Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2001 | Volume:9 | Issue:2 (34)|Papers Count:18

With respect to the importance of wheat as a staple food in Iran and severe government intervention in wheat market, the effects of government policies on wheat supply were investigated. In the paper, first, various government interventions such as guaranteed wheat price and wheat import to satisfy consumers" needs have been mentioned. Second, the effects of wheat price policy on substitute crop prices and stability of wheat prices were examined. Nominal protection rate was negative during the period under study which indicated the implicittax on producers. Finally, the effects of nominal protection rate and guaranteed price on production were determined and some recommendations were made to improve the existing situation.

Achieving economic growth and development is the wish of all nations and states. This wish is much stronger in the third world countries in which the growing gap with the developed countries is acutely felt. Developing countries disregarding the process of events and stages of development in the developed countries have always tried to achieve the development goals through short-cut ways by merely following the prevailing theories applied in the developed and advanced countries. Thus what is in question is that which theory is more applicable for the developing countries in order to reach to the stage of development during a short -run period. Developing countries on the basis of their own goals have selected and applied diverse theories and methods. Their failure and success stories after three centuries of Industrial Revolution show that achievement of economic growth and development requires creation of some special mechanism in the sphere of social, cultural and economic life. One of these mechanisms in the sphere of economics is powerful financial markets. The existance of powerful financial markets requires the existence of strong financial institutions. The paper has investigated the performance of financial markets in Iran during the years 1355-77(1976-1998), and has examined its impact on economic growth and development of the country. Finally the paper presents a model and makes some recommendation in this regard.

Using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) indices, the present paper examined the existence of comparative advantage or lack of it and their changes over the period of 1367-1378 for a group of horticultural products including pistachio, almond, hazelnut, walnut, apple, orange, date, fig, peach, and a group of crop products including cotton, onion, potato, tomato, as well as a group of processed products such as fruit juices, dried fig, raisin, animal wool and hide, and honey. Also, in the paper, responses of Iran"s  agricultural export structure to changes in the world as well as Middle East export structure are investigated. Results of the study show that while Iran has a very clear and considerable comparative advantage in producing and exporting most of the studied products, however, the trade policies, and the economic behavior of agricultural producers and exporters have been in such a way that they could not lead to an appropriate and timely response of Iran"s export structure to changes in the world as well as Middle East export structures. This resulted in weakening of competitive situation of Iranian products in the world markets during the period of study. In addition, the revealed instabilities in the trends of RCA and RSCA indices during the study period led to the conclusion that there is no well defined strategy and plan for the systematic promotion of Non-oil exports in Iran.

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of inputs in production of wheat and barley. Advantages of using cost function in estimating the inputs" conditional demand function are presented. Then, using the Shephard"s Lemma, a Translog Multiproduct Cost Function is used to estimate the demand functions for chemical fertilizers. seeds, labors and agricultural machinery. Data are obtained from 100 questionnaires which were completed by the Ministry of Agriculture. Results of the present study revealed that using cost function can overcome the problems of direct estimation of the production function.

The information regarding the assessment of quantity and value of wheat losses during production to consumption stages, is the basic need of losses reduction programs. To partially fulfill this requirement, the present study was undertaken in two parts i.e. the assessment of wheat losses during harvesting and threshing periods and then their economic evaluation. For this purpose, three main wheat - producing areas of Yazd province were selected and then farmers were selected on the basis of Dalinus and Stratified Optimum Allocation sampling methods. Wheat samples were collected from the field of selected farmers, in order to estimate the quantities (natural drop of crop, harvesting and threshing methods) and quality (infection and mixture) of wheat losses and then, on the basiss of these data, the economic value of losses were calculated. The impact of factors such as harvesting method on losses was also analyzed. At the end, on the basis of the results of the study, the pricing policy of government for the delivery of clean and unclean wheat was criticized.

This research is investigating the proper approaches for planning of water resources development at regional level in Khorasan"s Qare-Qum watershed. It is based on the results of a comprehensive feasibility studies of water resources development in this watershed. In these studies potentials and limitations of this watershed for development possibilities are designed and presented in diverse projects. One of the most important principles in optimal utilization of resources is to find the appropriate methods for the formulation of a plan for water resources development based on these projects. Due to the limitation of resources, all these projects can not be implemented during a short period of time, therefore planners of water resource development prefer to formulate a plan, in which a set of those projects that have the highest productivity of existing resources, as well as the most effective participation in meeting the conflicting goals of concerned groups and decision makers are selected. In a reasonable decision making process, this problem is a kind of Multi-criteria and Multi-project Evaluation. This paper in addition to the introduction of the two above mentioned methods, presents another technique named Utility based Trade-off Analysis (UTA) as well. By the application of these two methods the ways and means of achieving the main goals of this research which is the prioritazation of appropriate projects, are examined. Finally, the results of these approaches are compared with benefit-cost one-criteria finance evaluation method. Results of study indicated that evaluation methods based on UTA, depending on the type of problem, presents a better approach for making decision as regards prioritazation, compared to the other evaluation methods.

Apple production is an important source of employment and income in West Azarbayjan especially in the central part of the province namely the city of Urmia. Favourable natural and geographic conditions of the province for producing and exporting this commodity along with rationalizing the production and marketing activities can bring about a high comparative advantage for the producttion of apple. In addition to generating employment and income, apple production and its processed products could become an important export item and source of foriegn exchange earning. Apple farmers face various problems and during the recent droughts the problems have become more intensive. Part of the problem is related to production. The purpose of this study is to make an economic analysis of apple production in Urmia, using linear and Cobb-Douglas production functions, ordinary least squares regression method, and computer software SPSS. By selecting a sample of apple farmers and using stratified random method as well as interview and filling out the questionnaire, necessary data were collected and production functions were estimated. Independent variables of production functions were costs of manure, fertilizer, labor, machinery, chemicals, other costs, and land per meters. Dependent variable was the value of products, including apple and fodder. Coefficients of determination were, 69 and. 61. The estimated coefficients, except for fertilizer, were positive. Fertilizer negative coefficient is due to complementarity relation between water and fertilizer and lack of apple farmers readiness to cope with drought which makes the efficient use of irrigation methods necessary. Sum of coefficients in Cobb-Douglas production function was larger than 1 indicating increasing returns to scale which means increasing the extent of horticultural activity causes cost economies. Production elasticities, except for fertilizer which was negative, were positive and smaller than 1. Labor elasticity was much higher than those of most inputs. Due to large area of land under apple cultivation and intensive unemployment problem in West Azarbayjan, high labor elasticity could provide very good ground for more employment and decrease of unemployment in the province.

In this study by using the Almost Ideal Demand System (A.I.D.S) , the demand function for different types of meat in urban and rural societies have been estimated and price as well as non-price elasticities of Marshall and Hicks demand function were investigated, Application of cointegration theory for determining the appropriate demand function was also investigated: Results obtained from this study indicated that during the period under study, household budget allocated to red meat have been decreased both in urban and rural societies, whereas during the same period household budget allocated to the purchase of chicken and fish have been increased. Furtheremore, the share of budget allocated to the purchase of fish in the rural societies increased first but later decreased. Price elasticities of different types of meat in urban as well as rural areas showed that during the period of study the use of price variable for the modification of consumption pattern have not been effective. This indicates that for the modification of consumption pattern, price variable has not been an effective factor. Therefore other variable such as population growth rate is of great significance that should be taken into account. Moreover, because of using time series data in this study, first the unit root in the model"s variables was examined and then long -term relation of data was investigated. The results of study has revaled the existance of cointegration in this regard.

Agricultural activity is permanently subject to different natural hazards such as flood, drought and pest attack. These natural hazard coupled with other factors such as price fluctuations, yield and cost variability make the agriculture a very risky and unpredictable activity. Therefore under such situation, some suitable and efficient methods for farm planning are needed. Various methods, including MOTAD, target MOTAD, Mean semivariance, and Mean partial squared deviations, for handling risk in decision making process are reported and used in the risk programming model building. In this study application of Mean Partial Absolut Deviation (Mean PAD), in the context of Multi-objective Programming (MOP) for farm planning were presented and evaluated. Then using Tchebyschev inequality, probability of failure or risk for each plan was measured. Cross section data were collected by random sampling in Zarghan district of Fars province. Time series data on yields and prices gathered from various publications of the Ministry of Agriculture. The results show that increase of the model parameters lead to substitution of crops with highest gross margin and price variability for crops with low gross margin and price  variability.

Poverty is one of the most serious problems of present time for the governments and policy makers. Despite remarkable economic development, millions of people throughout the world live in absolute poverty especially in the rural areas. Study on factors affecting poverty, particularly rural poverty will help experts and policy makers to formulate a plan for alleviation of poverty in the deprived parts of the rural areas. To study socio-economic determinants of poverty in Kalaleh, at the begining by the use of multiple stratified random sampling method all respondents were stratified according to inter grated indices like wealth, occupation, education and benefit-cost ratio. According to results of the study, two groups of people (i) land owner group (large, medium and small farmers), and (ii) landless group (large, medium and small farmers) were distinguished. Then by the use of median-income method, poverty line was calculated in the rural society. The results of the study revealed that, 15.7 percent of farmers were living under poverty line. For the study of factors affecting rural poverty, all farmers under poverty line, enumerated. Analysis of the data showed that, agricultural economic factors were the main factors of creating poverty. Occupation situation, social relationships, and extent of social participation were other factors that influenced poverty level of rural people under study. In this study other factors such as household annual income, as well as accessibility of the village to service facilities were also taken into account.

Today, higher education systems, specially, higher agricultural education system is faced with difficulties due to rapid economic, cultural, technological and agricultural changes happening across the world. Thus the question is how higher education systems should equip their students with skills and qualifications to adopt not only changes, but also prepare them to satisfy their community"s needs? The answer is that competency development in students should be emphasized through Knowledge for Being competent by (KB) educational strategy. The main objective of this paper is to explain the required skills and competency that will prepare Bachelor"s Degree Student of Agricultural Extension and Eucation (BDSAEE) to cope with diverse changes occuring in the world. Method used in this research was Delphi method, by the help of which the experts opinion regarding research issue were collected in order to extract the unanimous view in this regard. The population surveyed included all experts of agricultural extension and education as well as other fields such as educational psychology and sociology. Number of required population was selected by purposeful sampling method. The data collection instrument included two types of questionnaires that their validities established by face validity. Research Delphi method was implemented in two rounds. Round 1 was used as an open questionnaires while in round 2 a closed questionnaire was provided based on collected information in open questionnaire. The software of SPSS/Pc was used to analyze all data of questionnaires in round 2. Findings indicated 13 that among skills and qualifications existed in the questionnaires of round 2; "decision making and problem solving skill", "management skills", and "practical ethics" have recieved higher ranks respectively, in making BDSAEE to satisfy their community"s need.

The evaluation of social programs is of great significance for conducting and orienting the extension training program, modifying and promoting current programs as well as planning of future programs. In other way, evaluation of training programs would lead to the sustainability and consolidation of planning process. Since the year 1370, technical and professional training for carpet weavers has been extensively implemented by the Extension Department of Former, Ministry of Jihad-e-sazadnegi. In this study the effectiveness of carpet-weaving training courses and its impact on economic status of rural people was examined. For this purpose 126 carpet-weaver women from rural areas of Kohgilooye and Boirahmad were selected randomly by using multi-stage cluster random sampling. The results of study indicated that the average of carpet production was higher at Gachsaran compared to the other towns of the province. It was also revealed that carpet-weaving activity has the most favourable impact on the household income of the rural people. The findings of study also showed that participation in training courses would enhance self-relianceof the trainees for this activity. Comparing the average of monthly income of trainees in Yasouj, Gachsaran and Kohgilooye, showed that Gachsaran ranks first and Kohgilooye ranks last in this regard. Gachsaran has also the highest annual income in the province, and carpet -weaving activity in this town is more prevalent, than the other towns of the province.

In order to determine the state of employment, job satisfaction, employment status (private sectors, governmental or both) and factors affecting educational success of students graduated from Faculty of Agriculture at Kerman University, a questionnaire form was designed and sent to the students majoring in agronomy, agricultural economics and irrigation who graduated during 1991 through 1996.Out of 300 questionnaire forms which were sent, 144 responded and returned the filled out forms. The data collected and statistically analyzed. The results show that the rate of unemployment among the graduates were 10 percent and there was no significant difference between graduates of the three mentioned majors in finding the job. The results also indicated that 84 percent of job opportunity, were provided by government, while 13.6 percent of graduates were employed by private sector and 4 percent of them work both with government and private sector. The data shows that 15 percent of employees are not satisfy with their job but there is no significant difference between graduates of different majors regarding the job satisfaction. It has been shown that students who lived off campus are more successful in their educational career comparing to those who lived in campus dormitories.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of rural production cooperatives in improving the technical and economic status of wheat farmers in Sabzevar township. Survey method with questionnaire and interview were used for data collection in the research. Population consisted of all the farmers who were members of cooperatives and farmers who were not members. Among 16 active cooperatives, 5 firms were chosen to be studied (N=4000). The questionnaire forms have three sections as follows: 1. individual characteristics of farmers consisting of age, educational level and years of agricultural experience, 2. technical features containing of level of technical knowledge, mechanization level and optimum utilization of agricultural inputs (water, seed, pesticide and fertilizer) and 3. farmer"s economic characteristic including area under cultivation, yield (ton per hectare) output cost, income, access to agricultural inputs, and access to the bank loan and credits facilities. Content validity of the instrument was established using a panel of expert consisting of Faculty of Agricultural Extension and Education Department, Tarbiat Modarres University. A reliability analysis, conducted and Cronbachs Alpha value were reported 0.86 percent. The results of the study show that, as regards technical characteristics, there is a meaningful positive relationship between level of technical knowledge, optimum utilization of seeds and membership variables.Regarding economic characteristic, there is a positive relationship between area under cultivation, yield (ton per hectare) and pure income and membership variable. There is a meaningful negative relationship between land preparing cost, cultivation cost and membership. It was also revealed that there is a meaningful positive relationship between membership variable and the ways and means of access to the agricultural inputs such as seed, fertilizer, pesticide and variable of bank loan as well as the number of the banks from which the farmers have already borrowed. Regression analysis by Enter method showed that the cases of borrowing from the banks, number of banks giving loan, irrigation cycle, optimum utilization of seeds and level of technical knowledge, explain 42% of the dependent (yield) variable. Also, years of agricultural experience, age, yield per hectare, optimum utilization of pesticide and total cost per hectare explain 84% of dependent variable of pure income per hectare.