Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2008 | Volume:16 | Issue:1 (61)|Papers Count:11

In this study, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, the different efficiencies including technical, allocative, economic, managerial in addition to scale efficiency for pistachio producers in Zarand were measured. Cultivation area was concentrated into Zarand and 8iriz plain. Because pistachio gardens are confronting to biannually high yield, data were collected in average for the years 2004-2005 by two-stage cluster sampling method. Technical efficiency in both constant and variable returns was measured. In variable return to scale, technical efficiencies were analyzed into managerial and scale efficiency. Furthermore, average of real and ideal usage of inputs was comprised. Results indicated that average technical efficiency for Zarand and 8iriz plain was about 52 and 62 percent respectively. Average pure technical efficiency or managerial efficiency and scale efficiency for Zarand plain were about 71 and75 percent, and for 8iriz plain they were about 87 and 70 percent. Also, average allocative and economic efficiency for Zarand plain were about 54 and 38 percent and for Siriz plain they were about 65 and 57 percent. Therefore, pistachio producers in Siriz plain were more efficient than Zarand plain, and pistachio producers in both two plains, had a high potential for increasing kinds of their efficiency indexes.

In this paper, initially the impact of effective socio – economic factors on risk attitude and also the consumption of different inputs are analyzed by using safety first rule. After analysis, in order to study the effect of production factors on production variance (Risk) two different methods, the generalized stochastic production factor and three step non linear least square have been used. All data used in this research consist of two different types of statistics. The first series of data is the statistics from Jihad Organization of Khuzestan Province. The second source of information is some cross section statistics of 147 tomato producers of the year 2006. This data is gathered stochastically and through two-stage cluster sampling to which questionnaires and interviews were a part. The results show that the most of tomato producers have risk aversion attitude. In addition, two substitutions are needed to be done, chemical fertilizer should give its place to animal fertilizer and labor force should come in place of machineries.

One of the necessary data for estimation of production functions and calculating productivity indexes for agricultural sector and its sub sectors is capital stock value. This data was calculated by using various methods coming from capital formation data that is published annually by Central Bank of Iran. Considering the importance of productivity measurement especially in Forth Five-Year Development Plan, capital stock value, and depreciation cost and depreciation rate were estimated for agricultural sector within the years 1959-2004 by using PIM method. Finally in the study, capital input was extracted from capital stock value. Results indicate that average annual rate of capital depreciation for agricultural sector in 1959-2004 is about 5.02 percentages that is consistent with other studies' results.

Today, considering the scarcity of production resources, developing productivity is the best and the most effective way to obtain economic growth. In this research, effective factors in capital stock productivity in agriculture sector during 1976 -2003 are studied. In order to estimate the average capital stock productivity, the Generalized Average Productivity method (GAP) has been used. To make use of this method requires the estimation of production function of agricultural sector. Therefore, first of all, using ARDL method, production function of agricultural sector was estimated and then generalized average productivity of capital stock (GAPk) in agricultural sector was calculated. Finally, the impact of work force variation used for per capital unit (UK), the average human capital for per capital unit (H/K) and the distance between existing production and potential production (EXC) on GAPk were surveyed. To do this, the ARDL method has been used to estimate the relationship between GAPk and other variables studied. The results showed that the variables UK and H/K have a positive impact in capital stock productivity in agricultural sector while that of EXC variable is a negative one.

The main objective of the present study was to construct a multidivisional linear programming model to encompass plastic greenhouse and common crops production activities (a decentralized organization) of more than 70 individual farmers in order to maximize the net income. The results show that due to optimal allocation of resources, profitability increase up to 81 percent and 24 percent for each common crop production and plastic greenhouse activities, compared to the existing activities (calibrated models). Also when greenhouse and common crop production activities are considered as a multidivisional organization for each of jointed farmers, the profitability will increase 23 percent compared to the total calibrated models. Generally, when the activities of all farmers are considered globally, the aggregated multidivisional programming model is able to predict any production fluctuation of crops and ornamental flowers produced jointly through common resource allocations.

In this study poverty and food insecurity of rural and urban areas of Iran in 2003 are investigated by using FGT index. Results show that, in rural areas poverty is lower than urban areas but, food security (calorie, protein and carbohydrates) in urban areas is better than what is there in rural areas. These results reveal that all the poor are not necessarily food insecure. Based on findings, carbohydrates insecurity rate is the lowest and protein insecurity rate is the highest in daily needs. In this regard we can say people have low purchasing power therefore they have inappropriate nutrition and prefer to use foods at lowest prices. Finally it is suggested that in poverty and food insecurity decreasing programs, regional and geographical situations should be taken into consideration and also those food containing sufficient proteins must be supported through subsidies.

Studying meat industry and determination of price spreads in this industry is vital because of the fact that consumers typically prefer to have meat in their baskets and also that decreasing real income of households resulted from increasing price indices seem to be notable. Therefore, the rate of concentration, market power and cost efficiency of meat industry in Fars province is investigated in this study. For this purpose, we applied New Empirical Industrial Organization (NEIO) approach to time series data of 1982-2003. The results of concentration for sheep and cow slaughter industry showed that meat market concentration has a downward trend. The market power measures in material input market imply to low power of this industry. Therefore, this industry is unable to determine price in this market and processing firms are price taker. In this situation, the benefits of cost efficiency outweigh the cost of market power totally and it creates a social benefit.