A Comparative Study of the Most Important Vegetable Crops Production in Protected Agriculture and Sustainable Land

The research aimed to study the current situation of the number of protected agriculture (greenhouses), their area and quantity of output, and the most important vegetable crops planted in them in Egypt during the period (2006-2019), a study of the current situation of the most important vegetable crops grown in protected agriculture (greenhouses) and their counterparts on sustainable land in Egypt during that period, the relative importance of the cost items of greenhouses in Egypt during the study period, comparing the productivity of the unit area of ​​the most important vegetable crops in greenhouses and its counterpart in the permanent land during the study period, studying the most important problems facing vegetable producers in greenhouses and the possibility of overcoming them with the research sample.
The study has found many results: (1) An increase in the number of greenhouses in Egypt with an annual growth rate of about 2.3% during the period (2006-2019). (2) The cucumber crop ranked first in terms of the average number of greenhouses, which amounted to about 33 thousand greenhouses, followed by the average number of greenhouses for the pepper crop, which amounted to 18 thousand greenhouses, and the beans crop came in third place with an average of 7 thousand, while the tomato crop came In fourth place, with an average of about 4 thousand greenhouses. (3) The area of ​​the tomato crop in the permanent land came in the first place with an average area of ​​about 3068.9 million square meters, then the area of ​​the pepper crop in the permanent land came in the second place with an average of about 402.8 million square meters, followed in the third place by the average area of ​​cucumbers in the permanent land, which amounted to About 245.8 million square meters, and the average area of ​​the green bean crop in the permanent land came in fourth place, reaching about 238.1 million square meters. (4) The increase in the prices of all requirements to produce vegetable crops in greenhouses with growth rates that ranged between a minimum of about 4.9% for the pesticide component, and a maximum of about 21.9% for the covering plastic component. This rise in prices negatively affects the encouragement of investment in the field of protected agriculture, as well as the increase in the prices of these greenhouse products, which leads to the difficulty of competition in the local and foreign market. (5) By asking the producers, it became clear that they all suffer from the problem of the high costs of establishing greenhouses, and it was found that 27 products represent about 90% of the observations of the research sample suffering from the problem of the high prices of agricultural production requirements, and it was found that 22 products represent about 73.3% of the total observations The sample suffers from the problem of high transportation prices, as it turns out that about 60% of the sample suffer from the problem of high workers’ wages.