Investment Priorities in the Agricultural Sector of Iran

Expanding production and development of the agricultural sector requires increased investment in this sector. But financial constraints to investment and high risk of investments in production activities on the one hand, and multiplicity of needs and goals on the other hand, have made planning and investment prioritization in agricultural sector inevitable.
In this study to determine investment priorities in the agricultural sector, methods of numerical Taxonomy and Topsis were used and agricultural sub-sectors utilizing the indicators related to the subject and base on statistics collected for a five-year period(2002-2006) have ranked. It has been found that during this period the farming and horticulture have the highest investment priority comparing to other agricultural sub-sectors. Then animal husbandary, forest and pasture and fisheries sub-sectors have next priorities in investment respectively. Therefore, It is suggested that government orientate locate support policies and measearments base on investment priorities in sub-sector of agriculural sector.

JEL Classification: Q14,Q18,E22

Keywords:
Investment Priorities, Agricultural Sub Sectors, Numerical Taxonomy, Topsis Method