Prof.Dr.Ali Darub Kassar

Dept. of Agricultural Economics

According to Prof. Gray, “Agricultural economics is but a stage in a formidable field called economics in which primary attention is given to the analysis of economic problems associated with agriculture. It is more deeply and according to Snograss and Wallace, an applied stage in the social sciences of economics in which attention is given to all aspects of problems relating to agriculture. Perhaps it is useful to say that the modern world is moving towards embracing inventions in all fields. In the field of agriculture, modern inventions are almost taking up space, making global production of crops, food and commodities rise in rates, sometimes reaching the point of throwing the surplus into the sea for fear of low prices without taking into account the needs of others in poor countries. The important thing here is profit and nothing else. This is what refuted the theory of the English scientist Malthus, which he developed in 1798, which asserts that the pace of population growth is faster than the pace of agricultural crop production and the quantities of food available for consumption, which portends serious economic and social problems, the most important of which is hunger and poverty. One of the most important things that Malthus neglected in his theory is the scientific progress that allows to increase the productivity of the land and thus increase the total production of crops and then food, which means a great victory for humanity in overcoming the problems of food shortage despite what we hear about the existence of great famines in the world that could have We will overcome it if food is distributed to everyone more fairly, and if politics does not interfere in that.

What I want to say here is that the world is looking at the scientific progress that has been achieved, which had a price offered by humanity through the efforts of its scientists, inventors and scientific theorists. And here is the point... and here lies the importance of economics in general and agricultural economics in particular. Here we are talking about the inventions made by those with scientific specializations in agriculture. Here we limit the matter to agriculture because it is related to our article here. Scientists have made many of these inventions easy for us to obtain food and increase productivity significantly, but the matter does not stop at this point, but rather the invention should be, as well as its originality, beneficial in economic terms. Here the role of agricultural economics emerges with one of its most important branches, which is feasibility studies and project evaluation. What is the point of an invention being very expensive compared to the benefits it will provide? That is why we find that international companies when they turn to a new idea or a new invention, and in order to adopt it, they look at it from many aspects, the most important of which is the economic aspect. Many economic terms emerge here such as the rate of financial return, the payback period, the net present value, or the ratio of benefits to costs. The idea may be new, but it is expensive, and then there is no need for it.

And the matter is not limited to the issue of inventions, but it extends to all studies in various agricultural disciplines such as animal production, field crops, food sciences, agricultural mechanization and others. But the matter will be more positive if the matter is taken from an economic point of view, then the study will be scientifically available on the specialized and economic aspects. The fertilizer may be good from a technical point of view, but it is costly from an economic point of view, that is, the ratio of benefits to costs will be less than one. In other words, the ratio of costs is greater than benefits, and here we say that the benefit is negated unless it is taken into account that social benefits are not concerned with the economic aspect as much as they are concerned. Providing food for the community.

The role of agricultural economics is no less important than the role of other sciences, as they complement each other. Many university theses in technical disciplines in agriculture (if it is true to say) sometimes need to include a researcher in agricultural economics among its members, and the same thing when the theses is in agricultural economics, we sometimes need a researcher in field crops, soil, horticulture or soil to complete the research idea and the results will be promising and real, so it is not seen from the economic side without the technical side or the technical side without the economic side. Finally, it must be said that the developed world would not have progressed without taking all scientific aspects into consideration.