Investigating the position of sugar beet in the agricultural sector of Khorasan Razavi province from the point of view of agricultural sector policy makers and users

With the continuation of droughts and the severe reduction of the countries water resources on the one hand and the sometimes very severe fluctuations in the price of agricultural products on the other hand, attention to the pattern of agricultural products has been specially paid attention to by the statesmen. With the notification of the cultivation pattern program by the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad and its implementation in the country, its successful implementation depends on policies to ensure the interests of farmers as the final decision maker. Considering the importance of sugar beet in supplying the country's sugar needs and also providing feed for sugar beet factories, the competitiveness of this product among other products has become particularly important to enter the cultivation pattern. Therefore, in this research, the status of sugar beet in Razavi Khorasan province was investigated among crops in terms of relative advantage and income indicators. The required information was extracted from the crop production cost system of the Ministry of Jihad Agriculture between 2015 and 2018. The results of the study showed that in 60% of the cities of Razavi Khorasan province where sugar beet cultivation is done, this product has a relative advantage. The degree of this advantage is stable and acceptable (more than 7) in 40% of the cities. In most of the cities, with a large difference, the rank of sugar beet net income index among agricultural crops is better than the rank of relative advantage. Therefore, in the conditions of liberalization and creation of free trade and elimination of domestic support, this product in some regions, is not able to compete and is removed from the production cycle. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the competitiveness of this product with other crops by increasing productivity through increasing yield and reducing costs.