A Survey of Support in Irans Agricultural Sector and its Comparison with Some Selected Countries (in Persian)

The support of agricultural sector is adopted in various countries of the globe through different means and mostly with the aims such as increasing farmers incomes, protecting domestic products, ending dependence (on foreign goods), augmenting employment and reducing poverty. This paper tries to survey the support policies in agricultural sector in different countries as far as their components and extent are concerned and they are, in turn, compared to those of the support policies in Irans agricultural sector. In order to do that, the researchers have made use of Support Measurement Indicators, used in OECD member countries . The results show rather high support in various countries though there are differences in the extent and types of policies adopted. A comparison detween the level of support in agricultural sectors of Iran and OECD countries reveal that Producer Support Estimate (PSE) in Iran is two-third of that in OECD countries. General Services Support Estimates (GSSE) out of total support in Iran is less than those of OECD countries. Regarding consumer support, despite the presence of taxes on consuming agricultural products in OECD countries, considerable amount of subsidies have been allotted to in Iran. Meanwhile, considering rather high share of agricultural sector in Irans economy, it should be noted that its Total Support Estimate (TSE) out of GDP is higher than of OECD countries.