ECONOMIES OF USING AVAILABLE WATERRESOURCES FOR FIELD CROPS IN BEHAIRA GOVERNORATE ON THE LIGHT OF ALTERNATIVE CROP ROTATIONS

Abstract

The current study aims at identifying water requirements for field crops and water-consuming crops in the light of the current cropping pattern in Behaira Governorate.. the results revealed that costs of water used in the cultivation of rice were the highest reaching about 13.3% of the total costs of production per feddan whereas, the costs of water used in the cultivation of faba bean were the lowest reaching about 5.6% of the total costs of production per feddan in the studied season. Besides, as a result of no water cost paid by farmers, the costs of one unit of water were the lowest for the heavy water-consuming crops whereas, these costs were the highest for the low water-consuming crops even though there were small differences in the total costs of irrigation for these two groups of crops as compared to their water requirements. The results revealed that crop rotation consisting of wheat+maize ranked first in terms of gaining the highest net revenue of water including the irrigation costs of about LE 0.926 per unit of water m3 whereas, the net revenue excluding the irrigation costs for this crop rotation reached about LE 0.789 per unit of water. Nevertheless, the marginal value of water was higher than the costs of irrigation per one feddan cultivate by such crops ranging between about LE 3 thousand per feddan of maize and about LE 800 thousand per feddan cultivated by sesame. On the other hand, the ratio of irrigation costs to the value of marginal product ranged between 73 % for sugar beet and 8% for broad beans. Besides, the net profit for water ranged between 250% for sugar beet and 109 % for broad beans. However, the ratio of the value of marginal product to irrigation costs ranged between 756% for maize and 135 % for sugar beet indicating the high net profit for water as compared to the difference between the value of the marginal product and the costs of irrigation. These results revealed the possibility to increase the costs of irrigation due to the difference between the value of the marginal product and the costs of irrigation. However, this should be put into consideration when applied on the countrywide because these results were obtained from some areas in Bohaira Governorate and these results give an idea about the possibility of increasing the costs of irrigation to gain profits for such important resource. Besides, identifying the economic efficiency for using water resources thus, improving on-farm irrigation.