Examining Subsidy Polices on Maize Production in

Among the agricultural important factors, inputs are themost significant in agricultural production. this articleaimed to examine the impact of government subsidy policieson production of one of the most strategic products, namelymaize, in iran. to achieve this goal, panel data for the nineprovinces of iran's major producers of maize during the periodof 1999-2007, is used. in this study, first the country's maizeproduction function has been estimated by using data informationfor inputs: chemical fertilizer, labor, water, seeds and pesticides.and then, calculating the partial elasticity of production factors,sensitivity of production to changes in the value of inputs isevaluated. also, using a methodology based on the maximumprofit, inputs´ demand function is calculated.results of analyzinggovernment subsidy policy showed that, paying subsidy tochemical fertilizer decreases maize production 0.412 percent,because of low demand elasticity of this input. also accordingto subsidy of seed, with regard to low demand elasticity ofthis input to its price, paying subsidy that decreases seed price,wouldn´t have so high effect on its consumption and consequently,on production growth, so that maize production only increased0.478 percent due to paying subsidy to seed.