Agricultural Economics
H. Amirnejad; S.A. Hosseini Yekani; S.M. Mojaverian; F. Kashiri Kolaei; M. Taslimi
Abstract
Introduction: The resistive economy, in the sense of managing the current situation in the country, minimizes the risks. In other words, establishment of the necessary institution in Iranian economy by using a set of policies, laws, and executive measures in such a way to minimize its risk against harmful ...
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Introduction: The resistive economy, in the sense of managing the current situation in the country, minimizes the risks. In other words, establishment of the necessary institution in Iranian economy by using a set of policies, laws, and executive measures in such a way to minimize its risk against harmful shocks and disturbances, especially foreign and international ones, would provide the ground for the country to achieve sustainable economic progress. One of the most important methods in this regard, in creating the infrastructure of a resistive economy, is development of the agricultural sector. In fact, due to the distinctive features of the agricultural sector, this sector can be considered as the driving force of the economy within the framework of the resistive economy. To achieve such an economy, the challenges and potentials facing this sector must be identified while determining optimal investment for the basic sectors. Due to the capabilities of agricultural production in Mazandaran province, in this study, for identifying the problems and opportunities in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture, a type of SWOT analysis was used in which relative weights are calculated through a linear mathematical programming model. Finally, by using the QSPM approach, prioritization strategies were developed for each subsector.Material and Methods: In the SWOT analysis, the AHP approach was used to extract the pairwise comparisons of internal and external factors from the opinions of the interviewed experts in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture. SWOT analysis has been used to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and the combination of linear programming. Therefore, AHP approach is used to calculate the weight for criteria and alternatives at each level. In this research, a two-step linear programming method has been used to calculate the priority vector. In the first step, according to the pairwise comparison matrix, a formulation that provides a consistency limit is used. In the second step, according to the compatibility limits obtained in the previous step, for calculating marginal weights of the criteria, another linear programming model is used. After calculating the relative weights of each of the components of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as determining some strategies, using expert opinions, the QSPM approach has been used to prioritize strategies. For this purpose, the attractiveness coefficients of each strategy were extracted according to the Swot components and by multiplying the attractiveness coefficients by the relative weights, the total score for each Swot component was calculated for each strategy and finally with the total score of the Swot components, a total score for each strategy was calculated. Finally, Excel and GAMS software were used to estimate the results.Results and Discussion: According to the results of SWOT analysis in the agriculture and horticulture sector, among the important strengths in Mazandaran province, this subsector can be ranked first in the production of various products, variety of climatic conditions and suitable water resources, the existence of fertile and suitable lands and variety of products. In contrast to the above strengths, weaknesses such as traditional and small units of exploitation, lack of guaranteed purchase and non-payment of debts on time by the government and cooperatives, low irrigation efficiency and low productivity of inputs (land, labor, etc.), lack of proper marketing system and the weak role of the government are some of important challenges in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture in Mazandaran province. The opportunities facing the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture include the existence of ports and export terminals, existence of suitable fields for the construction of processing industries, improvement and establishment of fruit and vegetable terminals, and the existence of agricultural sub-graduates. The most important factors that threaten the activity of subsectors of agriculture and horticulture are related to the problems of financing and bank interest rates, land-use change and land trade, excessive import of agricultural and horticultural products, and small number of related processing industries. The results of prioritizing strategies through the QSPM approach also showed that according to aggressive strategies, in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture, strategies like "Increased aggressive racial reform research ", "Establishment of fruit and vegetable export terminals" and "Development of processing industries", in the subsector of livestock strategies like "Export development and entry into global markets", "Product and market development", "Establishment of facilities for export to the Caspian littoral states" and "Improvement of livestock breeds to increase production" , and in the subsector of fisheries "Aquaculture Development", "Development of Fisheries Industry", "Private and public sector support and investment" and "Establishment of facilities for export to international markets" are among strategies for strengthening the economy of the province and the country that can be considered.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it is suggested that more attention in terms of capital support, and regional policies should be given to the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture in this situation. Also, appropriate measures should be taken to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector in line with the resistance economy. It is also suggested that solutions such as guaranteed purchase, providing facilities for small and job-creating projects, use of agricultural researchers and graduates for improving and implementing of racial reform research, support and development of processing industry of agricultural products, market development and increasing exports of agricultural products, should be used.
H. Amirnejad; A.R. Shahpouri; M. Taslimi
Abstract
Introduction: In today’s traditional agriculture and trade, it may not be possible to increase yields per hectare without applying some types of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By producing 950 thousand tons of rice Mazandaran province supplies 42% of rice of the country. In the internal and external ...
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Introduction: In today’s traditional agriculture and trade, it may not be possible to increase yields per hectare without applying some types of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By producing 950 thousand tons of rice Mazandaran province supplies 42% of rice of the country. In the internal and external studies, it has been dealt with the study of entering nitrate into water technically. According to the destructive effects of nitrogen water-soluble on health and to the fact that Mazandaran province is the main producer of rice in Iran and applying the fertilizers containing nitrate is common in rice cultivation; the purpose of this study was to examine the effective factors on the entrance of nitrate into groundwater in cultivating rice in Sari. The aim of the present study is also to examine the effective factors on absorption pure nitrogen in the water used to cultivate rice.
Materials and Methods: The dependent variable in this study indicates the amount of pure nitrogen used water by i th farmer that has been divided into three categories. Calculating the dependent variable is such that the total amount of urea consumed by farmer is obtained by interview with farmers, the dependent variable of the amount of Nitrate pollution used groundwater was divided into three classes of low, medium and high. Considering such studies and the nature of dependent variable of the present study, that is as ordered discrete, the best model to respond the research objective is to use logit ordered pattern, but if the parallel regression assumption has not been considered, the advanced generalized ordered logit pattern should be used. In generalized ordered logit, the estimating parameters of independent variables that have rejected the assumption of parallel regression, cannot be same for different groups or levels. In other words, each level not only has separate intercept but also different coefficients. In order to select the samples, simple random sampling method has been used. Data used in this section has been collected by survey research method in 2015 for Sari. In order to determine the sample size, a pre-study has been conducted based on Cochran relation. The sample size of farmers’ was set at 98 farmers but finally 106 questionnaires were completed. Estimating the model and their results were conducted through Stata v.12 software.
Results and Discussion: According to the results, the dependent variable has been divided into three groups. About 43% of rice producers are the farms who used a moderate amount of nitrate into water, but 64% of them used medium and high amount of nitrate pollution that should be noticed. The results of parallel regression test for individual independent variables showed that among 17 independent variables, seven variables have been violated the condition of parallel regression. Therefore, the generalized ordered logit model was used. The variable income that has not been violated the assumption of parallel regression, has the coefficient of 0.83 in the first and second groups, that has been significant at the level of 10%. It means that, by increasing the level of farmers’ income and stability of other conditions, the possibility that the farmer will be in the group with more pollution will increase. As expected, the significant variable such as applying animal fertilizer, paying water expenses and agreement with omitting subsidy have negative and significant effect on the amount of nitrate used water. In other words, by increase in each variable, the possibility of placing farmers in the group of more pollution decreases. If farmers’ income increases as one unit, the possibility of placing the farmer in the group of low pollution decreases 0.2 unit and placing in the group of high pollution increases 0.17 unit. Being familiar with cultivating organic production will increases the possibility of placing the farmer in the group of low pollution in 0.55 unit, while the possibility of placing in the group with high pollution increase in less amount. On the other hand, the more positive attitude in rice cultivator towards supportive and public organization, the possibility of their placing in the group of low pollution of Nitrate decreases 0.13 units and the possibility of their placement in the group of high pollution on Nitrate increases 0.11 units.
Conclusions: Based on the obtained results and coefficient for every level of dependent variable, entrance of Nitrate in to groundwater in cultivating rice in Sari and interpreting the final effects of significant variables, the recommendations are offered for optimal utilization of fertilizers containing Nitrate and improving health of groundwater in cultivating rice as follows According to the factors effective on income and this variable that cultivating rice could not afford life express of 77% of the surveyed people, public supportive, private and insurance organizations should pay specific attention to this significant and important section. Revising supportive policies of the supportive public and private organizations for rice cultivators can be effective so that the policy making should have been lead into facilitate solving production and improving the farmers’ income than subsidiary supports of fertilizers. Revising in owner share and share on transaction under the supervision organs of agriculture are recommended. Of course income support and facilitating the sales of owner farmer can avoid renting the farm. Applying natural fertilizers and being familiar with cultivating organic and healthy products, have placed the rice cultivator in the level of minimum usage of chemical fertilizer as well as nitrate entrance into groundwater. Therefore, promoting, advertising and encouraging farmers to cultivate organic can be a strategy accompanied with financial and security incentive and finally, it is recommended to design and perform efficient policy making of water market in Mazandaran province to approach the real price of water.
Z. Nematollahi; S.M. Mojaverian; M. Hosseinzadeh
Abstract
Introduction: Attention to rural development than urban development in the third world not because of the majority of the population in rural areas, but also because it is the final solution to the problem of urban unemployment and decreasing the population density metropolis, development and improvement ...
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Introduction: Attention to rural development than urban development in the third world not because of the majority of the population in rural areas, but also because it is the final solution to the problem of urban unemployment and decreasing the population density metropolis, development and improvement of the rural environment. Rural tourism potentially can be considered as fundamental approaches in sustainable rural development. This study, using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is trying to prioritize the factors that affecting rural tourism in Mazandaran province whit scientific and practical point of view, then the best rural areas of the province identify and rank according to experts.
Materials and Methods: The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), introduced by Thomas Saaty (1980), is an effective tool for dealing with complex decision making and may aid the decision maker to set priorities and make the best decision. By reducing complex decisions to a series of pairwise comparisons, and then synthesizing the results, the AHP helps to capture both subjective and objective aspects of a decision. In addition, the AHP incorporates a useful technique for checking the consistency of the decision maker’s evaluations, thus reducing the bias in the decision-making process. The AHP can be implemented in three simple consecutive steps: 1) Computing the vector of criteria weights. 2) Computing the matrix of option scores. 3) Ranking the options.
Results and Discussion: The results and findings of this study showed that criteria related to infrastructure have the highest priority in terms of tourists and then cultural and social attractions, standards of facilities and tourist services and religious, historical and natural attractions is ranked. Incompatibility coefficient obtains less than 0.1, which indicates consistency in judgments. The results of prioritizing the following criteria shown; According to the provincial rural tourism security was the highest priority, weighing 0.077. The sanitary facilities of the path to the village, cleaning, environment and facilities, easy access road, holding traditional ceremonies and Accommodation in rural homes are ranked by the weight of 0.075, 0.066, 0.063, 0.063 and 0.062 in the second to sixth. The least important in rural tourism was the density of tourists and historical sites, by weight 0.022 and 0.037 respectively.
Then, to rank the target villages of rural tourism in the province, villages divided in the three villages, according to experts of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, including East villages, Galoogah, Behshahr, Nekah, Miandorood and Sari, central villages, including Savadkuh, Ghaemshahr, Jouibar, Babol, Babolsar, Fereydunkenar, Mahmudabad, Amol and Nour and villages in the West, including, Ramsar, Tonekabon, Abasabad, Chalus and Noshahr. Then, priorities that the region was carried out by rural tourism are used to compare and rank the three villages. For this purpose, the opinions of 11 experts and scholars of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism has been used. Thus, options (the target villages) have been compared and ranked according to expert opinions to that rural tourism prioritizes. Finally, the final weight and options priority have been made based on expert opinion and according to the priorities set by tourists. Based on expert opinion and according to the priorities set by the tourists, the highest priority to tourism was in west of the province and villages in Central and eastern provinces are the next priorities respectively.
Conclusion: Rural tourism potentially can be considered as fundamental approaches in sustainable rural development. This study, using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is trying to prioritize the factors that affecting rural tourism in Mazandaran province. The results and findings of this study showed that criteria related to infrastructure have the highest priority in terms of tourists and then cultural and social attractions, standards of facilities and tourist services and religious, historical and natural attractions ranked. Based on expert opinion and according to the priorities set by the tourists, the highest priority to tourism was in west of the province and villages in Central and Eastern provinces respectively are the next priorities. Thus, according to the results, equipping tourist attractions to levels of health services, providing facilities and financial resources to equip and organize existing settlements is suggested.
S.M. Mojaverian; F. Rasouli; S.A. Hosseini Yekani
Abstract
One of the farmers' marketing decisions is how to sell their products to the market. They sell their products in different ways, for example pre-sell, local dealers and wholesalers,. This paper aims at investigating citrus distribution channels and evaluation of factors affecting the choice of each ...
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One of the farmers' marketing decisions is how to sell their products to the market. They sell their products in different ways, for example pre-sell, local dealers and wholesalers,. This paper aims at investigating citrus distribution channels and evaluation of factors affecting the choice of each channels by Mazandaran ‘s producers. The data was collected by simple random sampling method. 252 farmers from 15 cities were interviewed in 2011. In order to conduct the study, the Method of three-layer Nested Logit model was used. The estimated results showed that the variables of the garden distance from nearest town, gardener experience, selling time, marketing costs, product type and dominant style of selling in the region are crucial factors in selecting the distribution channel. Each of these variables had different effect on selecting in each selling channels, Nevertheless, the variables of selling time and product type were of a greater importance.
M. Charmchian Langerodi
Abstract
During recent years the concept of farmer empowerment has been considered as an important part of many development organizations’ and NGOs’ policies for supporting agricultural and rural development. The overall goal of this study was modeling the farmers’ psychological empowerment indicators in ...
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During recent years the concept of farmer empowerment has been considered as an important part of many development organizations’ and NGOs’ policies for supporting agricultural and rural development. The overall goal of this study was modeling the farmers’ psychological empowerment indicators in Mazandaran province, Iran. To achieve this goal, farmers’ psychological empowerment indicators and affecting factors on farmers’ empowerment were identified in Mazandaran province. The statistical population included 1368233 farmers living in the Mazandaran province, Iran. The sample size was determined using Cochran’s formula. Stratified sampling with proportional allocation was used in this study. Research methodology applied in this study was a combination of descriptive-analytical and quantitative methods. To run the appropriate analyses, SPSS and LISREL softwares were employed. Cronbach’s alpha and ordinal theta were 0.91 and 0.91 respectively. The mean of farmers’ age and their farming experiences were respectively 49.31 and 25.58 years. 22 percent of farmers’ psychological empowerment variance was determined through four factors of farmers’ loan sources, solutions (positive factors), training methods and obstacles. The bank was found the primary source of loan fund for farmers. Among the solutions (positive factors), providing credits and loans to farmers was the most important in the farmers’ psychological empowerment in Mazandaran province. Low literacy level was found the main obstacle in empowering farmers. Participating in farmer field school was found the most useful method to empower the farmers.
H. Salami; H. Rafiee
Abstract
AbstractThis study investigates the presence of financial constraint and its possible effect on the level of rice production in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. To this end, an Indirect Production Function was estimated using 2007 crop year production data. Results support the claim that shortage of financial ...
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AbstractThis study investigates the presence of financial constraint and its possible effect on the level of rice production in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. To this end, an Indirect Production Function was estimated using 2007 crop year production data. Results support the claim that shortage of financial resources is a limiting factor in all cities in these two provinces such that the available financial resources in Gilan and Mazandaran is 23.01 percent and 21.04 percent, respectively, less than the amount required to finance optimum level of production. This limitation has resulted in a 24.78 percent and 23.22 percent decline in production, respectively in Gilan and Mazandaran, as compared to a non-constraint situation. Given the share of these two provinces in providing the rice product needed in the country, supplying sufficient level of financial resources can play a considerable role in reducing import of this product.