The Suggested Cropping Pattern of the 1.5 million Feddans Project (A Case Study for West Mania)
Abstract: Egyptian Association of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 28, No, 2, 2018, P: 535-544.
The 1.5 million feddans project is a starting point for achieving new horizons for sustainable development. The west of Minya area is one of the important sites of the project. The planned area is about 220,000 feddans, which depends on groundwater as the main source of irrigation. For this reason, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has proposed annual water cisterns of about 4,000 cubic meters, through sprinkler or drip irrigation systems. The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation also proposed a cropping pattern, in which field crops accounted for about 70% and horticultural crops of around 30%, as well as investment in animal production, fish, agricultural products and agro-processing, to meet the needs of the local and foreign markets.
The research problem is to determine the optimal cropping pattern of West Minia, which achieves the highest return for land and groundwater resources, and meets the manufacturing, export and consumption needs. In light of this, the study aimed at formalizing cropping pattern alternatives, i.e. field crops and vegetables, and examining the possibility of allocating the proposed greenhouses in the area for growing vegetables instead of growing them in the open fields and allocating open fields for the cultivation of sugar beet, oily crops and grain crops.
The results of the study showed that all alternatives consume water quantities greater than the quantity specified for each feddan by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, it is proposed to cultivate one crop (summer or winter),or to replace the cultivated vegetables with protected agriculture to benefit from the water savings of 30% - 65% of the needs of the vegetable crops, based on the water ration for each crop.The water needs of the proposed agricultural alternatives vary between 4,200 and 6400 m3 / fed in the case of sprinkler irrigation and about 3755- 5670 m3 in the case of drip irrigation. According to the water budget of Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.
The economic indicators for cultivating vegetable crops in both greenhouses and open fields illustrated that productivity of vegetables in greenhouses exceeds the productivity compared with open field by three or four times. For this reason, the research suggested that it could be cultivating vegetables in the greenhouses, especially in the case of water scarcity and allocated vegetable areas in the open field to grow field crops.
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Publication year 2018
Pages 535-544
Availability location https://meae.journals.ekb.eg/article_111980_acbdbf85d0f1375b8bc8637a2d43f14f.pdf
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serial title المجلة المصرية للاقتصاد الزراعي
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Publication Type Journal
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