Statistical and Economic Estimation of Cost Functions in the Long Run and Economies of Scale to Date Palm in Giza Governorate

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Egypt

Abstract

Palm is considered one of the most important fruit crops that can be benefited from economically, in addition to the possibility of exporting, manufacturing and increasing household income in its production areas in Egypt. Giza Governorate ranked first in both the cultivated area, which amounted to 36.2 thousand feddans, It represents about 26.97% of the total area for the year 2020, and the production was estimated at about 284 thousand tons, representing about 16.6% of the total production for the year 2020. In spite of this, the average production of the palm does not reflect the hope for this production. The research aimed to estimate the function of production costs for dates in the long run, as well as its most important economic derivatives, which are the average total production costs and the economies of scale, marginal production costs, elasticity of production costs, and optimal production volume, As well as the supply function in the long run. The research showed that the curve expressing the economies of capacity for dates takes the traditional U-shape, and the elasticity of production costs at the average production level was estimated at about 0.90, which means that the production of dates in Giza Governorate is still in the stage of Increasing Returns to Scale, and many farms have not reached the optimum production capacity. The size that maximizes the profit was estimated at about 17.33 tons, which is reached by cultivating an area estimated at 3.08 feddans.
 

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