Production and marketing problems facing olive farmers in North Sinai Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough North Sinai Governorate has a comparative advantage in the production of some crops as olive crop, which generates a distinct economic return, whether marketed locally or exported. This governorate occupies the twentieth place for the productivity of this crop in Egypt. The research aimed to identify the most important production and marketing problems facing olive farmers in North Sinai Governorate. Research data were collected through personal interviewing questionnaire with 100 respondents representing 25% of the total olive farmers at Meriah village from October to December 2015.ResultsResults showed that there are many production and marketing problems faced by farmers. The most frequent of the production problems were the problem of increasing fertilizer prices (64% of the surveyed farmers), and the problem of irrigation water high salinity (52% of the respondents). Where the majority of the respondents mentioned that these problems are the most important productive problems they are facing, followed by problems of poor level of extension services (48%), high cost of irrigation wells (47%), difficulty in owning land (46%), and lack of agricultural mechanization (39%), while the most important marketing problems were the problem of the exploitation of traders (62%), the absence of agricultural marketing extension (59%), the high prices of trained labor to collect the crop (59%), and lack of olive presses present in the area (57%).ConclusionsIn spite of the efforts exerted by the Agricultural Extension Agency in the Governorate of North Sinai to assist olive farmers and raise their knowledge and skills level in relation to this crop, and despite the fact that this Governorate has a comparative advantage in terms of cultivated area and the quality of the final product, olive farmers face many production and marketing problems such as increasing fertilizer prices, irrigation water high salinity, poor level of extension services, high cost of irrigation wells, absence of agricultural marketing extension, and lack of agricultural mechanization. So that agricultural extension as a free educational service should assist farmers through targeted extension programs aimed at guiding them in the best way to address and overcome these problems.