An economic evaluation of Iranian public agricultural R&D policy: The case of sugarbeet

Despite its long tradition in the economic literature, there is no acceptable economic evaluation of Iranian public agricultural R&D policy mainly because of the lack of reliable estimates of supply shift parameter. Sugarbeet is chosen as a case for the estimation of the parameter using the method developed here and then the efficiency of the public investment in sugarbeet research is evaluated using the ordinary cost–benefit analysis. Research station records for 1982–2004 are used to estimate annual changes in beet attributes of root yield and sugar content and the estimates are used to make an evaluation of Iranian beet research investment. The results showed that the investment led to an average of 7.18% annual increase in beet sugar supply during the period (composing of +7.74% change in root yield index and −0.5% change in sugar content index) giving an internal rate of return of 32% (or an NPV/ha of $69) to this investment. It is concluded that although the investment has been profitable in comparison to other public investment projects, the efficiency of the policy is not comparable to that common in the literature and a revision in the policy is proposed.