Economic analysis the effects of increase saffron acreage on cropping pattern, the consumption of inputs and farmer's gross profit in Qazvin plain

Relatively good income, short period of cultivation and limited water requirement of saffron, farmers of Qazvin Plain made intend to cultivation of this product in their fertile lands in recent years. For this purpose, in present study the effects of increase acreage of saffron on cropping pattern, farmers' gross profit and the consumption of inputs were investigated. To achieve this goal, from Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) model and product function with Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) were used. The required data are related to years 2012-2013 that by completing the questionnaires from 127 sample farmers were collected. The results showed that with the arrival of saffron to the current pattern of representative farms, cropping pattern changes in site reducing the acreage of products with more cost and higher water requirement such as corn, sugar beet and canola in small farms (from -1/78 to-13/9 percent), medium farms (from -4/92 to-14/1 percent) and large farms (from -7/05 to-16/4 percent). In this regard the farmers with large farms experiences the most changes in the current cropping pattern.