Agricultural and Rural Economics

Agricultural and Rural Economics

Evaluation of Guaranteed Price Policy on Sugar Beet Cultivation (Case study: Mahidshat Plain)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Economic, Social and Extension Research Department, Gilan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Rasht, Iran.
2 Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. Iran.
Abstract
In the present study, the effects of guaranteed price’s political tools on crop area (with an emphasis on sugar beet production), consumption of inputs and ultimately gross margin in Mahidasht plain were investigated. For this purpose, two-stage simple random sampling method was used to collect information from farmers and then the Agricultural Center and Regional Water in the town. For data analyzing and modeling, the Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) model with the cost function approach was used by GAMS software and the effects of guaranteed price’s political tools were explored under three scenarios including; price based on the exchange rate of the government currency, the integrated system of currency transactions and the continue of the policy in the current form. The results showed that only the second scenario increased the sugar beet crop area and has continued towards the sugar self-sufficiency. Under this scenario, increased use of potassium fertilizers and other poisons is not significant in compare with phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, in order to encourage the farmers to the sugar self-sufficiency, the government needs to refine the price policy on the basis of real prices.
Keywords