اقتصاديات إنتاج محصول القطن في محافظة البحيرة

Abstract EN

The research aimed to study the economics of cotton production in Egyptian agriculture and Beheira Governorate and to estimate the most important productivity indicators, feddan profitability indicators and the most important determinants of crop production, in addition to identifying the most important problems facing cotton farmers,The results showed that both the area of the cotton crop and the quantity of its production in Egyptian agriculture took a decreasing trend during the study period, while the feddan productivity was characterized by relative stability during the same period.

It was also found that the value of the coefficient of variation of the farm price, production costs, and net return per feddan increased during the study period, which is an indication of the high degree of risk facing cotton farmers in Egypt.

From the study of the research sample, it was found that the amount of human labor per feddan decreased with the increase in the capacity of the farm holding, which amounted to about 54.4, 47.2, 45.9 men/day for the three categories, respectively, in contrast to the work of machinery services, which increases with the increase in the capacity of the farm holding, which amounted to about 30.2, 34.5, 38.53 hours for the three categories, respectively.

The feddan productivity increased by increasing the capacity of the farm, reaching about 7.25, 7.95, 8.25 quintals/feddan for the three categories, respectively, and it was found that there were statistically significant differences between the average productivity of the research sample categories.

It was clear from the estimated production functions that the most important determinants of cotton production are human labor, mechanical work, and agricultural pesticides, and that the farms in the three sample categories do not achieve efficiency in the use of resources, but rather that there is an extravagance in the use of some of them, such as human labor in the first category, to the extent that it achieved negative marginal productivity.

The value of the marginal rate of technological substitution of mechanical work with human work decreases with the increase in the amount used in the production process, which is consistent with economic logic.

The most important problems facing cotton farmers in the research sample in Beheira governorate were the problem of high agricultural labor wages, the lack of sufficient labor during the harvest season, the failure to set a guarantee price for the crop in sufficient time before planting, and the problem of the difficulty of marketing production in previous seasons with a relative importance of 95%, 93%, 90%, 88% of the opinions of farmers in the research sample.

In light of the foregoing results, the study recommends that in order to advance the cotton crop and to complement the success of the marketing system for the 2021 season, it is necessary to reduce marketing risks and protect farmers from price fluctuations by declaring a guarantee price for the crop before planting a sufficient time, as well as switching to machine harvesting of the crop due to the high labor cost and its insufficient availability in the harvest season, especially since there are many countries that preceded us in this field.

The pest control of the crop is of great importance, and the control of the market for agricultural pesticides must be tightened and the process of cheating reduced, as well as the provision of agricultural fertilizers to agricultural associations in sufficient and timely manner.