An Economic Evaluation of Iranian Horticultural Research

This paper examines the economic effects of investment in developingand introducing almond late flowering cultivars (alfc)in a period of 52 years from 1968 to 2020, developed in sahandhorticultural research station (shrs), using the economic surplusmodel and field survey data. alfc make almond supply curvemove less to the left when there is a chilling case, thus affect theeconomic surplus of producers and consumers. results showed thatbecause of alfc, economic surplus of producers and consumershad been increased about 0.4 and 0.6 million us dollars, respectivelythat the share of consumers from benefits was 58 percent. the socialnet present value of alfc regarding to the cost of research andextension was about 0.1 million us dollars. it was identified thatthe internal rate of return in developing and introducing of alfchad been about 11%. the findings expressed that if the research investmentin alfc could keep the position of almond supply curveunchanged unless the weather conditions, then the economic surplusof producers and consumers would decreased 3 and 4.2 million usdollars less annually, respectively and internal rate of return inalmond research would be 33 %. comparing the results showed thatthe introduction of late flowering cultivars could reduce the loss only4 % per hectare. the results illustrated that investment in r&e ofalmond could make supply curve shift less in chilling situationbecause of decrease in cultivation cost, but it is necessary to enhancealmond yield too. the findings identify that the efficiency of currentsystem of r&e for almond is low. so it is a necessity to find waysfor make better the r&e performance in iran.