AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF THE POTENTIAL THE EXPAND IN SUGAR CROPS IN EGYPT | ||||
Journal of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences | ||||
Article 3, Volume 31, Issue 8, August 2006, Page 5141-5155 PDF (270.95 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/jaess.2006.157622 | ||||
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Authors | ||||
A. A. EI- Shaer; M. Gh. Mahdy | ||||
Agricultural Economics Dept.. Fac. of Agric.. Suez Canal University | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Sugar is one of the essential food products in Egypt and impairs attention of economic policy makers. Sugar production is mainly depending upon sugarcane and sugar beet as their contributions were 73.2% and 26.8% respectively of the total production of sugar in Egypt which was 1369.5 thousand tons representing about 62.2% of the domestic consumption in year 2004. The study aims at determining the optimal products combinations of sugarcane and sugar beet to achieve high rates of self-sufficiency and return maximization under the constraints both of water and arable lands scarcity. The results showed that the supplier area of sugarcane is growing in decreased rate as it reached about 253 thousand feddans as an average the period (2000-2004) representing about 79.7% of the total area of sugarcane in Egypt. On the other hand. the supplier area of sugar beet was doubled as it registered 141 thousand feddan as an average of the same period with increasing rate by 350% comparing with its counterpart in 19805. The supply elasticity of the sugarcane was inelastic (0.18). Conversely, the supply elasticity of sugar beet was unitary (1.03). The domestic production of sugar was 1.369 million tons as an average of the period 2000-2004 with increasing rate of 75.6% and 26.8% respectively comparing with its counterpart in 19805 and 19905. The domestic consumption of sugar was 1.981 million ions as an average of the mentioned period with increasing of 44.3% and 34.4% comparing with its counterpart in 19805 and 19905. The operation efficiency of the sugarcane factories reached 92% while it was 78% in sugar beat factories. The actual production sugarcane was more than those in Optimal combination. in contrary, the actual production of sugar beet was less than those in the optimal combination. The return gained from optimal combination was more than the actual combination by 16% in the light of the average prices of the two crops during the period (1982 - 2004) The marginal rate of substitution between the supplied sugarcane and sugar beet. as resources to produce sugar. was -1.119 indicating that one ton increase in supplied sugar beet will lead to 1.19 ton decrease in supplied sugarcane. The optimal combination leads to increasing in self-sufficiency from sugar by 82% in the light of the average prices during the period (1982 — 2004). On the other side. the self-sufficiency reached about 87% in year 2004 and reached about 91% in the light of the increase of sugar beet prices by 20%. | ||||
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