Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Research
Year:2018 | Volume:49 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:12

The Seasonal behavior of agricultural prices is generally a main feature of the market. In recent decades, there has been significant interest for modeling non-adjusted seasonal time series and this issue was seen as an important field in econometrics. Therefore, this study aims to analyze seasonal behavior of egg market in north-west provinces, using quarterly retail prices for the period from 1381 to 89. The EGHL-type seasonal cointegration test and seasonal error correction model (SECM) were applied. Results confirmed the existence of seasonal behavior at all frequencies. There were evidences of some cointegrating relationships at the long run frequencies between five egg price pairs of West Azerbaijan-East Azerbaijan, Ardabil-Zanjan, Zanjan-Ardabil provinces and in the annual frequencies between Ardabil-East Azerbaijan and Kordestan-Zanjan provinces. According to the estimated adjusted speeds parameters in SECM, the egg prices adjust to equilibrium after a shock. According to the results of price seasonal cointegration between regions, it is recommended that the egg price stabilization policy in a province be made in coordination with other province.

According to the increasing demand for water in agriculture section and limited water resources in Iran, it is important to pay attention to the problem of water resources crisis and ways to improve the level of efficiency and productivity of it. Hence, due to the high consumption of water resources in the production of wheat as a strategic crop in Iran, in this study, efficiency of water use in wheat producers of Alborz province was calculated by using data envelopment analysis and the completion of 200 questionnaires in the year of 1394. Also, factors affecting water use efficiency were analyzed by using Tobit regression model. Results show that the average technical efficiency in the condition of constant and variable return to scale is 74 and 78 %, respectively and the average water use efficiency in these two conditions is 88 and 90%, respectively. According to the results, variables of farmer experience, level of education, land ownership and water price have positive effect and the variables of distance from farm to water resource, farmer participation in training classes and membership in cooperatives have negative and significant effect on water use efficiency. According to the findings, it seems that revisions of extension services provided to farmers, as well as change in management of rural cooperatives play an important role in improving water use efficiency in the region.

Considering the current challenges of agricultural insurance such as high implementation costs, problems caused by asymmetric information, and agricultural insurance’ s being loss-incurring, presenting a proper insurance model is one of the most crucial issues in the field of agricultural products risk management. Thus, given the world successful experience, this study has designed the weather-based index insurance for apple in Damavand County, as one of the biggest apple production center within country. Data were collected during 1987-2016 from Iranian Agricultural Organization and the Meteorological Station in Damavand County. With the frequent application of Archimedean and elliptical copula functions in modeling the multivariate risk, dependency structure between weather variables and apple yield was determined through these functions, and Bayesian approach was employed to estimate the copula parameter. The investigation of different types of copulas indicated that Joe copula was able to model the joint distribution way better than other copulas. Hence there is a strong positive asymmetric dependency structure between variables. The expected loss caused by inappropriate weather condition has been 64281. 25 ton for the Entire County. Therefore, the premium amount for each hectare at 100 percent coverage level had been computed as 36348910 Rials. The results of indemnity function demonstrated that frost is the most important loss factor for the apple product in Damavand County. Given the successful results of this insurance system in the world, it is recommended that officials and policy-makers investigate the weather based index insurance plans in different countries and identify its different dimensions to implement this insurance system in the country

Making appropriate sustainable – oriented policies to achieve sustainable agriculture is very important. So, the agricultural unsustainability in Iran may be caused by limited attention to the principals of sustainability in agricultural development policy making. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze the sustainability of macro and sectorial agricultural policies of Islamic Republic of Iran. Content analysis research method was used for analyzing the policies. Hierarchical Additive Weighting method (HAW) of decision making models and Shannon entropy weighting method were used to prioritize the five-year development plan. The results show that the national macro policies including constitutional law, Iran outlook 1404 and its policies and the policies of five-year development plan have moved toward sustainability in thought. Sustainable development concept has been introduced from Iran’ s second development plan. In terms of the sustainability orientation of development plans, the fifth plan is in first priority and then there are forth, second, third and first plan. Thus the trend has been almost growing, Based on the calculated weights, the importance of various dimension of sustainability has been not the same and in comparison with economic and social dimensions, the environmental dimension has been less important. So the sustainability has not been accepted as an agricultural development paradigm.

The purpose of this survey research was to design entrepreneurial self-efficacy development model based on experiential learning in Iranian Agricultural Higher Education System. The statistical population of the study consisted of 20518 graduate students of Iranian agricultural colleges out of which 380 students selected as sample, using Cochran formula and proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected by applying a questionnaire developed for the study and were analyzed using SPSSwin/v. 19 and LISREL/v8. 5. Validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of experts and construct validity using AVE Index. In order to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach Alpha coefficient and composite reliability (CR) were calculated. The results showed that, in Iranian higher agricultural education system, teacher’ s characteristics influences student’ s practical and experiential skills and personal and interpersonal skills; student’ s characteristics influences their technical skills related to career success and organizational factors influences student’ s practical and experiential skills, technical skills related to career success, personal and interpersonal skill and analytical skills. Also, practical and experiential skills and technical skills related to career success influences entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The aim of the study was to investigate consumers’ purchasing behavior toward reducing agricultural wastes. The research was a descriptive-correlation study, which it was done by a survey method. The research population was consumers of Agricultural products in Tehran city. Sample size was determine by Kerjice and Morgan table (n= 384). The proportional stratified random sampling method used for data selection. Data was collected through a questionnaire, developed by researcher. Validity of the instrument was confirmed by a panel of Experts and its reliability was conducted by a Pilot test and Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient (0/76-0/82) for different parts of questionnaire, which showed good reliability of the instrument. The results showed that there was significant relationship between income, cultural characteristics, social characteristics and psychological characteristics of consumers and their behavior on reducing agricultural waste.

Biofuel energy has various benefits for rural area particularly in developing countries. As education and communication could be an important catalyst for biofuel adoption, the role of agricultural professionals and experts is very important in this regard. Since agriculture professionals and experts are an important source of information for farmers regarding adoption and innovation. They can facilitate the adoption of innovations or they can limit their diffusion. The aim of this study is to provide much needed empirical data about the perceptions of Iranian agricultural professionals in Khuzestan province toward biofuels. It will provide a knowledge base for the development of public policy measures that aim ultimately to increase biofuel adoption among Iranian farmers. Sample of the research was selected based on quota stratified random sampling (n= 288). Findings revealed that, attitude and moral norm directly influenced intention toward extension and development of biofuel. While perceived benefits and perception of innovation indirectly influenced it. The results also showed that, perceived benefits, perception of innovation, fairness, attitude and moral norms variables in a total of explain 37% of experts’ intention toward extension and development of biofuel.

Conservative agriculture (CA) development is a new paradigm to achieve sustainable agricultural production, needs process model to explain the development phases step by setp. The aim of this study was to design a process model for CA development in Iran by using interpretive structural modeling. The statistical population of the study was the members of technical committees and research institutes and extension and education of conservation agriculture in nine leader provinces in conservative agriculture. 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted with CA experts. The main steps of CA development were identified by using content analysis with the help of ATLAS. ti software. Then, the interrelationships among the identified steps have been investigated by using the interpretive structural modeling technique and a process model of steps to CA development at national and local level. The analysis revealed that CA development process at national level should start with the analysis of current CA situation, and end with mobilizing and allocating of resources and budget and designing of institutional structure. Process model at the national level creats an appropriate institutional and policy environment to manage CA development at the local level to achieve the ultimate goal of the wide scale adoption and dissemination of CA technology.

A large number of farmers exposed to pesticides in a long time and consequently, acute and chronic health problems created for them. Therefore, to avoid the negative effects on farmers' health, serious attention must be paid to the adoption of protective measures by farmers. The Health Belief Model is one of the most functional model of behavior for the prevention and control of diseases. Therefore, this study carried out to assess constructs of the health belief model in adopting protective behaviors of farmers in use of pesticides. The population of the study consisted of farmers in Khoram Abad Township. According to Krejcie & Morgan table, the sample size was determined 375 farmers. A questionnaire used to collect data. To analyze the data structural equation modeling used, applying AMOS24. The results showed that knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers and self-efficacy effected protective behaviors of farmers in the use of pesticides. Perceived barriers and awareness had the most direct effect on adopt protective behaviors of farmers. So, it is recommended to plann based on the health belief model with emphasis on reducing barriers and increasing knowledge, to improve protective behaviors of farmers.

Water scarcity is a familiar concept in today’ s literature of rural development. It is necessary to address this issue in agricultural sector as a large user of water. One of the paths for addressing this issue is improving farmers’ attitudes towards water conservation. For this purpose, needs assessment could be applied. The aim of this study was to analyze farmers’ attitudes towards water conservation by application of needs assessment using Maslow’ s theory. This study as a descriptive research has been conducted using survey techniques. Statistical population of this study consisted of farmers of Kavar township (N=13187). Applying Cluster sampling method 383 farmers was selected as sample. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Its face validity was confirmed by professors of social psychology and agricultural extension and its reliability was measured by calculating Cronbach's alpha (0. 69 ≤ α ≤ 0. 97). The results showed that safety and physiological needs as the most important factors had a negative and significant effect on farmers’ attitudes towards water conservation. Social needs and esteem needs were the other factors influencing dependent variable. Based on the results, the solutions for water conservation that are consistent with the needs of farmers can be proposed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of educational factors on academic burnout of agricultural engineering students. The statistical population included 6352 agriculture students at Public Universities of Iran. In this study, multi-stage sampling was used. The number of students at selected Universities was 6352, and according to Cochran Formula, 247 students were selected. Academic burnout questionnaire (revised by Bresó et al. ) and researcher-made questionnaire were used for data collection. After confirming the reliability and validity of questionnaire and information gathering, data was analyzed by SPSS software. The findings showed that there were significant differences among students regarding the dimensions of academic burnout (by gender and residence). There were negative and significant correlations between educational factors and the dimensions of academic burnout, which said with the increase of students' satisfaction toward each educational factor, students' academic burnout decrease. Finally, according to regression coefficients, educational content has the most effect on academic exhaustion and academic uninterested and teaching method has the most effect on academic inefficacy. Updating agricultural education programs was among suggestions of this study.

One characteristics of gricultural sector of Iran is the number of small-scale family farming, that the most important activity of these systems is production of crops. The sustainability of these sectors is related to the sustainability of agricultural sector and the rural community. Since the indicators are the main tool for measuring sustainability and key criteria for programming and evaluating of sustainable agricultural development projects, identifying appropriate indicators for measuring the economic and social sustainability of small-scale family farming is necessary. In this exploratory and evaluation study, Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) was used. The statistical population consisted of experts from universities, research institutes and executive agencies of the country, of which 15 experts were selected by purposeful sampling. The research tool was a semi-structured questionnaire in the first round and a structured questionnaire in the second and third rounds of data collection, and the conversion of verbal phrases to fuzzy numbers was done using common fuzzy spectra. The results showed that among 36 economic indicators and 51 social indicators, respectively 11 and 14 indicators were more approperiate for measuring the sustainability of small-scale family farming. They can be used in studies, as well as policy-making and planning related this system.