Investigation of sugar beet employment value in Iran

Sugar beet is one of the main crops in Iran that provides primary materials for sugar industries and so, its economic aspects are very important. One of these aspects is employment; it has begged to draw policy maker attentions. Nevertheless, there hasnot been any survey study on this matter in Iran yet. In this study, the current value of labor use in sugar beet cultivation (direct employment) in Isfahan, Khorasan, Fars and Kermanshah provinces was identified. Data were collected through stratified random sampling and complete farm accounting questionnaire for different technologies levels. Then, the labors needed to transfer of sugar beet to sugar industries and produce the products (sugar, Molasses and so on) from sugar beet (forward employment) were calculated. Data for these steps were gathered by completion of the questionnaires for each step. Results showed that the average use of labor was 140.48 man-day per hectare. This value was 153.31, 144.85 and 133.81 man-day in traditional, mechanized and semi-mechanized, respectively. Maximum uses of labors were in thining and weeding(41.43%), harvesting(39.11%) and irrigation(34.28%) activities. Also, the average use of labor in all of studied provinces was 43.68 man-day per ton of gross sugar yield from which 31.03 man-day (71.04%) was used in production step, 3.322 man-day (8.08%) in transfer step and 9.119 man-day (20.87%) in conversion step. Furthermore, the average use of labor was 7.15 man-day per ton of gross sugar yield in all steps and provinces. Therefore, 253207 people have been employed in sugar beet industry of Iran.