Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2016 | Volume:23 | Issue:92|Papers Count:11

One of the most important issues in the import indices of food security evaluation is food import capacity index. The ratio of total exports to food imports is often thought to be a measure of the capacity of a country to finance its food imports using revenues from exports of goods and services. This study investigates food import capacity effects on urban households food security by AHFSI (Aggregate Household Food Security Index) and FICI (Food Import Capacity Index) using vector error correction model (VECM) during 1983-2008. Results indicate that food security is in an appropriate level and has increasing trend. Also, food import capacity index (FICI) effects on food security in national level is positive and model estimation shows food import capacity index effects on food security in urban households is positive in short run and long run.

In this paper, the impact of government support to agricultural producers on export and import competitiveness level has been investigated by an integration of Johansson model during 1988-2010. The results show that not only Iran’s government support hadn’t any significant effect on the competitiveness of Iranian agricultural products which exported to or imported but also has contrary sign to theoretical expectations. In other side increase the value added of agriculture sector improved competitive position in both the exported and imported agricultural products.

The main aim of this study is checking the impact of exchange rate levels and its uncertainty on bilateral agricultural trade between Iran and four major trading partners using fixed effect analysis.Results show that (i) the exchange rate uncertainty is more robustly linked to export volumes than is exchange rate level while the exchange rate level is more robustly linked to import volume, (ii) exchange rate uncertainty is associated with smaller trade volumes in both directions, but more so for imports than for exports, and (iii) income growth in Iran is associated with greater imports, just as income growth among trading partners is associated with greater exports. These findings provide that increasing of the real exchange rate leads to a reduction in the trade balance, so it is recommended that Iranian Rial is appreciated against the currency of Iran partners. Due to the positive impact of real exchange rate volatility and income on the trade balance, they can be used as an opportunity to improve the trade balance.

This study has two purposes. The first is evaluating the effect of technology spillover on the Iran’s agricultural exports through VECM method. The second goal is to investigate and compare the performance of GA against the VECM approach and identifying the best approach to estimate the pattern of agricultural exports. The findings indicate that the technology spillover have a significant positive effect on Iran’s agricultural exports. The effect of other variables; terms of trade, relative price index, the value added of agriculture sector and real exchange rate are significantly positive and only the effect of the trade partner’s GDP is negative statistically. Also a comparison of the GA and VECM performance shows that GA method, in estimating the pattern of Agriculture exports, has a greater optimum performance than VECM and is identified as the preferred method for optimizing agricultural export function. So, according to the positive effects of technology spillover on the agricultural exports, it is worthy, by creating a safe space for investing, infrastructural facilities and Prioritization of high yield sections, to provide the possibility of attracting more FDI and using the donations of technology spillover more efficient. Also, according to high performance of GA in optimization, utilization of this method is recommended in scientific studies.

The main objective of expanding the agriculture sector’s early-return enterprises is employment and the sector’s own development. However, statistics indicate that theses enterprises has failed to reach their desired objectives. Therefore in this study the reasons of the failure of these enterprises is evaluated. Data was collected through a questionnaire given to 170 early-return enterprises of animal husbandry sector in 2012. Logit model and discriminate analysis function were used as the methodology of this study. Results of evaluating the Logit model and using discriminate analysis function indicate that instantaneous ratio, initial capital to the received loan ratio, incentive bonuses to fix salary ratio, and the kind of plan are factors affecting the enterprises’ success. Based on the results, it is suggested that before paying any loan, studies on the financial ability of the executers and what they are responsible for as personal equity are accomplished.

Pricing policy is generally recommended by economists for better water allocation which is not so welcomed by officials due to economic, cultural and political concerns. This paper offers some alternative policies for improvement in water allocation using Positive Mathematical Programming in Sarakhs' plain agronomy subsector (Khorasan Razavi province). Main results indicate that tax (reduction in level of support) on input and output can be used as alternatives for water pricing, though, the effects of proposed policies on income, water demand and cropping pattern is different from farmer to farmer. Also for crops with high water requirement, tax on output brings more suitable results.

The effects of trade liberalization on the agricultural sector's trade balance of Iran using ARDL model has been surveyed in this study during the period 1982-2012. Based on the results, variables of value-added agriculture, import price index, and currency have a significant and positive relationship with the agricultural sector's trade balance in short and long-term. Variables of earnings of oil sector and export price index are significant in the short term, but in the long run its coefficient is not significant. Also, agricultural trade liberalization index has a negative and significant effect on agricultural sector's trade balance of Iran in short and long run. Coefficient of the error correction model show that 60% of the imbalance disappear in each period. According to the results, trade liberalization led to worsening the agricultural sector's trade balance. So, it is essential that trade liberalization policy is implementing cautiously and policies with respect to global conditions and advantages of the agriculture sector is making and the maximum capacity of the agricultural sector was used in order to optimize the use of production resources.

Iran in the world, in terms of natural disasters is allocated as 10th place. Statistics for damages to the agricultural sector in the past two decades shows this sector on average each year is damaged between 8500 to 10 trillion rials, only small amount of it is financed by government. This study aimed to identify the most appropriate way to compensate the natural losses in Iran’s agricultural sector using AHP technique. For determining different conventional methods in the world, experiences of Iran and some developed countries (such as United States, Canada, Sweden, France, England, Germany, Australia, Finland, Russia, Hungary, Poland and Japan) and a number of developing countries (including Bangladesh, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Costa Rica and Colombia) in the case of methods of compensation due to natural losses were studied and the AHP model was developed. In this model, a total of nine common methods of compensation of damages to the farmers, according to 10 criterias were evaluated. These methods through AHP questionnaire and face to face interview were judged by 60 relevant experts in 6 provinces. Results of the AHP analysis showed that creating Natural disaster storage fund, Local free-interest loans fund and agricultural insurance fund, respectively are the best ways to managing the natural losses to farmers in Iran.

The main purpose of this study is forecasting the production indexes of sugar beet (land, production and price) in Iran. For this purpose, Models applied to forecast are Auto Regressive (ARMA and ARIMA), Single and Double Exponential Smoothing, Harmonic, Artificial Neural Network and ARCH. The results of Durbin-Watson tests were revealed that land, production and price of sugar beet series are non-stochastic. According to the lowest forecasting error criterion, Neural Network, ARMA and ARIMA are the best models for forecast land, production and price of sugar beet series respectively. Also, results of prediction show that all of these indexes will have a increasing trend during the period 2013- 2020, while the increasing trend of land and production are more smoother than price trend.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of food security in different income groups in the city of Boyer-Ahmad (from the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad environs). The sample was selected based on the multistage cluster sampling method. Required data were collected through interviews and completion of questionnaire. Supplementary data were derived from the food composition tables. To assess food security, food diversity indices such as Hannah - Kay (HKNE), Berry (BI), Entropy (EI), numbers of food groups, number of food items, and also the ratio of energy intake to the recommended energy (ERC) index were used. Comparing the values of these indices and also amounts of intakes and recommended nutrients in various income groups (4 groups) were performed and analyzed using ANOVA model. The average of used indicators indicate that food diversity and food security is in the moderate level in Boyer-Ahmad city. The difference of mentioned indices among income groups is significant at the 5% level. Parallel to increasing income level, the frequency percentage of households which have diversity and food security, and the amount of macronutrients intake considerably have been increased. With respect to changes of income levels and their impact on food security, it is recommended that future government policies directed towards a balanced regional development and more equitable distribution of investments and subsidies. For correcting eating habits, it should be pay more attention to nutritional education through the mass media, formal education and training particularly in the areas such as Boyer-Ahmad city.