New Approach to Aricaulture Sector: Environmentla Costs of Agri-Sector in Iran

Although agricultural activities have economic benefits such as increased production and national income, create jobs and provide food for the community but it also influenced the environment and human health because of the negative side affects. These effects  called externalities in production in economics literature and are generally there is no market for theme. These externalities could seen in, water resources, soil, air and human health sectors.
This paper uses published information to analysis the externalities of agriculture sector in Iran. In this regard, the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in this sector and comparison between Iran and some selected countries will be discussed. The results indicate that for one dollar of value added in Iran's agriculture sector; consumption of fertilizer, nitrates, pesticides is more than industrialized countries. Beside these, over using of water in Iran's agricultural sector leads this sector externality to be high. Therefore, the regulatory policies and standards as well as the use of economic instruments such as taxes and tariffs and other motivational factors are required to reduce externalities and facilitate achieving sustainability in the sector and other sectors of the economy.