JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH
Year:2018 | Volume:10 | Issue:2 (38) |Papers Count:12

Animal husbandry, as one of the main subsectors of the agricultural sector agricultural sectors, is heavily dependent on credit and investment. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of agricultural bank credit in the boom of livestock activities in the Ghorqori district of the city of Hirmand. The statistical population of the study consisted of all farmers in the Ghorgori section (N= 135) who received loans from Agricultural Bank of Hirmand in 2013. Using a simple random sampling method, 100 questionnaires were distributed among them. Validity of the questionnaire was calculated using experts' opinions and the reliability of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach's alpha in the range of 0.79-0.95. The results showed that obtaining loan had positive effects on income, production, investment, self-confidence, mechanization and resource management but had no effect on employment and risk aversion. It is suggested that in addition to granting loans, government policies should be set up to direct agricultural credit to increase employment in the subsector.

The agricultural sector is one of the most important economic sectors in Iran with about nine percent share of GDP and the major share of non-oil exports.. The share of farm and horticulture subsectors in the value added agriculture is 66.4 percent. Thus, the growth of these sub-sectors plays a decisive role in the growth of the agricultural sector. In this study, the sources of growth of crop production and horticulture subsectors using vector error correction model and annual time series data have been investigated. The results show that the effect of agricultural research and development expenditures on crop production and horticulture sub-sectors is positive and significant. Also agricultural employment coefficient is elastic in the long run. Finally, it is recommended that more expenditure allocated to agricultural research while present research policies should revised to increase efficiency.

According to theoretical and empirical studies, the changes in government expenditures may have a direct effect on the efficiency of various economic sectors, including the agricultural sector. Therefore, in this study we use the bounds test method and Granger causality test to investigate the effect of current and development expenditures on total factor productivity of Iran agricultural sector using annual data over the period of 1967-2010. The results of long-run estimates indicate a negative and significant impact of current government expenditure on total factor productivity of the agricultural sector of Iran. In general, the results of error correction model suggest that the government's current and development expenditures do not have a significant effect on total factor productivity of the agricultural sector in the short run. Granger causality test results indicate a causal long-run relationship from government current and development expenditures to total factor productivity growth in the agricultural sector. According to the estimates, in the long-run, the variables of development expenditures, mechanization and export of agriculture sector have positive and significant effect on total factor productivity of agriculture. Therefore, in order to increase total factor productivity of the agricultural sector, it is suggested that the government increases the share of development funds and the share of agricultural sector's funds from his development budget and supports the development of agricultural exports and promoting agricultural mechanization.

The aim of this paper is to estimate and analyze the technical efficiency of bone fishing cooperatives operating in the Caspian Sea and in particular the Mazandaran province. For this purpose, 110 questionnaires were completed in 12 cooperatives in the province and the DEA is used in order to achieve the research objectives. The results showed that only 16.7 percent of the cooperatives are technically efficient. Therefore, it is suggested that information of reference cooperatives which have higher efficiency to be presented in the form of regular programs to inefficient cooperatives to improve their efficiency.

Economic valuation of environmental resources that in addition of turism application, having historical value, is a great part of economic studies. Economic valuation is necessary for non-market services and environmental resources. The main purpose of this study is estimating the recreation value of Ganjnameh tourist zone located in Hamedan province by using individual travel cost method on the basis of household production function. Needed data were gathered by completing of queationaires and interviewing with 160 visitors of the Ganjnameh zone at 2014. The results showed that the variables of travel time, distance and costs of travel were effective factors on production of recreation cost and recreation marginal cost. With the assumption of competitive conditions recreation value was 2876702 Rials per day (shadow price of recreation). Also, the results showed that demand for recreation had negative relationship with the shadow price of recreation and positive relationship with visitor monthly income. Furthermore, visitor’s willingness to pay (WTP) in Ganjname tourist zone had significant and positive relationship with quality of the environment, education level, age and marriage status of visitor. So, increasing environmental quality and preparing facilities in Ganjnameh by private sector investing would increase environmental and recreation value of Ganjnameh zone.

In the present study, the effect of the degree of trade openness of agricultural sector on food security of the country has been investigated in the form of self-regression model with distributions in the period of 1999-2013. The results of the study indicate that the degree of openness of agricultural trade on the country's food security index is positive. Accordingly, for one percent increase in the degree of openness of agricultural trade, the index of food security would increase by 0.21 percent in the long run. Therefore, policies to increase production by using the appropriate technology for export in order to reduce production costs and increase the quality and productivity are recommnded. Also, increasing incentives to private sector investment and expansion of agricultural insurance to reduce risk and uncertainty and encourage farmers to produce quality products is inevitable.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of working capital on liquidity and profitability of food industry companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange. The study community consisted of all food industry companies listed in Tehran stock exchange during 2009-2013 which were studied using panel data. This research used the variables of current ratio, current assets to current liabilities ratio, current assets to total assets ratio, current liabilities to total assets ratio and debt to total assets ratio as working capital index. Empirical results showed there is positive relationship between current assets to current liabilities Ratio, but there is negative relationship between current liabilities to total assets ratio and debt to total assets ratio with profitability. Also there is not any statistically significant between current assets to total assets ratio and profitability. The relationship between the components of working capital management with liquidity showed that there is negative relationship between current assets to current liabilities ratio with liquidity. On the other hand, there is positive relationship between current assets to total assets ratio with liquidity. Furthermore, there is not any statistically significant between current assets to current liabilities ratio and debt to total assets ratio with liquidity.

Reform of pricing system based on the economic value of water in agriculture is one of the most efficient tools of demand management which leads to set the pattern of water used. The aim of this study is the to determine the economic value of agricultural water using production function approach for sorghum in Sistan area in 2015. To determine the economic value of water, flexible and inflexible functions were used. Based on the results, a Cobb-Douglas function was selected to estimate water demand. The price elasticity of derived demand water was 2.25 which showed that price policy could be an important factor in the control of non-optimum use of water. Final production efficiency was 0.3 and economic value of water was 450 Rials per cubic meter of water which was 44.5 percent less than current water charges. Therefore, it was suggested that by gradually eliminating the difference in prices, the value of water would be closer to its price.

The present study aims to determine the effects of  financial market development on value added  of agricultural sector in D-8 nations from 1995 to 2015 using a nonlinear panel method. The results indicate that financial development with a mild speed (3.16), after going past the threshold (16.10) of value domestic product) will depart from the first model to the second model, and this is the factor of nonlinear connection in the model. The impact of this variable in the first model is positive. But after going to the second model, the impact will turn into a negative one. As for the inflation, in the first model, it is positive and meaningless, but in the second model, it is meaningful and negative, especially with regard to agricultural value added. Investment and labor in both models have a positive and meaningful impact on agricultural value added. While in the second model their effect is mitigated. This decrease, with regard to increased inflation due to increased financial expansion past the threshold, is comprehensible and logical. Ergo, according to the results of the shoddy performance of financial markets in earmarking and channeling credits, essential steps such as establishing a competitive atmosphere in the banking system of developing countries, selecting the appropriate loan applicants, earmarking the funds between various sectors of agriculture and other sectors, must be taken. Last but not least, the way for agricultural growth must be paved, because this sector is one of the key sectors in economic development of countries.

In this study, the effects of economic development and urbanization on environmental degradation in Iran were analyzed over the period of 1971- 2012. For this propose, the long and short run relationships between CO2 emission per capita as an environment degradation index and per capita national income, urbanization, energy consumption per capita and trade openness were investigated applying Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The empirical results revealed that the relationship between urbanization and CO2 emission per capita is inverted U-shaped and statistically significant. Also, the impact of national income per capita is positive and statistically significant and a 10 percent increase in national income would increase CO2 emission by 8.5 and 7  percent respectively in long and short run. Moreover, a 10 percent increase in energy consumption is linked with 4.5 and 4 percent growth in CO2 emission in long and short run, respectively. Although the impact of trade openness is positive on CO2 emission and statistically significant in short run, there is not significant impact in long run.