Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

COMPARISON OF COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE OF VALUE-ADDED IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR OF DIFFERENT REGIONS OF A COUNTRY (CASE STUDY: ARDEBIL PROVINCE - IRI)

Behnam Azadi and Askar Sangi

Abstract

Using the comparative advantage theory is one of the ways of identifying different regions potential for regional optimized planning. Comparative advantage is one of the important economic measures for planning, production, exporting and importing and it means capability of a region in producing a goods using the minimum amount of cost. The present research studies agriculture sector comparative advantage in Iran's provinces concerning value-added and on the basis of the most recent edition of national accounts system (SNA93). Through calculating the evident comparative advantage index and symmetrical comparative advantage index, results from the present research show that Ardebil province enjoys comparative advantage in agriculture sector. Concerning the comparison among other provinces it became clear that Ardebil province has allocated the second rank for itself in Iran. Thus, Ardebil province is an appropriate place for developing the investment in agriculture sector and development programs of this province should be planned taking the hierarchy in agriculture sector into account.