JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH
Year:2014 | Volume:5 | Issue:4 (20)|Papers Count:12

in present study, in order to investigate the effects of technology and mechanization on agricultural production in Qazvin province, first trend of using fertilizer, pesticides and mechanization during the period of 2001-2011 was reviewed. Then, by using regression analysis, impact of technology and mechanization on yields of major products in Qazvin province was investigated. Later, through entering the results of the regression analysis in Positive Mathematical Programming model (PMP), effects of 10 percent increase in fertilizer, 15 percent decrease in pesticides and 20 percent increase in machine work-hours on yields and farmers’ gross margin were determined. Results showed that mechanization had positive effect on yields of major crops. Under the scenario, wheat and barley acreage decreased by 3.5 and 1.6 percent respectively compare to the base year while acreage of the other products increased from 2.5 percent for corn to 12.8 percent for sugar beet. Also farmers' gross margin in above scenario increased by 29.7 percent compared to the base year. Finally, government support through extending loans to farmers for purchasing machinery was recommended.

Due to increase in demand for wood products and limited domestic sources, wood and wood products import is one of the easiest and most common practices in the international market. Therefore, recognizing factors affecting wood import is important. In this study after collecting data on wood and wood products import, effects of factors such as tariff rate, exchange rate, relative prices, and the amount of harvested wood from the domestic forests and GDP on wood import were investigated with ARDL approach and bound test in 1982-2011 periods. The results of the study showed that in short-term and long-term, GDP, harvested domestic wood, tariff rates, and exchange rate and relative prices had a significant effect on wood import. In the long term, tariff on imported wood had a greater effect compare to other variables. In the short and long-run price elasticity of demand for wood import was elastic. ECM estimated coefficient for wood import demand was statistically significant and represented high rate of adjustment. Therefore, it is suggested that decision and policy making in this sector most consider this relationships so as to achieve desired result.

Increasing the export of agricultural products in Iran is an essential act in order to abandon one dimensional export in Iran. It is important to note fig export among other dried fruits. Then it is significant to consider exchange rate and its fluctuation on agricultural exports. This essay investigates the long and short term transitional effect of exchange rate on export price of fig in Fars during 1351-1390. To do so self-regression patterns by broad interval (ARDL) are used. And information and statistics of FAO and central bank are analyzed by Microfit4 software. The results show that, long term variations in exchange rate are the most important factor of the export price of fig. According to these results I suggest that central bank employ money politics in order to abandon exchange rate fluctuations.

Increasing food production networks and the diversity of producers and various methods of food supply and existence of various uncertainties such as uncertainty of inputs supply, market demand and prices have brought about complexity in supply chain management for processed food. Present study aims to investigate production planning problems for tomato processing industry in northern Khorasan. To describe the supply chain of industry and present a model for uncertain tomato supply, multistage stochastic linear programming model and decomposition algorithm were used to determine optimal sale policy. Therefore, optimal levels of production, sale and inventory levels were determined at different periods of production. Based on findings of the study, it is recommended that managers in the industry should pay more attention to supply uncertainty of the primary inputs in production planning to avoid decreasing sales and their shares in the market.

This study investigates factors affecting of farmers' willingness to land use changes in Mazandaran province. For this purpose, Tonekabon, Chalous, Noshahr, Mahmoudabad townships and Sari city which had the most land use changes in the province were selected. Required data gathered from a sample of 150 farmers in rural areas of mentioned regions and logit regression model was used to determine factors affecting willingness to change land use. The results showed that increase in price of land was the most important factor and this caused farmers to sell their land for housing construction to get higher income. Also, there was a positive relationship between age, non-agricultural employment, total cost of production and willingness to change land use and increase in farming experience, farm size, rent and agricultural income led to decrease in land use changes. Based on the results, implementing of policies such as reduction of agricultural input cost, increase in rice price parallel to inflation rate, extending low-interest and long-term loans to low-income farmers and land consolidation are recommended.

The objective of this study is to determine food industry companies’ stocks optimal portfolio in Tehran stock market in value at risk framework using parametric and nonparametric approaches. For this purpose using weekly prices, value at risk of food stocks of selected companies during 2008-2011 periods calculated. Then, with expected return (mean return) and value at risk quantities, border between efficient investment and optimal portfolio was obtained. The results showed that there was not significant difference between optimal portfolio obtained in parametric and nonparametric approaches.

Considering the importance of horticultural subsector in the Iranian economy with its share in production and comparative advantage, this paper aims to asses the impact of producer support policies using producer support estimate (PSE) method with emphasis on variables such as income risk and production costs. PSE was calculated for selected horticultural products (Pistachios, dates, apples and citrus) for 1989-2010 periods. The effect of PSE on the income risk was estimated using standard coefficient of variation of Cady and Della Valle (CCV). The results showed that government support policies reduced income risk by 52.5, 0, 11.5, and 31.06 percent for date, pistachio, apple and citrus respectively. The effect of supporting policies on production cost was estimated using production cost function showed that production cost of date, pistachio, apple and citrus declined by 0.4, 0, 0.04 and 0.05 percent respectively.

This study investigates externality costs of groundwater overexploitation to produce pistachio on pistachio market of Iran. Domestic demand functions, export demands and supply of pistachio with and without externality costs of groundwater overexploitation were estimated for the period 1980-2011. Then, the effects of externality costs on key variables of market and welfare were investigated applying mathematical programming model. The results showed that externality costs of groundwater overexploitation to produce pistachio lead to a shift of the supply curve is upward and to the left. Therefore, the amount of current supply of pistachios without considering externality costs is larger than socially efficient level. On the other hand, the market price is lower than the socially efficient price. Accordingly, with considering externality costs the market price variables increased and the amount of domestic demand, export demands and supply decreased. Finally, with considering total externality costs the consumer and producer welfare, export income and total welfare or social welfare decreased. Certainly considering externality costs prevents groundwater overexploitation and the present value of the benefits of this action will increase in the long run.