Effect of Energy Price Liberalization on Corn self-sufficiency in Iran

liberalization of energy price increases costs of agricultural inputs and costs of agricultural production. All these changes may affect the overall competitiveness of domestic products with similar foreign products. As a result of that, total cost of agricultural products are increased and profitability are decreased. In this paper, energy consumption for producing Corn were calculated using cost- production database from Jahad-Keshavarzi for the years 2001-2010. Then, the cost function, production function and demand function for this crop were estimated in the form of panel data structure. Furthermore, the import function of corn and the associated elasticity were calculated using time series data for the years 1981-2000. The results show that, for the corn production, the elasticity of energy input and price elasticity of energy demand are 2.47 and -0.005, respectively. Considering to the fact that the production elasticity in the import function is -0/83, every one percent increase in the price of fuel due to the energy price liberalization policy increases the import of corn by 0/01 percent. Accordingly, increasing energy price has a negative effect on the food self-sufficiency that is one of the main objectives of the fifth national development plan. Ultimately, it is proposed that policy makers provide corn producers with more supports in order to reduce the negative effect of energy price liberalization on the national corn products.