An Integrated Investigation into the Socioeconomic Factors Threatening Crop Marketing: A Comparative Study on Faryab Province of Afghanistan and the Sistan Region of Iran

The income and livelihood of most rural families in Iran and Afghanistan depend on the agricultural sector. This sector is the most significant source of employment in these countries. However, crop marketing is in inferior condition in these countries. The present research s primary goal is to explore and identify the most important barriers and problems of crop marketing in Iran and Afghanistan. The research is an applied study in goal and uses a mixedmethod (qualitative and quantitative). The data collection instrument was a questionnaire filled by experts in Faryab province Afghanistan and experts in Iran s Sistan region. So, a total of 40 Afghani and Iranian experts were asked to fill out the questionnaire. The Afghan experts included academic teachers and the senior employees of agriculture, irrigation, and finance and the Iranian experts included academic teachers and the employees of the Agriculture Jahad Organization. The fuzzy SAW technique was used in MCDMsolver 2018 for modeling. The results are presented with reasoning from the perspectives of the Iranian and Afghan experts. The results as to the opinions of 20 Iranian experts and 20 Afghan experts about eight criteria and 40 sub-criteria were divided into different steps and were analyzed with tables and graphs. From the viewpoint of the Iranian experts, the sub-criteria of ‘insufficient infrastructure facilities’ with a weight of 2.574, ‘abuse of brokers and intermediaries in reducing crop prices’ with a weight of 2.508, ‘lack of supporting financial institutions with a weight of 2.444, ‘lack of capital and credit’ with a weight of 2.409, and ‘the difference between on-farm crop prices and market prices’ with a weight of 2.371 were the first to fifth most important challenge, respectively and the sub-criterion of ‘mass media coverage with a weight of 0.066 was ranked the last. Nevertheless, the Afghan experts ranked ‘lack of capital and credit’ with a weight of 2.574, ‘lack of supporting financial institutions with a weight of 2.508, ‘the difference between on-farm crop prices and market prices’ with a weight of 2.443, ‘abuse of brokers and intermediaries in reducing crop prices’ with a weight of 2.409, and ‘insufficient infrastructure facilities’ with a weight of 2.376 from the first to the fifth, respectively. They put ‘failure to pre-purchase crops by the government’ in the last rank.