Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2002 | Volume:10 | Issue:1 (37)|Papers Count:16

Sicentific knowledge has developed new and efficient technologies to serve agricultural productivity and development in the last five decades. In the meantime application of new technologies have has undesirable consequences for environment and soci-economic life of rural people. The emerging environmental issues is a major growing concerns of scientists. Several alternatives have been introduced to tackle the issue, including application of indigenous knowledge in the process of resource management and agricultural development planning.This paper describe and compares these two kinds of knowledge and argues that, regardless of their differences, there is no contradiction between scientific knowledge and indigenous knowledge, and that they should be combined to serve an appropreate knowledge for sustainable agricultural development. The integration of their methodology and scope will help avoide any undesirable technology through local people participation and their views, needs and knowledge in the process of change. In order to merge these two categories of knowledge, we need to address four major confronting issues as follows:- changing academicians attitude toward the importance of local people and their knowledge in the process of change and development.- reforming learning process and higher education systems on related courses to recognise indigenous knowledge as a source of wisdom.- reforming research methodology and process to recognise indigenous knowledge through qualitative and participatory methods and techniques.- developing new knowledge and information system to establish mutual communication systems among local people.

The present study aimed to estimate the technical efficiencies as well as optimum feed rations in calve feedlot operator units and to determing the socio-economic factors influencing these indicators.Data was collected using a two - stage cluster sampling method from fifty units at the vicinity of Shiraz city, Fars province. Transcendental production function and stochastic frontier function were used to the sample units. The optimum feed rations were determined through linear programming.The results showed that the sample units did not use two inputs namely waged laborers and anticeptics in an economic way. The study attested to a considerable potential for improving technical efficiency and decreasing the cost of feeds in the sample units.

In the recent decades, the policy of intervention in pricing of agricultural products has been common whithin most developing countries. Such policies include a vast variety intervention which directly and indirectly influence the prices of agricultural products and inputs.One of the most important policies includes the control of producer/ consumer prices, and/or taxation as well as subsidization of one or more product(s) or input(s).In Iran, too, many of the agricultural and animal products have been influenced by such interventions, one of which include chicken meat. These interventions have mainly been applied through controlling lower-rate exchange for importing the relevant inputs.The article discusses the impacts of the policies using the criteria such as:"nominal rate of protection", and "effective rate of protection" from 1982 to 1999.The results show that the effects of government price intervention on the value added of poultry industry has been positive. In addition, the change in the direction of pricing policies in 1990, had in fact been a practical step towards protection of the production.

The people and the government of Iran pursue self-sufficiency in agricultural products as an overriding goal. This is particularly felt in the case of staples such as wheat, which is an obvious area of prority for the nation.The present paper reports on a study of the economic challenges ahead of wheat, flour and bread market.The fiding showed that the national protection rate was negative during the period under study, which means there was an implicit tax on wheat producers.The guaranteed price of the crop was set at a rate lower than the world price index during 1990-91. Also the rate of post-harvest losses was quite high.The study concluded that by making subsidies on flour target-oriented and liberalization of the wheat marker in a five-year period, the rate of self-sufficiency in wheat will surge. The study also recommended a number of projects to support the national wheat self-sufficiency program.

To meet the food requirement of the growing population, there is a constant need to increase agricultural production, which may occur through increasing the area under cultivation and improving the yields. The first way is argued to be limited particularly in the long run, due to limitations such as the scarcity of land, water and other resources. The most feasible strategy is, therefore, improving the productivity of inputs.The present study aimed to measure the productivity of the main production factors in order. to find the best ways for resource allocation. Data was collected through questionnaire interviews with 95 sugar beet producers in Hamedan. The polynominal function method was used to evaluate the productivity of major inputs in different production unitsThe results showed that the number of irrigation water applications was close to, and the use of manure and manpower were higher than the optimum.Also about 67.1% of the sample farmers ranked at the third level of the production function and, farmers with larger farm holdings made a more optimum use of the inputs compared to small farmers. The only input used by large farmers in excess of the optimum level being chemical fertilizer (P), with a negative marginal productivity in 67.7% of the sample population.

The present paper first explains the theoretical and historical background of the "terms of trade", including various definitions and measurement approaches. Then it measures, compares and analyses the terms of trade of the selected agricultural commodities in Iran and the world in the last few decades. It presents the findings of surveys and empirical evidences on the short term and long term changes in the terms of trade of agricultural inputs and commodities in one hand, and manufactured goods from the other.The international part of the study covered 20 agricultural commodities in the world market through 1968-1997 and their net barter terms of trade as compared to industrial goods. The national part included the net barter and income terms of trade of 15 domestic agricultural commodities through 1976-1998.

The status of tractors operation was studied in Kerman province using information on the area under cultivation, number and type of tractors available, and working hours per different practices. The information was collected through farmer interviews and reference to statistical documents. The study included the calculation of "per hectare horse power index", "mechanization level", "internal rate of return" and "net present value" of capital investment in purchasing and operating two main tractor types, namely "Massy Ferguson" and "Universal (Roumany)" in 2000.The results showed that, in the region under study, the rate of return for "Massy Ferguson" and "Universal" were, respectively, 27% and 84%. Also an analysis of operation costs showed that the costs of spare. parts and repair in the above tractors were, respectively, 108% and 94% higher than the standards. The costs of fuel, oil and grease were, in average, 13% higher than the standards. The level of mechanization in the region under study was assessed at 0.37, the per hectare horsepower index being 1.24.

Water is a main limitation to economic development in Iran, like many other arid and semi-arid countries. Also water pollution and mans manipulations in water cycle in the nature contribute to an imbalanced situation of water supply and demand. The changing economy of natural resources and the introduction of new approaches to resource management have lead to wider incoropation of social and economic considerations in water supply and planning and management. A need to higher attention to demand management, however, is particularly felt more than ever. The present study aimed to estimate the cost price of irrigation water at the point of reservoir dams in Azarbaijan Gharbi province in 1998/99 Through the engineering economic approach. The findings showed that the real price of water is much higher than that applied by water authorities. Making the currently applied prices requires fundamental changes in structures and systems of water supply and demand. The mentality behind such changes should be toward promoting water to a commodity with economic value from a free input as it is considered by many at the present.

Lessons learnt from failures in forest management programs and the continued trend of deforestation in a number of Asian countries reiterate the need to reform the existing forest management systems. A prerequisite to this is a higher level of attention to the social aspects of forest management. The present paper, based on a research conducted in the northern forests of Iran, recommends a number of social policies to be incorporated to forest management system. Two strategies, namely "coexistence" and "resettlement", based on participatory approaches, were recommended to reduce the rate of forest overexploitation, and to improve the standards of living in rural areas. The first strategy addresses the total forest system, and the second one deals with households living in very small villages (with less than five households) as well as the people who work in the city but are settled in the forests.

Agriculture continues to be the largest consumer of water in the world.While irrigation water is increasingly becoming a scarce input, farmers have to also compete with other uses such as industry and households. Traditional gravity irrigation is by and large inefficient in using water. Therefore, there is a raising demand by agriculturalists to modern irrigation technology. In Iran, the ministry of Jihad-e Agriculture has allocated considerable funds to promote the use of sprinkler irrigation systems.It is argued that sprinkler irrigation can improve water use efficiency by 70-80%. It must be emphasize, however, that the efficiency of an introduced technology such as sprinkler irrigation depends on a number of considerations.-eg. the way it is used and the nature of problems farmers face under the new environment beside technical factors.The present research aimed to determine the problems and obstacles facing farmers who has adopted sprinkler irrigation technology. It used qualitative research techniques to collect data from farmers in four provinces of Iran. In-depth interviews were conducted with 124 sample farmers who had adopted the technology. They were selected based on random sampling method in each province.The results showed that there were totally 18 problems, classified into technical, information and economic categories, each of which may contribute to failure or inefficient use of sprinkler irrigation system. The study presented a number of recommendations to improve the design and implementation of sprinkler irrigation system.

Instructors are a core clement of higher agricultural education system.Many of the problems facing this system in Iran, root in the fact that the specialization of teaching in agriculture is not dealt with adequately in the process of specifying job requirements. Also we may refer to poor designing, implementation and evaluation of on-the job training courses for agricultural instructors. These two main problems, in turn, go back to the lack of an appropriate and comprehensive model of agricultural instructors professional competencies. Having the development of such a model as its broad objective, the present research aimed to I) identity the terms of learning of professional competencies, and 2)identity the situation triple domains of professional competencies (knowledge, attitude and psychomotor). The research was theoretically based on the model developed by Phipps (1972) and Cushman (1982) and it included four dimensions concerning instructional, scientific professional, and management-organization-curriculum planning.Totally 64 senior agricultural instructors were selected using random cluster sampling method. They were then interviewed using a questionnaire, whose validity was confirmed by eight education experts, and its reliability by Cronbachs alpha coefficient. The independent variable included individual and professional characteristics of instructors. The main findings of the research were as below:- Out of the total 105 competencies for agreement assessment and factors importance, 87 were agreed for instructors: instruction/teaching 46, scientific/ professiona 17, management/organization 17, and curriculum planning 17; - the priority of professional dimensions were instruction/teaching, curriculum planning, scientific/professional, and management/organizational; -the different dimensions of professional competencies ranked the same in terms of their importance in instructors performance and, - the most appropriate level for transferring professional competencies was during academic education and early on the job training.

Investment in research plays a major role in the world today. Developed countries try to increase investments in research in order to stabilize their position in the worlds competitive economy. And the developing countries do so to attain an adequate level of development to solve their economic and social problems. Investment in agriculture and natural resources is particularly important as this sector plays a key role in overcoming many of the problems raised from population growth, poverty and environmental crisis.The present article reviews and compares the research funds in Iran and selected countries, including a comparison of agricultural research funds and the funds allocated to academic research programs in Iran and the similar public (not priviate) investments in selected countries.