THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION TO THE PRODUCTION OF FISH LAKE QARUN IN FAYOUM GOVERNORATE

Abstract

lake Qarun is considered as the third largest lake in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and it is the main reservoir of agriculture drainage water in the province of Fayoum. The salinity increased in the lake Qarun from 32.45% in 2015 to about 34.3% in 2016, which caused declining production of fish, and the disappearance of some fish species with deterioration of the productivity of other species. The fish production by the lake decreased from 41.0% in 1995 to about 20.2% in 2014 of the total production of fish in Fayoum governorate. The study aims to identify the fish production at the lake applying the standard functions of production and costs, estimate the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), maximum rate of fishing efforts, and identify the most important marketing problems facing fishermen. Also, the study searching the marketing problems of fish at Qarun lake.The study results showed that white shrimp represents about 86.7% of total production at the lake, and its relative importance decreased compared with other fish species such as tilapia, mullet and Sole by about 9.54%, 1.91%, 1.82%, respectively .The average total costs were 243.98 Egyptian Pounds / Effort, and the average total revenue was586.36 Egyptian Pounds / Effort. The average net return was 342.37 Egyptian Pounds / Effort, which means that every Egyptian Pound invested in fishing at Lake Qarun had 0.403 Egyptian Pounds.The value of production elasticity, showed that increasing total input used at the Lake Qarun by 1% will increase production by 1.403%. To get the maximum sustainable yield at Lake Qarun, each effort need to produce 331.5 kg / Effort, and the average production of 262.8 kg / Effort.Compare actual and optimal production per effort, last result required to increase production by 68.7 kg / Effort. The production level which maximize profits was 508.0 kg / Effort. The maximum sustainable production (MSY) at the lake was 4303.4 tons per year, an increase of 39.6% from the average study of about 3082.3 tons, period, and that the actual fishing effort and estimated at 542 compound has exceeded the maximum fishing effort to the production estimated at 356 compound, an increase of approximately 52.3%.The most important marketing problem was the lack of market equipment’s by 85.2%, and the most important fishing problem was the disappearance of many species of fish species by 100%, and the most important sources of Lake Qarun water pollution were agricultural, industrial and sewage pollution by 98.4.%, 93.4 %, and 91.8%. respectively