Comparative Advantage, Self-sufficiency and Food Security in Iran: Case Study of Wheat Commodity

Food security has a dynamic notion during the time andmay be affected by various domestic and global factors.nevertheless, iranian policy makers consider food security assame as self-sufficiency in agricultural food products, particularlywheat production. however, self-sufficiency can contribute tofood security only if it is in coincidences with comparative advantageand sustainable resource management. the presentstudy aims to investigate the coincidences of self-sufficiencyand comparative advantage and the real impact of selfsufficiencyon net social benefit as a measure of food security;by developing a policy analysis matrix (pam) to analyze thetrend of comparative advantage and self-sufficiency measuresfor the past decade. the data for wheat input-output quantitiesand their domestic prices during the period of study wereobtained from production and cost system of agriculturalproducts, and other relevant information collected from worldbank statistics and fao database. the results showed that theself-sufficiency policy through price supports, inputs and creditsubsidies and research and extension programs, has increasedthe physical productivity of wheat farms as well as increasedthe area under cultivation. however, the net social profit ofwheat production was negative during the period of study, indicatinga negative effect of self-sufficiency policy on the foodsecurity.