Rice protection policies in Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

    Rice is a strategic agricultural product in Iran. It has been a major imported agricultural commodity for the past two decades in this country. The main purpose of this study has been to analyze the protection of the major rice varieties in Iran. The official data from agricultural ministry (during1994-2000) were applied to measure the market price support, and payments based on use of inputs (input support) for the Iranian major rice varieties, especially in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces.   Results show that the qualified long-grain rice variety has benefited from the highest market price support in the Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. But input based payments may have different effects on production and trade in comparison with the output bases payments, depending on the kind of input. Also, the results show that, although the qualified long-grain rice has the most portion of the production volume in the Mazandaran province, but the high-yield long-grain rice gains the highest portion of input supports, because of more use of inputs per hectare. Finally, the qualified long-grain rice gains more input support, because of having more cultivation area in the both provinces.