Estimating the Economic Losses of Dust Storms on Agriculture Sector in the Western Provinces of the Iran

Abstract Dust storm during the last ten years has made economic, social and environmental massive losses on the western provinces of Iran. Estimating the economic losses of dust storm helps to determine the cost - benefit of executive plans and actions. In this study, a part of the dust storm losses on the economy of highly vulnerable regions (West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Hamedan and Lorestan provinces) are estimated in the form of agricultural output value for the period 2006-2012 using parametric methods. The results show that under the four scenarios ten, twenty, thirty and forty percent decrease in agricultural output value, total economic losses to the agricultural of dust storms in four provinces during the study period were up to 4446, 10003, 17147 and 26674 million dollars respectively. In 2009 each closing day that officially announced by local government because of dust storm, has caused 49 million dollars lose based on "provincial value added" computation and 102 million dollars based on "average national value added" in these four provinces. In order to deal with the storm of dust and reduce its impact, assessment of all damages and dust storms, estimating the costs for dust control centers, develop a plan for dust control centers into a regional protocol, follow up the natural rights of citizens through regional and international organizations, encourage the Iraqi government to control the dust and compensate the economic losses incurred by farmers in selected provinces by government are recommended.