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Abstract

Apple is considered as the most important horticultural product in Urmia province. Economizing on the production costs of this product can increase its production profitability. Both theory and empirical studies indicate that scale and size of production activity may have important effects on the cost of production, the verification of which is the purpose of this study carried on apple production in Nazloo region of Urmia county. By selecting ten villages and in each village a sample number of apple producers, while using stratified random method, 188 producers were selected. Through interview, and completion of questionnaires the necessary data were collected. The results of statistical analysis, using regression method and SPSS software, showed that in a wide range of land sizes of existing orchards there was an inverse relation between costs of production Vs. orchard size, as well as revenue. The results show that orchards with size of about 2.5 hectares had the least cost per hectare and per unit revenue. Considering the fact that most orchards in the region under study are smaller than 2.5 hectares the implication is that consolidating the small orchards into larger ones increases the scale and size of production activities which in turn can cause economy in the production costs and increase in the profitability of apple production.

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