Efficiency of resource use in the production of brine in Beheira Governorate

The research aimed to identify the current production status of salty lemons, the extent of achieving efficiency in the use of resources in its production, and the most important production problems in the study sample in the new lands in Beheira Governorate.
It is clear from the results of the study that its cultivation is concentrated in the new lands at the level of the Republic, with a relative importance of 57.5% of the total cultivated area, and its productivity estimated at about 11,354 tons per feddan in the new lands exceeded its counterpart in the old lands estimated at about 9.195 tons per feddan based on 2019 data, as evidenced by the trend equations The time period that the fruitful area of ​​salty lemons at the level of the Republic during the period (2005-2019) took a statistically insignificant decreasing trend, estimated at 288.3 acres annually, and its counterpart in Beheira governorate took a statistically insignificant decreasing trend.
It was also found from the average sample of the study in the Beheira governorate that the indicators of economic efficiency indicate that the net annual return per acre of salty lemons amounted to about 22,956 pounds in 2019 and ranged between a minimum of about 17,815 pounds as an average of the first holding capacity (less than three acres) and a maximum of about 26,526 pounds as an average for the third holding capacity (more than five acres) and in the second holding capacity (from 3-5 acres) about 24537 pounds, And the profitability of the spent pound amounted to about 37.9%, 53.6%, 56.4% for each of the three tenure categories, respectively, with an average for the study sample about 49.3%, and the product incentive amounted to about 26.9%, 34.9%, 36.1% for each of those tenure categories, respectively, with an average for the sample. The study is about 32.5%, and the rate of return for the costs for each of them, respectively, is about 1.41, 1.54, 1.56, and the average for the study sample is about 1.5. It is inferred from the foregoing that the positive impact of farm capacity on indicators of economic efficiency.
It was also found from the estimation of the production function of salty lemons in the study sample that there was a positive, statistically significant effect of each of the number of workers used in the performance of agricultural operations, crop collection, organic fertilizers and potassium fertilizers on the feddan productivity. There is a statistically insignificant positive effect for each of the age of the trees and the value of the amount of pesticides used on the feddan productivity, and the total elasticity coefficient of the estimated function is about 1.56, which indicates the phenomenon of increasing return to capacity, meaning that the production of salty lemons in the study sample is in the first stage of production, which requires intensification of the use of inputs Productivity to increase its food productivity, as it was found from the cost function estimation that the optimal production volume in the study sample amounted to about 22,311 tons per acre, while the average acre productivity prevailing in the study sample is about 14.7 tons per acre. The high cost of human labor, the high prices of fertilizers and pesticides, and the infestation of trees by gum disease.