Estimating the Share of Agribusinesses in Iran's Gross Domestic Product and Aanalyzing the Reasons for Changes in Its Components.

Since the 1960s and the reduction in the share of agricultural sector in GDP in different countries, based on extensive forward and backward linkages of the agricultural sector, the concept of agribusiness has been introduced to explain the valuable contribution of agriculture to the national economy. This paper estimates the share of agribusiness in gross domestic product using input-output tables for 1986, 1991, 2001, and 2016. The results showed that the contribution of agribusinesses to GDP was about 2.5 times that of agricultural production (the average share of agribusinesses in 1986-2016 was about 23%, while the corresponding figure for agricultural value added was 9.25%). In a similar trend to developing and developed countries, the share of agribusinesses in GDP had decreased from 27.2 to 17% in 1986-2016. However, the examination of the components of agribusinesses in Iran compared to other countries shows significant differences, which can be attributed to Iran's arid and semi-arid climate, low rate of capital formation, low productivity of production factors, as well as lack of participation in regional and global chains due to long-term sanctions imposed on the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]