Investigating the advantage in the production of horticultural and agricultural products in Mazandaran province: An applied approach based on relative advantage profiles

Achieving sustainable food security due to climate changes and the ever-increasing need for food requires knowing the production capacity of agricultural products in the region. Paying attention to the development of cultivated area and increasing the yield of agricultural products is an effective step towards realizing the goals of production self-sufficiency. In this regard, the present study investigates the advantage of producing horticultural and agricultural products in Mazandaran province in the crop year of 2017. To achieve this goal, three indexes RCA, RSCA and 2 were used. The results showed that among horticultural products, raspberry has the highest advantage in production in the small grain group with RCA equal to 17.82 and RSCA equal to 0.89 in Ramsar and Tenkabon cities. Also, among the agricultural products, sesame has the highest advantage in production in the group of industrial products with RCA equal to 24.71 and RSCA equal to 0.92 in Faridunknar city. However, the obtained results from the 2index for raspberry equal to 12.46 in Ramsar and Tankabon cities and for sesame equal to 13.67 in Feridunkan city showed that despite having an advantage in the production of these two products, they have a low competitiveness compared to the average production of the province. . Also, the results of the correlation test showed that Mazandaran province is weak in terms of yield advantage and the advantage in production is mostly due to the advantage of cultivated area. As a result, policies in this sector should be directed towards improving the yield of agricultural and horticultural crops.