IMPACT OF RE-DISTRIBUTION OF CULTIVATED MAIZE VARIETIES ON ITS IMPORTS

Abstract

Maize cultivate in all governorates of Egypt, especially in Lower Egypt, Maize area in general decreases as we move from north to south governorates. Average maize area during 2007- 2009, was about 1.8 million faddan, of which 48.6%, 30.8%, and 17.3% cultivated in lower, middle, and upper Egypt respectively. Production of such area (6.2 million tons) is distributed among the above three regions as 50.5%, 29.8%, and 16.6%, respectively. There is a difference between varieties productivity of maize at the same zone. The study aims to determine the economic impact of the contribution of improved varieties to increase maize production , through study the current situation of maize production and shed light of the most important factors affecting the production, the study of varieties structure according to productivity, the production volume and areas of the maize. The study indicate to increase the total maize production during the period (2007-2009) comparing by the base period (2002-2006), by about 126%. Increasing in the maize area contributed by about 36.2 thousand tons, by supposing productivity stability. While the productivity - assuming the area stability contributed by about 1402.6 thousand tons. The impact of increasing in both area and productivity contributed by about 1439.1 thousand tons. The study shows that the relative impact of both area and productivity on the maize production during the two periods, it was found that increasing the maize area by 0.8% led to increasing by about 2.6% of the maize production during the second period, at the same time, increasing of productivity by 21.4% led to increasing by about 97.4% of the maize production during the same period, it means that the productivity impact on the production is greater than the impact of the cultivated area. So it should be focus on vertical expansion programs to increase the maize supply in Egypt. The study also shows that the re-distribution of the improved varieties will lead to increase the maize production by about 11.5 million ardebs, reduces the value of maize imports by about 3.6 million pounds, since the import maize price estimated by about 2156.4 pounds / ton in the 2008/2009. The study of the maize supply response shows that the price of maize is the important factor on maize area during the period (1990 - 1999) , while the price of rice is the important factor of this response during the period (2000-2009