Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development
Year:2002 | Volume:9 | Issue:4 (36)|Papers Count:13

Pricing of agricultural products has always been a common tool used by policy makers and planners in agriculture sector. The present study attempts to evaluate the performance of this policy in Iran, focusing on its effects on the growth of agricultural products during 1977-1997. The multiplicative decomposition method was employed, using time series data on all products, area under cultivation, yields (productivity), cropping pattern, and crop prices at both national and provincial levels.The results indicated that the total value of crops increased by 231%, annually 11.55%, in the above period, about 75% of it being attributed to the increased prices, the rest to improved yields, increased cultivated area and the changes in cropping patterns. Of the latter three which accounted for 25% of the increase in crops value, the contribution of improved yields was 13% that of increase cultivated area being 6%.The results attested to the argument that crop price policies failed to provide adequate incentives for producers to improve productivity of the existing farmlands, e.g. through higher investment. They rather meant to cushion adverse effects of increased input prices in this sector.

The difference between potential and actual output of agricultural firms lies in their varying capacities to use new technical know-how The present paper reviews how technical and institutional changes, as two main elements of know-how, influence growth of agricultural output.The discussion on technical change focuses on the issue of labor survival. Technical changes in turn, change the nature of opportunities and threats facing rural households; thus they may have a diversity of impacts on the rural peoples livelihood, sometimes even jeopardizing their chance for survival.For computing effects of technical and institutional changes on agricultural outputs, the study used empirical stochastic frontiers to "Fan" approach. The results showed that the average growth rate of agriculture was 4% during 1956-97, about 80% of which came from the growth in the level of physical resources, only 20% being induced by technical changes. A comparison of this ratio to that occurred in China (60/40) suggests that there is a need to promote the contribution of technical know how in agriculture as a means to improve productivity in Iran.

Long years of poor economic conditions and low level of environmental awareness among rural people have lead to severe degradation of natural resources in many regions.The concept of "integrated rural development" is recently raised as an approach to sustainable development, ensuring conservation of natural resources and reviving the rural economy based on participatory principles.Continued monitoring and evaluation are important tools for improving the efficiency of participatory natural resources management systems; and, through enhancing the efficiency of development projects, they can contribute to the process of rural development.The present paper reviews the experience of selected developing countries on participatory monitoring and evaluation of rural development projects. A number of major tools for M&E are also introduced.The case study of this paper was the "Hableh rud watershed rural development and conservation project", which is one of the first integrated rural development projects in Iran. Data was collected from 21 villages in the project area.The participating villagers expected that the project would increase their income and protect them from Hoods and other environmental hazards.

Agricultural production processes inherently incorporate risks. When farmers are risk-averse as is typically the case, they allocate inputs in such a way to reduce the impact of risks. Thus it may be important to include risk as an element in farmer behavior modeling.The present study attempted to identify risk-efficient strategies for wheat in Kavar district using Stochastic dominance and Stochastic dominance with respect to a function.The results indicated that four deficit-irrigation based strategies had first-degree, and one second-degree Stochastic dominance over the strategy based on full irrigation.

Several years passes now since the start of pressurized irrigation systems development program, and a large amount of credits, time and effort has been spent in this area by the government and farmers. A review of the strengths and weakness of the program can provide a good basis for planning and setting appropriate strategies for the future. The present paper undertakes this review in the case of Khorasan province for the span of the First and Second Five Year National Development Plans. Data was collected through farmer questionnaires and reference to pertinent agencies.The results showed that social, economic and technical factors influenced the acceptance of the technology, and that investment in this activity was economically quite justifiable during the Second Five-year National Development Plan.

Throughout the history, water has acted as the most important factor for development. Also subsequent droughts makes the sustainable use of water an imperative in many regions, including Iran.The present study determines how sodo-economic, physical, institutional and human factors contribute to water losses in agriculture. The study revealed that unsustainable irrigation water management was more common among farmers aged between 40-60 who: 1) had not insured their crops, 2) did not own their water resources, and 3) have stated to be influenced by water management behavior of their neighboring farmers.The study also concluded that the policy of increasing water charges might not have a marked contribution to the promotion of sustainable water use.

As a major staple, wheat is considered as the most important crop in Iran.With the existing population growth rate, self-sufficiency in this crop is becoming more and more important for the nation. According to FAO, per hectare yield of wheat in Iran is lower than the world average. FAO experts have stated farmers poor technical know-how as the main reason to this situation.The present paper analyses the impacts of improved seeds application in wheat yield increase. The result showed that improved seeds lead to higher per hectare yields of wheat both directly and indirectly. Directly, i.e. without any modifications in other inputs on the same farm, the application of improved seeds increased yield by %17. Indirectly, the application of improved seeds in turn induced the use of other modern inputs, resulting in another %18 increase in yields. The aggregate increase in wheat yield out of improved seeds was thus assessed at %35.

The present paper first discusses the defects of national accounts in incorporating environmental considerations and proposes the required adjustments. It then reviews the concept of environmental degradation, concluding that a cause of environmental degradation is the markets failure in pricing natural resources. It then uses fuzzy logic method to estimate environmental degradation. The computations based on vague data showed that environmental degradation was increased during social and other contingencies, e.g. wartime and oil shocks.

The present article reviews the relationship between social cohesion and organized social participation using the case study of rural area Kashan. It starts with a discussion on the theoretical backgrounds of the subject. It then presents a methodology for empirical measurement of the relationship between these two variables. Social cohesion was measured in terms of three indicators, namely:a)farmers altitudes toward each other, b)the level of social interaction, and c)the level of social conl1icts among rural people. Organized social participation was measured using a number of factors including participatory membership, participatory status, participation in implementation and participation in decision making.The results showed that there was a significant (0.41) correlation between social cohesion and organized social participation, with a reliability of 99%.

Aging of manpower in agriculture sector is an important issue in the Iranian economy, and one would predict that the effect of this problem would affect the whole economy.The findings of this research indicated that the manpower aging in agriculture sector was more serious problem in comparison to other sectors, and if this trend continues. the perspective of agriculture sector would be threatened.According to the research, the share of manpower aged over 60 in total agricultural manpower was 21.1 percent in 1996; the same figure for industry and service sectors were 3.9 and 5.2 percent, respectively. This means the ratio of aging population in agriculture sector was five, and four times higher than industry and service sectors, respctively. Based on the findings, the rural-urban migration was a main reason to this trend. Reduction in productivity, food security problems, and import dependency, were found as the most common effects of manpower in agricultrure sector.

In a country like Iran, which faces water limitation, the effective use of irrigation water is of particular importance. Pessurized irrigation has been introduced to the farmers in Tehran province over the last few years as a tool for optimum water use.The present research aimed to identify the socio-economic factors inl1uencing the farmers initial acceptance of pressurized irrigation system, and the reasons for their dissatisfaction with the implemented ones. The research was carried out in two parts using field research techniques.The results of the first part showed that individual and social factors, such as age, experience, education, awareness, financial power, relationships in particular with extension workers, etc., inl1uenced the farmers acceptance of the system.The second part dealt with the reasons for the farmers dissatisfaction with the implemented pressurized irrigation systems. The lesson of experience was that the system should be introduced to a region with a prior study of the area-specific conditions, e.g. soils, climate and crops of that region. The farmers were most unhappy with the procedures of credit supply, the work of companies designing the system, and the quality of equipment provided to them. The critical opinion of the existing farmers in turn has lead to the resistance of the new farmers against the system.