Cost-benefit analysis of medicinal-commercial cultivations in Khorasan Razavi province

The increasing need for pharmaceuticals and the processing of herbal medicinal products is quite tangible. Beyond that, there is a need to cultivate and increase the level of cultivation of medicinal species. In Iran, most of the medicinal plants used are harvested directly from their main habitat. This practice can not only threaten and degrade the habitat, but the collected product is not pure for various reasons and does not have desirable qualities. In the case of cultivating medicinal species and determining the amount of net income and their effective substances, they can be used as alternative cultivations for common plants in concerned areas. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to consider the economic aspect of cultivating medicinal plants. In this research, only medicinally important species cultivated in Khorasan Razavi Province are discussed, such as: Descurainia Sophia, Echium, Cuminum cyminum, Anethum graveolens, Satureja hortensis, Alpinia officinarum and Glycyrrhiza glabra. In 2012, two methods to collect data and statistics were used: documentary and survey. The statistical population of this study was farmers who were cultivating medicinal plants in Khorasan Razavi. They were selected from the cities of Sabzevar and part of Neyshabour by a cluster sampling method. The obtained data has undergone a cost-benefit analysis and a profitability analysis has been performed and interpreted. The results of this study indicated that the average total cost of production per hectare of Echium was 66 rials and average yield was 514 million. Costs for Descurainia Sophia were 7.4 rials and yield was 68 million. For Cuminum cyminum, the cost was 11.4 rials and yield was 2/58 million. Anethum graveolens cost 57.7 and yielded 343 million. Satureja hortensis cost 13.8 and yielded 80 million. Alpinia officinarum cost 8.5 and yielded 15 million. Cost for Glycyrrhiza glabra was 9.4 million rials per hectare with a yield of 51 million. The results of the study also showed that the average profit for farmers per hectare was 448.60 million for Echium, 282 million for Descurainia Sophia, 46.8 million for Cuminum cyminum, 285 million for Anethum graveolens, 66 million for Satureja hortensis, 7 million for Alpinia officinarum and 42 million for Glycyrrhiza glabra. Therefore, Echium and Anethum graveolens had the highest production costs, while Descurainia Sophia and Alpinia officinarum were the least expensive to produce. The highest income came from Echium production and the lowest income was from Alpinia officinarum. Echium was thus both the costliest to produce but also provided the highest income. The lowest profit came from producing Cuminum cyminum. The cost-benefit ratio for all medicinal plants were greater than one, indicating that the cultivation of medicinal plants has economic justification. The highest cost-benefit ratio was with Descurainia Sophia at 9.14 and Satureja hortensis at 7.65, which is very high. The lowest ratio is about 1.69 with Alpinia officinarum The results of the research show that the cultivation of medicinal plants under the study primarily, has the cost-benefit more than one and therefore has economic benefits. Secondly, the cultivation of one hectare of herbs requires less water consumption than other crops and orchards. Therefore, medicinal plant cultivation is recommended to farmers