Economic study for the current and its matching optimal cropping pattern in Matrouh Governorate

Under economic liberalization, it was left to the farmer to determine the crop composition through which plant production takes place, as crops with the highest possible net return are chosen regardless of the agricultural cycle or the rational use of agricultural resources available for production. It serves its individual interest while ignoring the national interest. This study seeks to arrive at a crop installation that will achieve both interests in the hope that the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources will adopt the implementation of the crop structure proposed by this study, which is achieved through a linear programming model that will achieve the economic use of resources available for agricultural production, known as the "optimal" crop structure.
This research aims to identify the current cropping pattern used in the winter season and summer season in Matrouh Governorate and search for the optimal cropping pattern that yield the efficient use of the economic resources available for the productivity of the farm then the agriculture. The linear programming method has been chosen for this purpose, as the model has been constructed to maximise the net returns for the irrigation water unit and at the same time finding cropping pattern consistent with the triple agricultural cycle that preserves the soil fertility and benefit from the agro-technical relation between the crops within the cropping pattern and the rationalize the irrigation water use.
After analysing of the linear programming model using Lindo program, which is designed to determine the most accurate winter crop it was found that this structure includes wheat in 15.3 thousand feddans (33.7%), fava bean in 7.6 thousand feddans (16.8%), permanent alfalfa in 7.6 thousand feddans (16.8%), potato in 7 thousand feddans (15.4%), tomato in 7.6 thousand feddans (16.8%) and onion in 171 feddans (0.38%).
Executing this pattern requires around 83.4 million meters’ cubic of irrigation water to cultivate about 45.3 thousand feddans, this optimal pattern recommended yields net returns of about 434.1 million Egyptian pounds, while the current pattern yield about 392.7 million Egyptian pounds
After analysing the linear programming model using Lindo programme that aim to identify the summer cropping pattern it turns out that this cropping pattern contain maize in 13.0 thousand feddans (33.3%), tomato in 6.5 thousand feddans (16.7%), pepper in 6.5 thousand feddans (16.7%), eggplant in 6.3 thousand feddans (16.3%), eggplant in 162.3 feddans (0.41%) and potato in 6.5 thousand feddans (16.7%). Executing this pattern requires around 115.2 million meters’ cubic from irrigation water resources to cultivate 39.1 thousand feddans. The optimal pattern recommended yields net returns of approximately 165.8 million Egyptian pounds, while the current summer pattern yields approximately 162.2 million Egyptian pounds.
Main findings and recommendations The analysis of  both the current winter crop structure and its closer counterpart shows that the higher crop structure is better than the current agricultural structure because it follows the three-way agricultural cycle. The net total summer return increased by approximately £165.8 million, while the current summer crop structure was approximately £162.2 million. It is therefore preferable to use the better (optimal) crop structure and the triple agricultural cycle. The implementation of this installation requires the intervention of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Irrigation. The agricultural assembly system should also be reinstated from the responsibilities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources.