Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2015 | Volume:23 | Issue:89|Papers Count:12

Pistachio is important economically because it is one of the main export products of Iran agricultural sector. So studding the technical efficiency of pistachio producers is very important factor and affecting the increase production and yield. The main objective of this paper is determination of different efficiencies and factors affecting upon technical efficiency for Sirjan pistachio producers as one of the important parts of the country's pistachio production. For this purpose by two-stage cluster sampling method 197 pistachio producers were selected in Sirjan. Data were collected by questionnaire for the years 2009-2010. Then using stochastic frontier analysis method, the average different efficiencies was calculated and factors affecting upon technical efficiency was surveyed. The results showed that the average technical, allocative and economic efficiency of pistachio producers was 71.88, 53.62 and 11.38 percent and there was a direct and significant relation among levels of production and variables of water, fertilizer, pesticide, machinery, labor and area of land under pistachio. The estimation of technical inefficiency showed that there is a negative and significant relation between age and educational levels of farmers with technical inefficiency. So it is suggested that for increasing the efficiency, periods of educational and propagation about optimal use of inputs, application suitable management and more efficient use of technology were executed.

In recent decades due to the water crisis, adopting new policies on water demand management is important. Water is the most important factor in economic development of countries and major limiting factor one of the country, and surface water resources is one of these. This study aimed is evaluation the effect of various policies to reduce consumption and increase water price per cubic meter of water the pattern of cultivation. Data is achieved using 250 questionnaires and Agricultural Organization and the State Water Survey in 2010. Methods used in the study is one of positive mathematical programming corrected using this policy in three techniques: full irrigation, deficit irrigation 5% and deficit irrigation 10 applied to cultivated fields and changes the pattern of using water surface is investigated in the Kerman Province. Applied policies include increased 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 percent in water irrigation prices and reduced 5, 10, 15 and 25 percent in the amount of available irrigation water policies. Results indicate that in irrigation techniques increased and farmer’s response in reduction available water is more than the increase irrigation water price policy.

Import of fruits has increased dramatically in recent years and orange is one of the main imported fruits. This study has evaluated import demand of orange and the structure of import market of Iran with each of the major partner countries, applying Inverse Almost Ideal demand system (IAIDS) and residual demand model respectively, using the seasonal data during the summer of 2005 until winter 2010 and seasonal econometrics modeling. The results indicate that, base on the own elasticity, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and South Africa have low sensitivity to any change in import quantity of orange, whereas Turkey show more sensitivity rather than other countries. The results of cross elasticity show that exporter countries of orange to Iran are weak substitutes for each other and according to the results of residual demand model there is some degrees of monopoly in Iran's orange import market with Egypt, In order to eliminate the monopoly of Egypt exporters at Iran's orange import market, it is possible to increase the market share of other countries.

In this research the relationship between wheat prices and its volatility in a dynamic model for Iran has been studied using daily data during 2009-2011. Therefore, shocks on wheat prices and its effects on prices using GARCH, ARIMA and SVM models were studied. According to the results, price volatility recognized as a reason of wheat price changes. Comparative results show that domestic wheat price volatility is greater than the global price fluctuations. Also, the wheat price volatility in the last period is a factor volatility of the price of wheat at the present. Therefore the appropriate policies to have a dynamic market for agricultural commodities and using derivative instruments like future and option contract can control fluctuations.

Knowledge of the origin of price fluctuations of agricultural products helps producers to achieve a reliable and stable level of income. In this study, we attempted to specify factors affecting corn price fluctuation using classical econometric models and annual data over 1992-2009 period. Results revealed that changes in import volume and world price of corn, price of broiler, and exchange rate fluctuations have significant impacts on the price risk of domestic corn. Fluctuations in exchange rates have negative while fluctuations in the other variables have positive effect on corn price volatility. The largest impact comes from the world price and smallest effect from import volume fluctuations. Accordingly, a one Rial increase (decrease) in the world price of corn relative to its long-run average, results in an increase (decrease) of 0.81 Rial in corn price in the domestic market. In addition, results indicate that the policy of guaranteed price has not been effective in reducing risk in the market price of this commodity. Thus, revise in the setting guaranteed price, and a more developed commodity exchanges mechanism is recommended.

In this study long run relation and short run dynamics between agricultural trade balance and macroeconomic variables in Iran have been examined. For this purpose Johanson cointegration test and vector error correction model were applied. Results showed that agricultural value added, exchange rate, economic openness index and agricultural import tariff have positive and significant impact on agricultural trade balance, whereas per capital disposable income and food whole sale price index have negative and significant impact on agricultural trade balance. Moreover, impulse response function results showed that a shocked in agricultural value added, economic openness index and food whole sale price index have positive influence on agricultural trade balance. Also, variance decomposition results showed that agricultural trade balance, agricultural import tariff, economic openness index and real exchange rate describe major part of changes in agricultural trade balance. Finally, agricultural trade balance might improve if real exchange rate increase and government proved open economic condition.

Large amounts of foods and agricultural productions that produce with consumption of cost, human labor, facilities and time were annually losses as wastage. Reduction of waste has one of the serious government’s policies. The purpose of this study was to identify the components affect on vegetable and summer crop waste reduction, in Hamidiyeh Township of Khuzestan province with emphasis on food security. Research method of this study was survey research. Total population of those who vegetable farmers and summer crop farmers in Hamidiyeh township (N=230), and 132 persons of them were selected randomly by Morgan and Trackman’s table. Based on the results of factorial analysis, factors affecting the reduction of waste were instructed in eight items. The findings, from the perspective of vegetable farmers and summer crop farmers, operating support and training were the most important factor to vegetable and summer crop waste reduction and this more than anything; indicate the government supporting and extensional education role.

An increase in marketing costs raises marketing margin which causes a reduction in marketing efficiency. In this study, in order to analyze the marketing structures of municipal green grocery centers and the groceries nearby, the two functions of marketing margins and marketing efficiency were estimated. The study data was collected through questionnaires from all municipal green grocery centers and some neighboring groceries selected by simple random sampling in the summer 2012. The results showed that, for all products in both municipal green grocery centers and neighboring groceries, marketing margin has a positive relation with retail price, and thus, reduction in marketing cost should be seriously considered. Regarding the vegetable products, expansion of production facilities that are centralized, stable and close to urban consumption centers (radial rings around cities) is the key to reduce marketing cost, and as a result, to improve the efficiency. Regarding the fruit products, improving transportation, market regulation and mediated reduction are the keys for reducing marketing costs and efficiency improvement.The results showed that the averages of the price inefficiency, the technical inefficiency and the total inefficiency are more than 66 and 36 percent for the municipal green grocery centers and groceries, respectively. Applying strategies for more competitive markets reduces marketing costs, and thus, both price and market efficiencies improve. The high level of technical inefficiency reflects the high waste cost relative to the marketing margin. Therefore, in addition to reducing marketing costs, it should be considered to reduce waste materials, using appropriate packaging, refrigeration and suitable transportation systems in the marketing path.

Cotton is one of the main agricultural products that its harvest area and production in Iran shows decreasing rate in recent years. So be aware of productivity change's trend and its elements changes, can be influential in increasing the production of cotton and improving the production factors productivity. So the present study investigated the changes in factors productivity using both parametric and non-parametric approach and cotton production and cost information during 1987-2008. The annual growth of total productivity calculated 1.7 percent for the period using Tornqvist-Theil index. Also estimating results of the cost model, showed that total factor productivity in recent years has grown average annual 1.53 percent that this growth have been mainly due to technological change. Thus for productivity increasing, development of new technologies and techniques in cotton production is recommended.

One of the main subjects in the economic development is increasing the productivity which the effective factors on the increasing of productivity level must be determined for its increasing.Therefore, the purpose of this study is survey of the long run and short run relationship between some main economic variables and productivity of agriculture sector during 1978-2010 using ARDL model. According to the results, real value of total export, change in international reserves, share of oil income in GDP and real exchange rate have a positive effect and inflation rate and external debt have a negative effect on productivity growth of agriculture sector in long run. Also, inflation rate, share of oil income in GDP and real exchange rate have a significant effect on productivity growth of agriculture sector in short run. The sign of variables in short run estimation is similar to long run. The result of CUSUM test was shown the constancy of model coefficients.