The index numbers of the agricultural sector in Iraq 1970-1981 - Calculation and evaluation.

Index number is useful when the measurements are in different units, and it can be applied to different sectors of economic activity, as well as having many other applications. A main aim of this study is to construct national index numbers for both the agricultural production and ex-farm prices for agricultural production of the agriculture sector of Iraq and to evaluate these indices during the period of the study. These indices are used instead of the indices that are constructed by Central Statistical Organization of Iraq using the Laspeyres formula, to find direct index number. This index is facing some problems: 1) It cannot be used over a long period of time. 2) The list of items cannot be add or deducted from. Therefore, to avoid these problems the chain index number is used in this study. The Fisher formula is used in calculations to give results which can be maintained to be unbiased because Laspeyres formula has an upward biased result and Paasche result is downward biased. The chain Fisher index number with a moving average is employed to avoid the effects of the undetermined factors on the construction of index number. The effects of the annual temperature as one of the undetermined factors is tested. The moving average on which the construction of index number depends as weight is tested to explain the undetermined factors. The index number of production is used to find the productivity of the cultivated area for annually growing crops. The relation between the productivity, cultivated area indices, production indices and ex-farm prices is tested depending on the test hypothesis for the rank correlation coefficient for all these indicators.