Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2002 | Volume:10 | Issue:3 (39)|Papers Count:12

Using the Tornqvist- Theil index formula, the present study attempted to measure and analyze the total factor productivity (TFP) in the Agricultural Bank of Iran. It also attempted to indicate the inappropriateness of partial factor productivity indices in revealing the Bank"s actual performance.The results showed that the aggregate input quantity index grew by 20.08 per annum during 1986-1998. The intermediate financial input index had the. highest (annually 29.68%), and the intermediate physical input index had the lowest (annually 1.34%) growth rate in the period of study. On the other side, the quantity index of outputs revealed an annual growth rate of 34.65%. The considerable surpass of output growth rate that of over input resulted in a 14.57% growth rate in TFP in the period of study. This was indicative of an improvement in the performance of Agricultural Bank during 1986-1998. Finally, a comparison of the growth rate of partial factor productivity, namely labor productivity; physical input productivity; capital input productivity and intermediate financial productivity to that of the TFP indicated that the first two indices overstated the actual growth rate of TFP, while the second two understated it.

Considering the importance of sugar beet as a raw material for sugar production, the protective price policies of he government was analyzed. The supply" function of sugar beet was calculated and the nominal protection rate (NPR) was incorporated into the model as a variable.The results revealed that the NPR was negative in the period under study. The correlation coefficient between sugar beet production and NPR equaled 0.19, indicating that sugar beet production would increase in response to government protection policy. In addition, the results of the supply function estimation revealed that there was a positive relationship between domestic production, real price and temporal trend. Finally, the paper provides a number of recommendations to remedy the situation.

Many studies show that farmers in developing countries are profit maximizer within the technological constraints they face.Very powerful arguments have emerged in applied econometrics with the development of the duality theory to study the interactions between production, profit and cost functions. A profit (or cost) function relates maximized profit (or minimized costs) to prices of outputs and inputs, such as fixed inputs and agro-climatic and social variables. The parameters of a profit function contain all the information about the underlying production function.The present paper provides an estimation of profits, inputs and demand and supply of irrigated and rain fed wheat for Iran, using Iterative Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (ISUR) method. Using Translog Profit Function, the profits, inputs demands, and supply were estimated jointly. Finally, own and cross price elasticities of input demands and supply were calculated.

Agricultural export has an important role as a source of foreign currency income from non-oil exports. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on factors influencing the supply of agricultural products for export.The present study examined these factors using time series analysis and co-integration technique over the period of 1962-99. The empirical results showed that the GDP, relative export prices, and domestic demand have a significant influence on the supply of agricultural commodities for export.It was also found out that effective exchange rate did not have a market impact on the supply of agricultural products. This might indicate that the exchange rate policies meant to promote agricultural export were not logical.

Pistachio is one of the most important commodities in Iranian non-oil exports. According to the present study, Iran"s  share in the world pistachio market has been diminishing in the recent years. The present paper reviews the factors influencing the share of Iran in world pistachio market, using an econometrics model and time series data covering the period of 1974-98. The results indicated that the nation"s share in the world production, the GDP of importer countries, the distortion of exchange rate from the equilibrium, trade policies, trade bias coefficient and the relative price of pistachio in the consumption market were the main factors influencing Iran"s share in the world pistachio market.

Like other renewable natural resources, forest and range play a crucial role in man"s survival on the earth and in the sustainability of the environment. With an area of about 565,000 ha, the forests of Gilan province yield 1.43 cubic meters per hectare annually. The present study examined the optimum utilization of main species, namely rush, horn bean, acorn and common alder, using MOTAD (Minimization of Total Absolute Deviation) method, where the risk-associated expected income was compared to post-harvest substitution. Data was taken ITorn forestry agencies for the period of 1993-98. Totally 20 MOTAD programs were run.The results showed that whenever the expected income reached 900 billion rials, all four species were utilized. As the expected income increased, however, less acorn and common alder were planted.

Livestock farmers are facing various risks, two major ones being production risks and market risks. Production risk, which was the subject of the present study, goes back to various diseases and unexpected events. The study calculated the share of each factor in the risks during 1997, 1998, and 1999 in the area under study. The relationship between risk, risk aversion, and the tendency of livestock farmers to insure their stock, and the number livestock, farmer"s age and literacy level, credits, and the share of livestock production in the farmer"s livelihood were studied.The results showed that diseases accounted for 78% of the production risks. It was also found out that the risk coefficient for the farmers was 16.5% higher in 1999 as compared to that in 1997. In addition, the number of livestock as an  independent variable had a statistically significant relationship with variables of risk aversion and farmer" tendency to insure their farms. Also, the above independent variables had statistically significant relationship with credits received from the banks. Livestock farmers whose livelihoods relied solely on livestock were proven to be more risk averting as compared to other farmers under study.

The study was undertaken in Fars province, focusing on the efficiency of marketing in Shahani date variety. The marketing margin function was estimated using Mark-up model. Then the status of export, and the problems facing the date exporters, was studied. Data was collected using "two sources: statistics published by the relevant sources, and field "surveys of retailers arid exporters using systematic random sampling during 1999-2000.The results showed that the Shahani variety date costs of marketing was570 Rials per kg, 270 Rials of which was the wholesale margin and the rest retail margin. The results also showed that 16.36% and 18.18%, respectively, of the retail margin goes to wholesalers and retailers.The study on marketing efficiency showed that the price inefficiency in the marketing route of Shahani date was high, so that the maximum price inefficiency equaled 1 (in the route of producers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers), and the minimum 0.27 (in the route of producers and consumers).Also the maximum technical inefficiency equaled 0.37 (in the route of producers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers), and the minimum zero (in the route of producers and consumers). The results of Mark-up function for marketing margin showed that the marketing margin had a positive correlation to retailer prices and a negative correlation to marketing costs.The main problems for Shahani date export included shortcoming in sorting, packing, transportation infrastructure, as well as heavy customs bureaucracy and collateral required from exporters. The paper concluded the enhancement of the efficiency of the marketing system, development of the transportation, processing, storage and packing industries. Also investment in date by-products can reduce the industrial wastes of dates and save money for advertisement and promotion of this nutritious product for international market.

Pricing can be used as mechanism to reduce the overuse of pesticides, thus reducing its negative impacts. To do so, first there must be a good understanding of the input"s price elasticity. The present study aimed to calculate this elasticity, using the normative demand function obtained by linear programming. Then a sensitivity analysis was made for the consumption levels and prices.The results showed that the price elasticity of the input was low. In a representative farm in Bushehr province, for example, it was as low as-0.00085. It was concluded that farmers" response to pesticide prices was small for summer crops.

Pistachio production and export is one of the important resources in national economy of Iran. Almost, 10 percent of non-oil export value of the country comes from pistachio export.Although, there isn"t any valid data about employment potential in pistachio production activities, but income of many Iranian families in some provinces, depend on pistachio production, direct or indirectly. Therefore, its stable income would play an important role in national economy of Iran.In relation to objective of this research - study of economical theory in poverty and underdevelopment vicious circle - two-stage cluster sampling method has been elected in Rafsanjan, and 120 sample farmers have been interviewed in cropping year 2000-2001. To achieve the objective of study, some indices like production cost, gross income and net income of the selected farmers were calculated through the economical methods.Results indicated that, although the pistachio production per hectare is quite economically, but smallness of farms and high expenses of households prove the economical theory in poverty and underdevelopment vicious circle in the study region. Therefore, ignoring the indicated problem may cause negative effects like uneconomic production of pistachio, income decrease, and unemployment in related activities.