The Ranking of Sugar Beet production Areas in Iran Based on Physical Advantage Indexes of Production

Determining the relative advantage of producing agricultural products in different regions is one of the important aspects of agricultural policy and planning, based on which an appropriate pattern of production and cultivation can be achieved in different regions according to the existing conditions in each region. The present study aimed to prioritize the sugar beet producing provinces in the country based on the indices of physical advantage of production and their fluctuation coefficient within the period of 1983-2019 using numerical taxonomy method. Results showed that during a period of 36 years, the provinces of South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi and West Azerbaijan had the highest average of scale advantage index (SAI), and the highest average of efficiency advantage index (EAI) was achieved in the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah and Ardabil as 2.90, 2.20, and 1.80, respectively. Based on the results of collective advantage (AAI), the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan with 0.10, 0.22 and 0.33 had the lowest coefficient of fluctuation of the collective index and with 1.93, 14.14 and 1.74, respectively had the highest average of collective advantage among all the provinces of the country.