Hassan Rohani , Ahmad Mohammadi , Hamida Heydari
Afghanistan is an agricultural country whose economy is also dependent
on agriculture, but still, about two-thirds of Afghanistan's arable land is deprived
of agriculture or is cultivated for a season due to mismanagement of water
resources. On the other hand, for the growth of Afghanistan's economy, it is
necessary to export its agricultural products to foreign markets in order to
strengthen the country's economy. Due to the importance of this issue, this study
has tried to examine the comparative advantage of saffron, apple and grape
products, which are among the major agricultural products of Afghanistan
among ECO member countries during the years 2005-2018. To measure the
comparative advantage of agricultural products, Balasa comparative advantage
index has been used and the results of cultivars calculated using Balasa
comparative advantage index formula showed that the comparative advantage
for all three products of saffron, apple and grape in the period 2005-2018 The
results are 26.00952175, 38.7957636 and 38.58484423, respectively, which is
higher than (1) for all three products, so the findings indicate that Afghanistan
has a comparative advantage in the export of saffron, apples and grapes.