Productivity analysis of sericulture in Northern Iran

Increasing productivity is the best and most efficient way for achieving economic growth in the agriculture sector. Guilan province in northern Iran is a leading region in sericulture production in Iran. The production of sericulture has been very volatile and in recent years as a significant proportion of the producers was out of production. This study investigates Total Factor Productivity (TFP) changes and its components in the sericulture system of Guilan province, Northern Iran, during 2007-2016. For this purpose, non-parametric Malmquist index and panel data of 15 counties over 11 years were used. Results show that only Talesh and Rudsar counties achieved productivity growth during the period analysed. Moreover, three counties of Astana-Ashrafieh, Lahijan and Masal & Shandermann experienced negative changes in efficiency and technology, which resulted in a significant negative change in TFP. Among understudy counties, only Sowme’ehSara County had year-to-year increase in productivity over the period 2007 to 2016. Furthermore, the counties of Roodsar and the Sowme’ehSara had the highest and
lowest fluctuations of year-to-year TFP, respectively. The average of TFP change for all counties was negative. Overall, findings show that with the exception of the years 2011, 2014 and 2016, the major changes in TFP all occurred due to technology change.