JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH
Year:2012 | Volume:4 | Issue:2 (14)|Papers Count:11

Over-all picture of agricultural water-use and trade patterns in MENA countries facing increasing water shortage indicate that in many countries irrigation water used in the production process does not reflect the relative scarcity of their internal resources. However, agricultural water use and trade patterns in a number of these countries indicate that, there is a tendency to re-allocate irrigation water from water-intensive to high valued and less water demanding crops. Comparative analysis of agricultural water-use and demand management indicate that, despite the importance of changing "Supply management" to "demand management" Paradigm, such change does not appear to reflect in the agricultural water use and trade patterns of Iran and some other countries.

Rice commodity basket involves different qualitative varieties in a way that establishing proper policies and programs for controlling and adjusting price in market is very difficult. According to qualitative difference of rice varieties, using different qualitative basket and price leader variety in market could be considered as two original solutions for adjusting rice market. For acquiring proper strategy in rice market adjustment on the basis of price relationship, present study investigated price relationship among seven main rice varieties' price system include Sadri Momtaz, Sadri Daraje Yek, Sadri Mamoli, Binam, Tarom, Khazar and Neda during 1999 though 2009 using monthly time series data. Results of stationary ADF and KPSS tests showed that all of seven time series were I (1). Using co-integration test, long run relationship among mentioned time series were investigated. Bivariate co-integration test results revealed that Sadri Momtaz time series was independent from other system variables and should be omitted from the system. Finally, using adjustment matrix elements and weakly exogenous test, it was revealed that Sadri Daraje Yek, Khazar and Neda playing the role of price leadership in rice market. Existing weakly exogenous characteristic for Sadri Daraje Yek, Khazar and Neda varieties showed that these varieties were motive elements in process of determining price of other rice varieties. So, concentrating and basing adjustment market programs on price leadership varieties could result immediate, efficient and effective control of prices in rice market.

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the trade impact on pollution emission. Data for selected developing countries including Iran was applied as pooled dataset for period of 1990-2008. For comparison Carbone-dioxide was used as pollution emission index. Findings showed that increase in capital would not result increase in pollution emission. But pollution emission increased as a result of increase in trade level. In addition, increase in trade is expected to raise income. The emission elasticity with respect to trade showed that increase in trade by 10 percent would cause pollution to increase by 2.2 percent in selected developing countries in the long run.

The place of water sector in Kerman province development was investigated from different economic views. For this purpose, input output technique was used and various aspects of subject were studied at regional and macro levels. The results showed that water sector acts as growth engine and would cause other sectors especially agricultural sector to develop. One unit of investment (one million Rials) would cause employment to increase by 0.043 units. Also estimation of linkages showed that water sector stands in fourth and fifth place in backward and forward linkages, respectively. Ratio of water consumption to added and output values in agricultural sector showed that one unit of water (one million Rls.) would create 170.4 and 242.1 units of added value and output value in agricultural sector, respectively. The results also showed that water distribution was not optimal among various sectors in the province.

Globalization has caused foreign trade to expand among countries in recent decades. In this paper, the impact of globalization has been studied on various sectors of Iranian economy. To estimate export supply and import demand functions, Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) was utilized. Finding of the study showed that as a result of membership of Iran in WTO, import would increase in all sectors at different rate. Imports in industrial sector were highest and agricultural imports accounted for the lowest. Export situation in various sectors was not satisfactory. This indicated that the competitiveness of whole economy was low in international market while agriculture compare to other sectors was in better position.

This paper aims to determine linkages among various sectors of Iranian economy and particularly the key activities of the agricultural sector by using 1997 input-output table. The results showed that livestock was the key activity in the agricultural sector. Also, food processing with forward and backward indices of bigger than one was another key activity. On this basis, in the process of development of agricultural sector, emphasis should be made on these two mentioned subsectors. Strong forward linkage of agricultural sector indicated that development of agricultural sector had positive effect on development of other sectors. On the other hand, macroeconomic policies would affect agricultural sector and therefore, risk in the agricultural sector would increase and a proper coverage through development of effective agricultural insurance program was recommended.

Excessive extraction of groundwater causes water quantity and quality to decrease. Parishan is one of the plains in Fars province that recently suffered from excess extraction of groundwater resources. This paper objectives were to determine the amount of groundwater extraction around Parishan Lake and to find out mutual relationship between groundwater table and water level of Parishan Lake by Granger Causality Test. The results of Granger Causality Test showed mutual causality between water level of lake and groundwater table. Increase in extraction from agricultural wells caused fall in groundwater table and decrease in lake level at the same time. On the other hand, decrease in water lake level causes fall in groundwater table due to decrease in penetration. Finally, some recommendations are made to improve the situation.

The objective of this paper is to determine and rank townships in Khuzestan province in terms of agricultural development. For this purpose, Scalogram analysis method and 35 development indicators were utilized. The results showed that there was a large gap among province townships from viewpoint of agricultural development. In this regard, Ahvaz and Dezful were in the highest and Hendijan and Omidieh were in the lowest place. In addition, by using Geographic Information System (GIS) software, ranking of province townships for spatial analysis of agricultural development situation, has been shown.

Today increasing productivity is the most and effective ways to achieve economic growth. The purpose of this study is to analyze factors affecting labor productivity in producing major crops in central region of Mamasani Township in Fars province, Iran. Data were collected by filling up questioners through interviews with a sample of 358 farmers from 24 villages in Mamasani Township in farming year of 1386-1387 (2007-2008) who were selected by stratified random sampling. Factors that affected labor productivity were ages, experience, sex, level of education, farm size, participating in training extension programs, number of visits with extension men and access to credit. The analysis was done by using a multiple regression model. The results indicated that the level of education (primary school), farm size, degree of mechanization, membership in cooperatives, participating in extension programs, visiting of farm by extension men and village location had positive effect on labor productivity. Variables such as level of education of high school Diploma, experience, ratio of amount of loan to current costs had negative significant effect on labor productivity. The results of this research suggested that enlargement of farm size, increasing level of mechanization, extension and training program and farm visits by extension men should be encouraged and facilitated by the authorities and policy makers.

Meat is an important source of animal protein in Iranian diet. Therefore, accurate estimate of meat demand for future, could lead to more realistic planning of import. This paper aims to evaluate two common methods which applied in forecasting economic variables, namely ARIMA and ARIMAX to predict red meat demand using quarterly data over period of 1988-2005. Results showed better performance of ARIMAX method based on conventional criteria.