The Impact of Exchange Rate Liberalization on Profitability and Feddan Production Cost of the Main Grain Crops in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University

2 Faculty of agriculture, Tanta University

Abstract

The research aimed to study the impact of exchange rate floating policy in Egypt on the production of the most important major grain crops such as wheat, barely, beans, rice and summer sorghum. The research relied on secondary data from different sources to obtain the data feddan yield, farm prices, and feddan production cost for above mentioned crops. The study relied on a comparison between the period that was before exchange rate floating (2014-2016) and the period that witnessed applying exchange rate floating policy (2017-2019), through using the index number method. The results indicated that as a result of applying exchange rate liberalization policy, the feddan’s net profitability of wheat and barley crops (in current prices) decreased by 9.55% and 29.99% respectively. The feddan’s net profitability of beans, rice and summer sorghum (in current prices) increased by 199.04%, 427.13% and 1.72% respectively. Based on constant prices, the policy of exchange rate liberalization had a negative impact on the feddan’s net profitability for all crops except beans and rice crops. The study indicated also the policy of exchange rate liberalization had a positive impact on the feddan’s production costs for all the crops in this study in current prices. Based on constant prices, this policy had a positive effect on the production costs of wheat, barley and beans only. The study recommended that raising the efficiency of the use of productive resources such as labor and mechanical work and seeds, in an attempt to reduce production costs in order to reduce production costs, and this will increase the net yield per feddan. The state should also control the farm prices of agricultural crops in order to maximize the yield of the crops.
 

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