Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2004 | Volume:12 | Issue:1 (45)|Papers Count:9

With an acceleration in the growth of urban areas, it becomes increasingly difficult to prevent rapid widening of income disparities between rural and urban areas. The flow of poorly educated people from rural areas into urban slums and having a rise in underemployed urban population associated with a wide income disparities. are the natural aftermath of this process. The case becomes more serious and important in Iran as opening the urban economy to trade and broader liberalization of the economy bring acceleration in the rate of growth of urban income.Acceleration in agricultural development seems to be the only key to reduce the rural income disparities; nevertheless. it requires a high rate of growth of the agricultural sector with strong multipliers from that growth to the rural non-farm sector. Because of a high proportion of agricultural output coming from irrigated lands that are well suited to increased production of high value commodities for which both domestic and export demand flow rapidly, Iran enjoys a good potentiality to achieve that high rate of agricultural growth.With an open economy and substantial investment from oil resources and even through a foreign direct investment, this country can experience an eight-percent annual rate or even a higher. There are two means by which rural income can keep up with urban incomes: first, a rapid decline in rural population, and consolidation of farms into larger holdings; second, intensification of farming through increased yields and increased cropping intensity.The great potential for closing the rural urban gap lies with high value commodities, including horticulture and livestock. There is also appropriate condition to increase the production of these commodities.It is clear that a major thrust needs to be made to ensure the very high growth rates that are achievable in the high value commodity sub-sectors of agriculture, that requires special efforts in dealing with the marketing problems of perishable commodities and the technology development requirements for export market. However, the other sectors require attention as well. The most important point is to consider a priority for research in the horticulture commodities in Iran With an acceleration in the growth of urban areas, it becomes increasingly difficult to prevent rapid widening of income disparities between rural and urban areas. The flow of poorly educated people from rural areas into urban slums and having a rise in underemployed urban population associated with a wide income disparities. are the natural aftermath of this process. The case becomes more serious and important in Iran as opening the urban economy to trade and broader liberalization of the economy bring acceleration in the rate of growth of urban income.Acceleration in agricultural development seems to be the only key to reduce the rural income disparities; nevertheless. it requires a high rate of growth of the agricultural sector with strong multipliers from that growth to the rural non-farm sector. Because of a high proportion of agricultural output coming from irrigated lands that are well suited to increased production of high value commodities for which both domestic and export demand flow rapidly, Iran enjoys a good potentiality to achieve that high rate of agricultural growth.With an open economy and substantial investment from oil resources and even through a foreign direct investment, this country can experience an eight-percent annual rate or even a higher. There are two means by which rural income can keep up with urban incomes: first, a rapid decline in rural population, and consolidation of farms into larger holdings; second, intensification of farming through increased yields and increased cropping intensity.The great potential for closing the rural urban gap lies with high value commodities, including horticulture and livestock. There is also appropriate condition to increase the production of these commodities.It is clear that a major thrust needs to be made to ensure the very high growth rates that are achievable in the high value commodity sub-sectors of agriculture, that requires special efforts in dealing with the marketing problems of perishable commodities and the technology development requirements for export market. However, the other sectors require attention as well. The most important point is to consider a priority for research in the horticulture commodities in Iran.

The rate of return on investment and its fluctuation in the agricultural sector were estimated using a modified form of Cobb - Douglas production function. In addition to labor and capital, trend factor and dummy variable were included in the model to study the effects of technical change and the Islamic Revolution on the agricultural output respectively. Results indicated the average productivity of capital during the 1350- 78 period was 2.5. Despite considerable fluctuation, the productivity of capital in agriculture has been increasing during this period. Compared with other sectors of the economy, agriculture has performed better in terms of the efficiency of capital. Rate of return on investment in the agricultural sector during the above period has fluctuated substantially. This fluctuation may be due to factors such as periodic drought, Iran - Iraq war, political and economic upheavals.Despite the higher productivity of capital in agriculture, the ratio of investment to value added in this sector is substantially lower than other sectors. This indicates that, agriculture has low priority in the allocation of public and private capital. Based on the findings of this study, agricultural sector appears to have a considerable potential for absorbing capital. Some economics incentives to encourage investment in the agricultural sector are indicated.

Employment challenges or employment and unemployment, are not only one of the most important social problems in our country, but, regarding to the growth of population in the last two decades, they can be considered as one of the most vital social challenges in coming decades. The immediate aftermath of this crisis, i.e. the spread of poverty and the increase of other social offense phenomena such as robbery, addiction, etc., put the social stability and unity in danger. The agricultural sector is one of the crucial economic sectors that, though lacking some necessary requirements, we should ask it for help to face the employment challenges in the country. Putting emphasis on a comprehensive development, many new job creations can be achieved through the agricultural sector; and from there the intensity of unemployment crisis in the society will be lessened. The factors involving in agricultural employment are divided into: internal factors (qualitative and quantitative structures of the sector) and external factors (economic, political and social features of the society). Therefore, all variables effective in this process can be investigated and argued in four general domains (micro systems):1.Environmental structure domain and natural factors relating to economic activities in agricultural sector. 2.Management and executive structure domain including legal regulations, manpower skills, and labour force relationships.3.Social domain including rural population, life and work condition in agricultural sector. 4.Cultural domain including public attitudes towards agricultural activities. In this survey discussing employment crisis in the country, the main variables affecting the employment structure in agriculture are considered highly. These variables are studied according to the capacity and structural problems of the sector, and based on the requirement framework. for developing employment within a micro-famework.

The main purpose of the present paper is to investigate the impact of the production input and relative price changes on the interaction of the sectors and their value added. Using the envelope properties of the GDP function during the period of the 1338-1380 is tried to identify the structure of the output supply, input returns and their linkages. The results show that output expansion and factor return depends on the relative input intensities used in the production process. The effect on the rest of the economy, particularly increase in the price of non-tradable sectors (service sector) and its impacts on agriculture and industry are also evaluated. The results of the parameters and elasticity estimation on supply and factor returns in different sectors show relationship among agriculture and other sectors of the economy in the use of factors. Considering services as a predominantly domestic sector and in order to explain the nature of linkages among sectors, partial and general equilibrium elasticity is estimated to see the magnitude of the impact of service sector on agriculture and industry in the economy.

Investment is the key of economic growth and capital accumulation resulting from investing in each country. Investment in the most countries, especially in developing ones, is welcome by both the public and the private sector. The investment by private sector is not only a portion of whole demand, but also more than that, it is the resource of the growth and job opportunities in future. Of investments in different economic sectors, investment in agricultural sector enjoys a specific and notable importance. In addition to a growth in production and employment, it causes a growth- in other sectors as well, considering the past and present links of this sector to others. One of the important variables in development of agricultural sector is the private sector investment. The survey of problems laying on way of private investment in Iranian agriculture within years 1346-1379 is the sole goal of this paper. For this purpose, a simultaneous model based on investment theory has been used. The findings show that the inflation rate and agricultural added value are the most effective factors in private sector investment in agricultural sector. They also show that regarding the value added, the sensitivity of the private investment is more than other variables. All in all, there is little room and interest for private investment comparing with the room for public investment.

Identifying the poor is the first step in poverty alleviation program. In order to do that, the most important issue, is application of proper index for measuring all aspects of the poverty. In this study, using FGT index, we investigate the severity of poverty, regarding to principal occupation of household heads in the rural areas of Iran. The results show that after non-working households, in which severity of poverty is so high, primarily self-employed households in agricultural activities, experience the worst situation when compared to the others. Besides, households being in the eastern region of the country are more likely to be poor, with the highest poverty intensity.

Income distribution, at least for two reasons, has special importance. First, because it comprises an important dimension of equity. Second, income distribution has effects, and in many cases important effects, on economic, social and other variables. Income distribution has very diverse dimensions. In this paper two important dimensions, personal and regional, are considered. It is done by calculating some indexes of income distribution including deciles. Gini coefficient and ratio of urban over rural household income and the trends of income distribution changes have been determined. The study has used secondary data. To determine the trends of changes, regression method and SPSS software were used. The results show ups and downs in inequality of income distribution. The Gini coefficient of Iran income distribution in 1960s decade has been around. 0.45, in the early years of 1970s decade till 1978 it has increased and in some years has been around. 0.50. Gini coefficient from 1979 till mid 1990s, with some ups as downs, has had a decreasing trend and in recent years has had an increasing trend. Iran Gini coefficient of income distribution, like most low income third world countries, has been higher than that of high income industrialized countries. The ratio of urban household income over rural household income from 1974till mid 1990s has had a decreasing trend and in recent years an increasing one.