Rate of return on investments in sugar beet breeding research in Iran

The main objective of this study was to investigate the economic efficiency of investment in sugar beet breeding research in Iran. The required information including the value and cost of sugar beet production in 2010 and the budget allocated to the sugar beet breeding research were obtained from the Office of Statistics and Information Technology of Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture and Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, respectively. After estimating a function in which the dependent variable was crop value, and the independent variables were conventional inputs (water, labor, seed, etc.) and research expenditure costs, the research rate of return was determined using average production, marginal production, and the rate of investment interest. According to the results, the amount of marginal production of sugar beet breeding research cost variable was 10.93 Rials. The range of variations in rate of return in sugar beet breeding research investment was 48.97% and 37.56% for times lags of 6 and 7.5 years, respectively. Finally, the rate of return of sugar beet breeding research investment in the median of the above-mentioned range was 42.52%. The finding confirms that any investment in sugar beet breeding research in Iran would be economic.