Determining Crop Cultivation Pattern of Semnan Province Using Regional Comparative Advantage Criteria

Background and Objectives: To achieve economic development, it is necessary to exploit all the country's capacities at the national and regional levels. For this purpose, it is necessary to identify the crops that have comparative advantage in each region. Since no research has been done in determining appropriate crop cultivation pattern in Semnan province, based on regional comparative advantage indices, therefore, in this study, appropriate crop cultivation pattern has been determined according to the capabilities of Semnan province and their regional comparative advantage.
Materials and Methods: The statistical sample includes: Semnan, Shahroud, Damghan, Garmsar, Mahdishahr, Aradan, Miami and Sorkheh township and the study period is from 2017 to 2019. Necessary data have been collected through statistical reports of the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad. The calculations were performed by using Excel computer program. The area under crop cultivation, production quantity, and crop yield are the main data in the calculations. The calculated indices in this research are: Efficiency advantage, scale advantage and aggregative advantage. The mentioned indices were calculated through the ratio of yield and cultivated area of ​​each product in the township in question compared to the entire province.
Results: The results showed that current crop cultivation pattern in Semnan province should be improved and production of summer crops and forage, which have comparative advantage, should be increased. Also, due to the rainfall deficiency and dry weather in the recent years, rainfed cultivation of many crops has lost its economic justification, and only irrigated cultivation of some crops is recommended.
Conclusion: By modifying and optimizing the crop cultivation pattern and growing of crops that require less water, the production efficiency of these crops can be increased. Therefore, it is suggested to produce summer crops and forage that require less water.