Economic and Productive Efficiency of Spearmint Crop in Fayoum Governorate in Egypt

Abstract

Spearmint production in Egypt was not reached to the expected value. The research aims to identify the available economic possibilities for the production and marketing, the productive and economic efficiency and cost functions of the spearmint crop, for the study sample, in Fayoum governorate in Egypt. A study on a sample of 50 spearmint producers from Fayoum and Ibshewia Markazes in Fayoum Governorate, had been done during 2019/2020. It was shown from production functions, in the linear and logarithmic form and using the stepwise regression, that the most important factors affecting production were; automated labor, which was a good trend for the use of modern technologies, the trained skilled workers in the cultivation of spearmint and finally the element of nitrogen fertilizer.  It was shown also that, the total production flexibility reached 1.133 which means that there was an opportunity for producers to improve and increase their production. The cost functions showed the optimal size of spearmint production was 17 tons and that of production maximization profit for the spearmint crop was 34 tons. The efficiency measures showed that, the feddan net return of spearmint was 32304 pounds, the net return on the variable costs was 2.49 pound and the net return on total costs was 1.35, which confirmed the importance of investing in spearmint cultivation. The study recommended increasing the area cultivated from the spearmint to increase Egyptian exports and improve the Egyptian agricultural trade balance.