the degree of stationary of each variable and Johantson method for the determination of the co integration of variables. Although the rate of mechanization showed increasing but it was continually less than one. The results showed that the real value added and total horse power haven't been stationary but the first differential of them was stationary. Existing of one co-integration vector is confirmed. A caused relation has been observed from horse power to real value added in the long run by estimating an ECM equation.Therefore it is suggested to re-examine the short time prgrammes carried out with regard to mechanization.

Poverty may be evaluated as two main aspects: income poverty and non-income poverty.Cooperative associations are one of the most important rural institutions that effect on the decreasing or increasing opportunities. This research has investigated poverty determinants focusing on cooperative association in Tafihan and Esmaiil Abad, Fars province. For this purpose, poor and nonpoor households were determined using an estimated regional poverty line. Then, effective determinants on the likelihood of being in poverty for households were investigated, applying a probit model. Institution determinants such as membership in Cooperative associations, their credits and facilities were studied in addition to other determinants. The results indicated that cooperative's membership decreases the likelihood of being poor of households. Also, households with at least a member in women's rural cooperative would be poor with lower probability than who don't have any members in this institution. So, establishing and improvement of these kinds of institutions could be effective in poverty alleviation in other regions with the same potential of socio economic conditions in development.

It is impossible to have mindful presence in the global markets without suitable commercial policies for many of the developing countries such as IRAN. Agricultural sector as one of the important economic sectors in the country needs more attention than other sectors because of its natural potential, comparatively effective role in the food security in the country.Because of different economic and climatologic characteristics in each region, taking steps on the base of comparative advantage is very important. In this study measuring, and analyzing the comparative advantage of agricultural staple crops is tried in Eastern Azarbaijan "which is one of the most important agriculture regions in Iran" using domestic resource cost (DRC) and effective protection coefficient (EPC) methods.The results showed that the exiting cropping pattern was not allotted with comparative advantage but is related to the effective protection coefficient.

The relation between financial development and economic growth, especially in developing economies, has been a topic of renewed interest in the macroeconomics and development literatures over the past decade. So the main purpose of this paper is the examination of relationship between financial development and economic growth in 10 Asian and African developing countries over the 1980-2004 periods using vector autoregressive models (VAR) and vector error correction models (VECM). In this paper the difference between broadly defined and narrow money (M2-MI) and gross domestic product in agricultural sector (GDP) were used as measures of financial development and economic growth. The results show that there is a strong uni-directional link from financial development to economic growth. This results support the growth hypothesis "Supply-Leading" that made by Schumpeter. Therefore making and developing financial intermediations have a good effect on growth in agricultural sector.

In ordet to investigate economic efficiency of five culture systems in sugar beet crop, including high input, medium input low input, high and medium inputs without 3 time irrigation after emergence, an experiment was conducted over two years (2002-2003) in Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center of Khorasan. These systems analysed by marginal analysis and linear programming methods.Result showed significant difference among treatments for root yield, sugar and white sugar yield, sugar and white sugar content, sodium, potassium, a - amino azote and malass sugar. The maximum yield was obtained 52.11 ton/ha for high input treatment and the minimum yield was obtained 35.89 ton/ha for medium input traetment without 3 time irrigation.Economic analysis showed that, low input treatment had the highest water efficiency and medium input treatment was followed it and had the highest economic rate of return. Beside this, change in price of water, leades to change in optimum treatment.

The purpose of this study is to define the technological structure and to define relationships among different inputs in irrigated wheat production. A duality approach is used to estimate cost share equations, using panel data that is blend of cross-section and time series data in 28 provinces in a period of 10 years. By the use of estimated parameters obtained from model estimation, Allen elasticity substitution and price demand elasticity were computed.All the assumptions of the duality approach are fulfilled by the estimation procedure and the restrictions of theory are not rejected by the data.The results show that use of duality approach and estimate of translog cost function by panel data for defining the production technological structure regard to satisfy all of the restrictions is appropriate. All of the computed elasticites were significant and have expected sign, except one. Wheat production function is non-homothetic and therefore, regard to agricultural machinery deficits in country to pat more attention for providing machinery is essential for promoting production increasing.

Increasing population and limitation production factors make necessary to raise factor productivity progressively. In this study, substitution between production factors and total factor productivity growth during the 1360-1384 in wheat production was estimated by Allen elasticity of substitution and a Tornqvist index, respectively. Results showed that, output (wheat) growth was 0.79 during the 1360-1372 period and had fallen to 0.41 in the 1373-1384.Moreover, productivity growth was negative over the whole period and indicated that, input growth has been more than output growth. According to [rods, it is essential to move towards suitable combination of input use instead of injection more input in wheat production.

he purpose of this study is analysis the differential impacts of pricing policy for irrigation water in the Doroudzan basin in the south of Iran. For this purpose, Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) mathematical programming models were used and then, a simulation model is designed. The analysis of water pricing policy impacts clearly demonstrate that farmers display different behavior patterns related to this natural resource. Also, patterns of consumption vary along the demand curves as a result of increases in the water price.Inelastic price segments of the water demand curves coincide with prices at which the farmers are insensitive to resource price increases, maintaining their usual crop mixes without any substantial change. On the other hand, the elastic segments correspond to those water tariffs that encourage farmers to replace their current crops with others that have lower water requirements. This highlights the importance of implementing a differential analysis to study the impact of water pricing due to the existence of a variety of responses among different groups of farmers. The influence of the elasticity of water demand in reducing water consumption obtained through resource pricing is remarkable. It can be seen that in the elastic segments of the curves the increase in the price of water produces great savings in consumption due to changes in crop mixes, while in the inelastic segments, tariff rises do not result in significant water savings, since farmers are not induced to change their crop plans. This is the reason why the greatest savings are obtained with pricing scenarios in elastic segments of the water demand curves.

There are many rivers and springs with enough water supplies in Ham province, which provides good places for establishing farm fisheries in the region. The objectives of this study are: (i) to examine the profitability of Trout farm fisheries, and to distinguish between successful and less-successful farms and (ii) to specify factors affecting profitability of success using profitability indicators and Mann-Whitney test. Results indicate that age, education, location, participation in training workshops and growing period have significant impacts on success of the farms. The total revenue to total cost (TR/Tc) and rate of equity (ROE) of the farms on average are 1.07 and 5.88 for less-successful farms and 1.33 and 25.9 respectively for successful farms. The price margins are 92% and 76% for the less successful and successful farms respectively. The results also indicate that factor productivity of large farms increases as size of the farms increases.

The improper practices of on-farms oil management have been demolished soil chemical, physical and biological properties of the sugar beet farms and their degradation has produced so many problems. Therefore, the soil management has focused on the sustainable farm soil practices. The aim of present investigation was to assess the sugar beet growers' skill regarding sustainable practices of on-farm soil management in Khorasan-e-Razavi Province as well as to analyze the factors that influence their skill. A survey was conducted using multi-stage cluster sampling technique to collect data from sugar beet growers. The research instrument was a structural questionnaire with close ended questions, which validity and reliability confirmed. The results of descriptive findings showed that overall skill of 43.5%, 23.7% and 32.8% of studied sugar beet growers regarding on-farm soil management practices were at poor, moderate and good levels, respectively. The results revealed that there were significant differences between sugar beet growers' skill regarding on-farm soil management practices in relation to use of under pressure irrigation method, soil test, worker extension and membership in rural production cooperative. The result of stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicated that the most important variables which influenced the sugar beet growers' skill regarding sustainable practices of on-farm soil management were technical knowledge, action to extension guidance, sugar beet yield per hectare, attitude, soil test, education and sucrose content of the sugar beet roots.

The fluctuations in raw oil price in international market affect GNP, income per capita, and other economic variables fluctuation. Results show that non-oil export growth and factors affecting them are important. In this paper, economic-political variables of 25 countries trade side of Iran have been used during 1995-2005 period. Combined model has been used to evaluate by panel data. In economic section, Income per capita, population, consumer price Index, and exchange rate affect non-oil export. In political section, political instability influences non-oil export. Result indicate that increase of Iran exports has depended on increase in population, income per capita, and consumer price Index in the trade side countries.But exchange rate political instability in these countries has caused decrease in Iran exports.

In this research, policies effects and comparative advantage indices of 14 crops at the 12 townships in province of Kennan was computed and compared by using 770 random samples collected in 2005. The comparative advantage and policies effects indices are computed using Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM). These indices are: Domestic Resource Cost (DRC), Social Cost Benefit (SCB), Nominal Input Protection Coefficient (NPIC), Nominal Protection Coefficient (NPC), Effective Protection Coefficient (EPC) and Net Social Profit (NSP).Results indicate that on average, production of wheat, barley and lentil don't have comparative advantage and other crops have comparative advantage, but large variation existed among the 12 townships. Onion and Watermelon have the most comparative advantage in province of Kerman. Nominal input protection is positive for all crops.Protection of products market and effective protection, are positive for wheat and barley, and are negative for other crops. Watermelon has the maximum net social profit in province of Kerman.

The objective of this study is to determine how the research equipment and non-equipment investments, and agricultural employment affects agriculture value added. Dataset covers period of (1971-2005). To get the objective Autoregressive Distributed Lag model was applied.The results of the study showed increment in agricultural employment by 1percent decreases agricultural production %0.20, while the same increase in research, equipment and non-equipment investment of agricultural sector raise its value added by 0.05, 0.10 and 0.18 percent, respectively. Findings of Error Correction Model also revealed a low rate of adjustment in agricultural sector.

The input- output table is one of the best tools for determining key sectors in the economy.In this research, input - output table for year 1378 used to calculate backward and forward linkages and their variation to determine key sectors in Iran economy of the output point of view.the results reveal that key sectors from the output viewpoint belongs to industry sector and sub sectors of agriculture and service sector not belong to key industry in 1378 year and Leather, cloths industries and other industrial outputs are the most important key sectors.