Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2010 | Volume:18 | Issue:2 (70)|Papers Count:13

Transportation plays an important role in excessive costs and the final price of goods. For this reason, constructing an economic transportation model enables us to optimize various activities in transportation systems for agricultural products, bringing lower costs for consumers of products as a result. The main objective of this study is to construct a dynamic linear programming transportation model in order to minimize the transportation costs of soybean shipped from different supply regions to different pressing oil factories. There are 29 production centers known as supply regions, 2 importing harbors and 7 factories and demanding centers for soybean seeds in Iran. This study used the monthly data of the year 2004 based on the capacities of origin supplies, warehouse (and related monthly stock available in previous period and the amount of transferred shipment to next period), monthly consumption of demanding centers and related transportation costs. LINGO computer package was used to solve the transportation model. Based on the comparison of optimal solutions of the model and the actual transformation costs in 2004, the transformation cost reductions for soybean seeds is 87.67 million Rials.

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the driving forces and hampering factors affecting establishment and development of agro-process industries in Northern Khorasan province. The present study was carried out through description survey method. The statistical universe of this study was the managers of 43 agro-process industries, who had received their establishment license until 2007 from Agricultural Jihad Organization or the Department of Industries and Mining of Northern Khorasan province. Because of limited number of these industries, census method was used for sample driving and the data was gathered by questionnaires. Face validity of questionnaires was confirmed after some modifications based on ideas of experts of agro-processing industries affiliated with Agricultural Jihad Organization and the Department of Industries and Mining. Questionnaires' reliability was confirmed through computing Cronbach Alpha Coefficient which was 0.87 for driving forces and 089 for hampering factors. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS software and 4 factors were nominated and extracted as driving forces and 6 factors as hampering factors of agro-process industries establishment and development by using factor analysis technique. It is revealed that contribution of driving forces for establishment and development of agro-process industries is more than hampering factors. Thus driving forces should be improved and hampering factors should be recognized and solved for development of agro-processing industries in Northern Khorasan province.

This paper evaluates the impacts of transaction costs on accessing to credit market. The data was collected using a sample of 459 rural households from Khorasan, Mazandaran, East Azarbayejan and Lorestan Provinces in Iran during the year 2006. After a descriptive analysis of the sample, the Logit model was used to evaluate the impacts of some factors, especially transaction costs on rural household access to credit market. The results revealed that a close distance to financial centers, the availability of information on banking system and also membership of farmers in Gharzolhasaneh funds and co-operatives, as indexes of transaction costs, increase the accesses of farmers to credit markets. Finally, transaction costs could be considered as an important limitation in accessing to the credit market in rural areas.

Agriculture is one of the oldest economic and generative activities of human society. In the contemporary economy, in spite of increasing development in other parts of it, agriculture as one part of the economy have still a remarkable role in the economy of different societies. Agriculture has a critical role in economic growth and development. Although mountains and deserts cover a vast area in Iran, suitable areas for agriculture aren' t used in an optimum way. Productivity is one way to increase production in agricultural sector. This study investigated average and capitalized average productivity in agriculture, industry and service sectors. During 1966-2001 the results show a low productivity in agriculture so that according to productivity indices, agricultural sector stands after services, industry sections.

In this paper, the efficiency of selected countries in agriculture activities is evaluated by using linear programming. Knowing the fact that there are two main Parametric and Nonparametric methods for measuring the efficiency, the Nonparametric method based on the mathematical programming and specifically Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to evaluate the efficiency of Iran and 18 regional countries under two assumptions of constant and variable return to scale in the year 2004. Then, the Promethee method is used to prioritize the efficient countries. The results show that under the first assumption, countries such as Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran out of the selected countries have the most efficiency, and the average efficiency is equal to 0.546. Under the second assumption, Kazakhstan and Yemen are added to the efficient countries and the average efficiency is equal to 0.701 Finally, it is proposed that inefficient countries should make Emirates as a model in efficiency for themselves.

The goal of the present study is to survey the Effect of Government Subsidizing Policy on Wheat Production. In addition, with utilization of economic methods and utilizing serial and periodical data belonging to 1984-2006 years concerning inputs of chemical fertilizers, seeds, toxins, work power and water supplies, at first wheat production function was estimated with ARDL approach and then farmers sensitivity to price changes of these inputs were specified after having production attraction of the inputs calculated simultaneously with estimation of cost dependents and supply of production dependents applying ISUR method. Results obtained from analysis of State Subsidy Policy showed that granting subsidy to toxins has caused irrational supply of the inputs and decrease of the production of the wheat as much as 3.133% as a result of flexibility of supply of this input in proportion with price. In addition, granting subsidy to fertilizers and seeds have had trivial impact on production of wheat because of low attraction of demand of these inputs in a way that wheat production rate increased 0.306 percent with fertilizers' subsidy and 0.2 percent with seed subsidy.

In this paper using nutrients elasticity tools, consumer behavior of urban and rural area was surveyed in long run and short run during 1981-2005. To calculate nutrients elasticity (as a main purpose of this paper), we use Huang and Lin demand model (2001) and Lan-Caster s consumption technology equation. Finally N=S *D matrix was employed to calculate nutrients elasticity, where N contained nutrients elasticity values (related to income variations), S also indicated the percentage of a specific nutrients in each food and D defined the demand elasticity matrix. According to subgroup of food income elasticity, we suggest to subsidize “bread, grains and their products” and also “milk and its products and egg” to enhance the quality level of consumption pattern of urban and rural areas. Also price elasticity of meat subgroups price is highest in urban societies and according to the lack of consumption effects of it, governmental implementation of supporting programs will be necessary. The result of income elasticity of nutrients shows that the more costs taken in each subgroup of foodstuff, the more is consumption of nutrients consumption.

Identifying the affecting major factors in the area planted to barley can be an effective means for achieving self-sufficiency in its production. Under theoretical principles, price policies are one of the most important factors in determining the area planted to barley. In this study, for specifying how farmers do form their expectations of barley price and consider it on decision to barley planting, the barley area response has been estimated using two price expectations models, adaptive and rational, over the years 1982 to 2004. It was found out that estimating the barley area function is preferred under this hypothesis that farmers adjust their expectations through adaptive expectations. According to the adaptive expectations model, farmers may not response in a way that will neutralize government policy, as it is expected, therefore the government can influence barley production trend through pursuing suitable policies.

One decision taken by the government in securing the food of the society is agricultural protection policy. This paper investigates the effects of agricultural protection policies, including price and input policies, on food security of rural household. By using AHFSI (Aggregate Household Food Security Index), the food security of these families was determined during the period of 1983-2006. Support quantity in agricultural sector was calculated with the use of AMS (Aggregate Measurement of Support). The effects of these policies on food security of rural household were also investigated by vector autoregressive method. Our finding indicate that negative price support of farmers have been formed in most years, but in spite of input supports, protection resultant of agricultural sector has been positive. In short-run total price and input supports of agricultural sector in food security of rural household have had positive effects, but not in long-run. Reducing budget for input supports and allocating it to secure the necessary solvency for guaranteed purchase in essential conditions and variation support tools can help well-being agricultural protection policies and food security of rural household.

The general objective of this paper is to recognize factors affecting the target market of Iran's pistachio and date export. For this purpose, the target market of pistachio and date export (with use screening method), effective factors on export demand of pistachio and date, and elasticity coefficient of export demand of pistachio and date were all analyzed during 1971-2007. According to the results, Non-Asian countries with high income are suitable markets for exporting Iranian date. Also, Asian and Non-Asian countries with high income are suitable markets for exporting pistachio of Iran in long run. Increasing the date price must be stopped to assist promotion of hygienic level and packing export date. Increasing pistachio price with regard to the appearance of new exporters is hazardous. Generally, according to findings, suitable markets for exporting Iranian date are proposed France, United Kingdom, Germany, Morocco, United State of America, Italy, Spain, Canada, Russia, Georgia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia and Belgium, and suitable markets for exporting Iranian pistachio in long run are Luxemburg, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Russia, Jordan, India, Syria, Slovakia, Palestine, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Ukraine, Slovenia, Belgium, Latvia and Armenia respectively.