Production Problems Facing Cotton Crop Farmers in Some Villages of Qantara East and Qantara West, Ismailia... | ||||
| Alexandria Science Exchange Journal | ||||
| Article 15, Volume 46, Issue 2, June 2025, Page 231-248 PDF (447.04 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2025.422401 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
Afaf Abd el Fattah Galal Awadalla  1; Mohamed H. Y. Abd El Nabi* 1; Sami S. M. Badr* 2
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| 1Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Research Institute - Agricultural Research Center | ||||
| 2Cotton Research Institute - Regional Evaluation Research Division. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This research mainly aimed to identify the most important problems facing cotton growers when producing it in some villages in Ismailia Governorate, and to identify the most important sources of agricultural information from which the respondents derive their information to solve these problems, and finally to identify the most important proposals to solve these problems from the point of view of the farmers surveyed in the region.The research was conducted on the districts of Al-Qantara West and Al-Qantara East, and two villages were selected from each district according to the two criteria of area and number of farmers. They were: the village of Al-Bayadiya and the village of Al-Rawda from the district of Al-Qantara West, and the village of Jalbana and the village of Al-Salam from the district of Al-Qantara East, where the cultivated area in the two district was as follows: Al-Qantara the west is 1,075 acres, and the east of Qantara is 1,850 acres, with a total of 2,925 acres. The size of the research sample was 181 respondents according to the Krejcie & Morgan equation, from the comprehensive research, who numbered 340 farmers in the selected villages. The research sample was selected in a systematic, random manner from the lists of cotton growers in the agricultural cooperative societies of the selected villages. Field data was collected through personal interviews with the respondents using a questionnaire form prepared for this purpose after ensuring its validity, during the month of July 2024. The arithmetic mean, range, and tabular presentation of frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data statistically in presenting the results. The most important results of the research were the following:** (32%) of the respondents fell into the category of low exposure, and (63%) of them fell into the category of medium exposure, while it was found that (5%) of them were in the category of high exposure to information sources, and neighbors and family with experience ranked highest. The first is a source of information for farmers, as it was mentioned by (91%) of the respondents, while agricultural programs on television ranked second, as (79%) of them mentioned it, and the agricultural specialist came in third place, with a percentage of (67%).** The results showed that there is one problem, which is the problem of high soil salinity, and it was mentioned by the majority of the respondents, 88% of the total respondents. The two problems of lack of irrigation water in the summer season and the lack of water reaching the ends of the canals came in first and second place, and were mentioned by 88%, 25 % of the respondents, and the failure to disinfect canals and drains was ranked third, as it was mentioned by 22% of the respondents. ** It also became clear that there were two problems mentioned by a high percentage of the respondents, namely the lack of provision of cotton and seed pesticides, as well as fertilizers, which were mentioned by more than half of the respondents, at a rate of 56% of the respondents, and the decrease in the number of bollworm traps, which were mentioned by a little more than a third of the respondents, at a rate of 35%. Of the total respondents, four financial problems occupied 51%, or half the number of respondents, which are the high prices of chemical fertilizers, the high prices of cotton and seed pesticides, the high costs of weed purity, and the low selling price of a quintal of cotton.** The results indicated that there are three problems related to extension activities, which are, in order: the lack of production requirements in agricultural associations, mentioned by a number of respondents, at a rate of 23% of the total respondents, and the lack of a specialized agricultural guide for cotton, mentioned by a number of 17% of the total respondents.** The results showed the existence of three problems related to state policies, which are: the state’s abandonment of support for the farmer, which was mentioned by the respondents at a rate of 24% of the total, the cancellation of the agricultural cycle, which was mentioned by the majority of the respondents at a rate of 18% of them, and the state’s delay in announcing the purchase price of cotton, at a rate of 15% of the total number respondents.** The most important proposals of the respondents to solve their problems were: raising the supply price of a quintal of cotton to raise the net return by (98%), and announcing the selling price of cotton well before the planting date by (93%). Providing production requirements of fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds from the Agricultural Society at a rate of (87%), returning to the agricultural cycle system at a rate of (81%), government intervention to protect farmers from the monopoly and greed of merchants at a rate of (77%), and re-lending to farms at a simple interest rate of (73%). Providing mechanization in the cotton harvesting process by (67%), consolidating cotton cultivation areas for ease of using agricultural mechanization by (65%), improving the quality of selected seeds by (52%), and increasing the difference between grade prices to encourage hardworking farmers by (40%), and marketing the cotton crop through agricultural banks or cooperatives at a rate of (35%). | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Farmers Reluctance; Declining cotton cultivation areas; Slippers and Patchwork | ||||
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