Egyptian Farmers Research Articles

Effect of Intercropping by Flax, Radish and Fenugreek on Faba Bean, <i>Vicia faba</i> L., Production and Reduction of <i>Orobanche crenata</i> Forsk Seed Bank

Faba bean <i>Vicia faba</i> L. is a primary source of protein in the diet of masses in Egypt. Broom-rape, <i>Orobanche crenata</i> Forsk (Orobanchaceae), present great threat parasitic weed to some crops in Egypt including faba bean. Egyptian farmers were forced to abandon growing faba bean crops due to <i>O. crenata</i> heavy soil infestation. Several methods have been used for controlling this parasite, but without obvious success. Many researches have shown that intercropping has been more effective than monocropping in suppression of parasitic weeds. The effect of intercropping (fenugreek, radish and flax) using two resistant cultivars (Giza 843& Misr 3) on the emergence of the broomrape spikes and faba bean production were carried out. Intercropping flax or fenugreek among faba bean cultivars, caused a significant reduction in the infestation levels of <i>O. crenata</i> and increased the faba bean yield compared with sole treatments. Flax was more effective in the reducing infestation rate by <i>O. crenata</i> than fenugreek. This reduction appeared to be related to reduced seed germination which may have been as a result of allelochemicals released by fenugreek roots, though this was not confirmed in this study. The reduction in weed infestation was more pronounced in Giza 843, than in Misr 3. Flax treatment showed the lowest weed infestation compared with other intercropping treatments. Fenugreek intercropping treatment resulted in the highest pod yield for both Giza 843 and Misr 3. Using resistant cultivars intercropping with fenugreek or flax is very promising trend that generally combines both good yield and low number of emerged spikes that reduce broomrape seed bank in the infected soils, with variations depending on the cultivar and growing season.

Egyptian Farmers' knowledge about Nano technology and their readiness to utilize its Applications for enhancing / promoting Agriculture production and marketing

Egyptian Farmers' knowledge about Nano technology and their readiness to utilize its Applications for enhancing / promoting Agriculture production and marketing

Egyptian Farmers' awareness of Nano Technology and their readiness to utilize its applications for promoting their Agricultural production and marketing activities,

Egyptian Farmers' awareness of Nano Technology and their readiness to utilize its applications for promoting their Agricultural production and marketing activities,

Synergistic Biochemical Effects of Pesticide Exposure and Helicobacter pylori Infection in Egyptian Farmers

Synergistic Biochemical Effects of Pesticide Exposure and Helicobacter pylori Infection in Egyptian Farmers

Hematological alterations in Egyptian farmers occupationally exposed to pesticides

Hematological alterations in Egyptian farmers occupationally exposed to pesticides

The developmental returns of Egyptian farmers’ application of technological innovations in cultivation and production of the wheat crop

The developmental returns of Egyptian farmers’ application of technological innovations in cultivation and production of the wheat crop

Sun Safety: Knowledge and Behavior among Egyptian Farmers—a Multicomponent Intervention Study

The purpose of study was to screen for health hazards related to sun exposure and to examine the effectiveness of a sun safety multicomponent intervention designed specifically for the Egyptian farmers. A multicomponent interventional study was conducted among 128 farmers from three villages in Zagazig district, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt, from January to July 2022. It passed through three phases: phase 1: assessment of participants’ risk of skin cancer and vision screening; phase 2: filling a semi-structured questionnaire assessing sun exposure hazards and sun safety knowledge, behavior, and barriers; and phase 3: conducting multicomponent intervention composed of education session, providing sun safety supplies and reminders then evaluate the effect of this intervention after one month. Most of participants had moderate risk for skin cancer (69.0%), history of photokeratitis (77.3%), cataract (15.6%), and bad/very bad self-reported overall eyesight (43.0%). After intervention, there was a statistically significant improvement in the participants’ awareness regarding sun exposure-related hazards, all knowledge items about sun safety measures (p < 0.01) and some sun safety behaviors (p < 0.05) including wearing protective clothing, minimization of direct sunlight exposure, taking breaks, plentiful water intake, regular self-checking of skin, wearing wide brimmed hats, and job rotation. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant improvement in all sun protection barriers (p < 0.01) except sunscreen and sunglasses related barriers (p ˃ 0.05). The multicomponent intervention composed of education session, providing sun safety supplies and reminders was effective in increasing awareness of farmers with sun exposure hazards and improving their knowledge and behavior towards sun safety measures.

Factors Influencing Precision Agriculture Tools or Technologies Adoption in Egypt

Precision Agriculture Technologies (PATs) are advocated as inevitable agricultural practices to achieve the highest economic value and mitigate the environmental impact of the agriculture.Water scarcity and rapid population growth in Egypt endanger the economic nourishment. Since agriculture consume more than 80% of total water consumption in Egypt; it is important to adopt efficient practices without sacrificing high productivity and minimize environmental degradation. This thesis studies the factors influencing PATs adoption in Egypt. Based on the literature review; there are 5 constructs with 15 independent variables are tested in this study. The constructs are as follows; (1) Socio Demographic Factors; studying effect of farmer age, level of education, years of experience. (2) Agro Ecological Factors; including farm size, land tenure, farm crops. (3) Financial Factors; encompasses farm income, investment cost, perceived economic benefits and perceived environmental benefits. (4) Technological Factors; testing impact computer and smart phone usage, PATs and PI Usage and perceived ease of use. (5) Institutional Factors: investigating effect of farm region and development pressure. Non-probability sampling was used in this study with convenience and snowball techniques to collect data. The data was collected from 32 farms distributed in Lower and Upper Egypt via an online survey published through Social Media Channels. Respondents were the farm owners and farm operators as each one represents one farm only. The analysis was performed using SPSS to discover factors impacting PATs adoption. Results show that perceived environmental benefits and development pressure are statistically significant factors affecting PATs adoption in Egypt.To conclude, this study provides insightful results regarding what influences the Egyptian farmers in PATs adoption and this may provide better understanding for policy makers to better formulate incentive programs and regulation to motivate farmers to adopt more PATs. Moreover, these results can be used by service providers to enhance marketing.

Prevalence of work-related asthma among Egyptian farmers in Great Cairo

Work related asthma (WRA) refers to asthma induced by exposure to sensitizing agents and/or irritants in the workplace leaving health and economic consequences. Early diagnosis can improve the prognosis of WRA permitting sometimes full recovery. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of WRA among Egyptian adult agriculture workers. A multi-center cross sectional study included 150 adult workers from 4 different farms, during the period from 2019 and 2021. All participants were subjected to full medical history, clinical examination, chest x-ray, skin prick test and CBC to detect absolute eosinophilic count. Spirometry with post bronchodilatation test (reversibility test) at the farm (in the day of insecticide aerosol and without aerosol) and after a week off the farm was also done. Age, median ± SD, was 37.67 ± 9.75 years, duration of farming occupation was 21.84 ± 10.18 years. Of the 150 participants, 11 had WRA. Of these, 6 had allergic occupational asthma, 3/11 had work exacerbated asthma and only 2/11 had irritant occupational asthma. Of the allergic subjects, 7.3% tested positive to mixed pollens, 4.7% to Alternaria, 2% to penicillium and 2% to the farm pollens. The onset of respiratory symptoms was 13.45 ± 6.93 months after start working in the farm. A statistical significance was observed between WRA and non-WRA individuals regarding age, duration of farming occupation and asthma symptoms during workday (P < 0.001). There was a statistical significance between WRA group and non-WRA group regarding FEV1, FEV1/FVC ratio carried out at work, during holidays and during spraying (P < 0.001). Absolute eosinophilic count, mean among WRA group was 0.55 ± 0.13 (×103cells/mm3) with significance between WRA and non-WRA (P= 0.001). Farming occupation may cause WRA, therefore, more attention should be given to minimize exposure and risk of inducing WRA.

Impact of Military Leaders and Arab Shuyūkh on Egyptian Farmers in the Burdjīd Mamlūks’ Era

Impact of Military Leaders and Arab Shuyūkh on Egyptian Farmers in the Burdjīd Mamlūks’ Era

Horizontal and vertical Aggregation Bias of time series with empirical study

Aggregation bias is defined (Theil 1954) as the difference between the macro parameter and the average of the micro parameters. In this article, a new definition of time series aggregation is introduced. Imperially, a new definition of aggregation bias is introduced. Using the new definition, the time series are aggregated in two different methods, horizontal and vertical. Bias resulting from this aggregation is analyzed in both cases. Horizontal aggregation revealed unbiasedness in the slope and intercept of the trend of the series. Vertical aggregation revealed bias in estimating both parameters of the trend of the series depending on the length of the aggregation period. A new theorem is introduced to assess bias in both parameters. Proof of the Samar is annexed to the paper. An Empirical study containing data of a number of time series are analyzed in the frame of the new theorem. The data is the weekly income of some Egyptian farmers working on the same farm collected through an Egyptian agrarian year. Samar introduce rules to compute bias in the slope and the intercept of the trend of the series. It also shows the relation between the two biases. In addition, the effect of the length of aggregation period on the amount of bias is discussed.

Measuring Egyptian Farmers’ Attitude towards Staying Organic

Organic agriculture (OA) in Egypt is well-developed and still fast growing. Improving the relation between organic farmers and the other agents in the chain can provide a positive contribution to the whole organic chain competitiveness. One possible approach to investigate the farmers’ perceived role and satisfaction within the organic system is to explore the factors influencing their decision to stay organic. In particular, the aim of the present study was to measure the farmers’ attitude towards staying organic. Organic agricultural experts and institutional stakeholders were interviewed to complete a literature review and to obtain information about the Egyptian context. The survey questionnaire was pre-tested (n = 13) and then administered to a different sample (n = 232). A split-half validation procedure was used to evaluate and then confirm the factor structure. Explorative and confirmatory factor analysis yielded a final 29-item measure consisting of 8 distinct factors showing how organic agriculture influences a broad range of farmers’ life dimensions (environmental, economic, social, psychological). The significant role played by psychological and social factors in defining the farmers’ decision to stay organic emerged as a relatively unexpected outcome. The study supports the sustainable development of small family farmers, providing a useful tool to support the growth of organic production and consumption, mostly in developing countries. By monitoring farmers’ attitudes and perception towards OA, the instrument proposed in the present study can support policy makers, farmers’ organizations, civil society organizations (NGOs) and organic chains focal companies when defining policies, advocating campaigns, and chain coordination strategies for farmers involved in the organic food system development.

Effect of Sowing Date and Preceding Crop, on Growth and Productivity of the Sunflower Hybrid Sirena, Under Varying Nitrogen Fertilization Levels

SUNFLOWER is an important oil crop that has received great attention by the Egyptian agricultural sector in the early nineties, when a boom in oil extraction from the crop was observed. Since then and for more than two decades now, sunflower for oil purpose was neglected, hybrids are no longer on the market and confectionery sunflower became more profitable for Egyptian farmers. Recently, the registration of the single hybrid Sirena and its promotion based on contract basis with farmers, may present a new comeback to oil sunflower in Egypt. The aim of this study was to evaluate effect of sowing date (April vs. August) and preceding crop (maize vs. sunflower) in a double cropping system, under varying nitrogen fertilization levels (36, 72, 108 and 144kg N/ha), on growth and productivity of the newly introduced sunflower hybrid Sirena. Results from the two-year experiments, indicated that April sowing, at a prevailing average temperature of 20-24oC later rising to about 28oC at harvest time, was suitable to secure maximum seed yield of 4.39ton/ha. In a double cropping system, where sowing was performed in August, the hybrid yielded an average of 3.4 ton/ha, whether preceded by maize or sunflower. Seed oil percentage amounted to an average of 42.8% and was affected by the year, rather than sowing date or preceding crop. Effects of the nitrogen fertilization rates were masked by the soil available nitrogen, however, based on the regression analysis and equations for estimating the nitrogen requirements based on the hybrid seed yield, 72-108kg N/ha were necessary to achieve the maximum seed yield while sustaining an oil percentage above the 42%.

التقییم المالی لمشروعات زراعة الأکوابونیک وجدوى تبنیها فی مصر

Despite the role of the agricultural sector in the Egyptian national economy, the agricultural production falls short of total consumption needs in Egypt, which led to start thinking to intensify the production of food by vertical expansion beside conventional agriculture through the use of modern technologies, such as aquaponics as soilless agriculture, which the Egyptian farmers are not familiar with, so the paper aims to evaluate the proposed aquaponics projects in terms of economic assessment, financial assessment, SWOT analysis and to identify the level of technology adoption of the aquaponics agriculture and from which information sources they obtain their knowledge and to identify the requirements of dissemination of aquaponics technology and the most important problems facing them and proposals to solve. The research methodology used for achieving our objective was based on some statistical and financial tools, such as percentages, correlation, and regression model, as well as the feasibility study for the aquaponics agriculture, where the paper concluded the following results: - The main source of information for the aquaponics derived from the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate at the Ministry of Agriculture. - Most of the respondents belong to the low adoption category with the impact of the exposure degree to information sources and the risk willingness on the degree of adoption of the Aquaponics technology. - The results showed that the payback period of the second category projects is shorter than the first and third category projects. - By comparing the IRR with the alternative opportunity to invest at a discount rate of 23% and 25% showed the project's ability to bear the adverse changes. - By comparing the return on investment (ROI), the internal rate of return (IRR) and the Payback period (PBP) between the three categories, the second category projects has been proved and better results achieved at the level of the financial measures used. - Comparison of break-even analysis of the three categories shows that the second category achieves the common break-even point in terms of quantity and value before the first and third categories. - The most important problems faced the adopters of aquaponics were the interruption of electricity and high-risk rate significantly when implement the aquaponics project and the lack of funding for the implementation of the aquaponics project and the lack of knowledge of responders about who can resort to them to design and supervision of the aquaponics units. - The most important proposals to overcome such problems are raising farmers awareness of the need to provide generators in sufficient numbers to use in the event of power outages and the interest of the authorities responsible for training courses for farmers on the aquaponics and to inform them of the schedule of these courses and provide brochures and booklets on the aquaponic technology and offer Facilitator loans to farmers to finance aquaponics projects and educating farmers about the most important entities where they can resort to them to designing and supervising aquaponic units.

Competitive Relationships and Yield Advantage of Intercropping Faba Bean with Sugar Beet under Bio-Organic Additives and Mineral Nitrogen Fertilizer Rates

A field experiment was conducted at El-Serw Agricultural Research Station, Damietta Governorate, Egypt during 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons to reduce mineral N inputs of sugar beet with increased land use efficiency and profitability under intercropping conditions. Seven treatments included five treatments (90 kg nitrogen “N” + 30 m3 farm yard manure “FYM”/fad, 80 kg N +30 m3 FYM/fad, 70 kg N +30 m3 FYM/fad and 400 g of Cerealine + 30 m3 FYM/fad for intercropping faba bean cultivar Spanish with sugar beet cultivar Gloria) and two treatments (90 and 20 kg N/fad for solid culture of sugar beet and faba bean, respectively, as recommended mineral N fertilizer rate) were compared in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Solid culture of sugar beet with the application of recommended rate (90 kg N/fad) gave the highest top, root and sugar yields/fad, as well as the percentage of purity compared with the other treatments in both seasons. Intercropping faba bean with sugar beet plants with application of 90 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad gave the highest number of leaves/plant, leaf area/plant, root length, root diameter and root weight/plant followed by intercropped sugar beet plants that fertilized with 80 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad compared with the other treatments in both seasons. On the other hand, intercropped sugar beet that received 400 g of Cerealine + 30 m3 FYM/fad had the highest percentages of T.S.S. and sucrose followed by 70 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad compared with the other treatments in both seasons. Solid culture of faba bean with the application of 20 kg N/fad gave the highest plant height, number of seeds/pod and seed yield/fad, meanwhile the highest number of branches/plant and pod length were achieved by intercropping faba bean with sugar beet with application of 90 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad followed by intercropped faba bean plants that fertilized with 80 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad compared with the other treatments in both seasons. However, intercropped faba bean plants that fertilized with 70 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad gave the highest number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed index and seed yield per plant compared with the other treatments in both seasons. Land equivalent ratio (LER), land equivalent coefficient (LEC) and relative crowding coefficient (RCC) were high by intercropping faba bean with sugar beet with the application of 80 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad indicating yield advantage was achieved. The value of aggressivity (Agg) of sugar beet was negative for all combinations indicating that sugar beet is dominated component in the present study. Intercropping faba bean with sugar beet with the application of 80 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad achieved higher total income and monetary advantage index (MAI) than the other treatments. Growing sugar beet plants in both sides of beds (1.2 m width) with one faba bean row in middle of sugar beet beds with the application of 80 kg N + 30 m3 FYM/fad decreased mineral N fertilizer rate by 10.00% of the recommended sugar beet mineral N fertilizer rate, as well as increased land usage and profitability for Egyptian farmers compared with sugar beet solid culture.

Effect of prepartum dietary energy source on goat maternal metabolic profile, neonatal performance, and economic profitability.

Objective:This work aimed at studying dietary energy supplementation effects during late pregnancy upon the metabolic status of does, as well as on the birth weight (BW), body temperature, and metabolic profile for their kids and the net economic profit.Materials and Methods:Eighty pregnant does (Egyptian Nubian) were equally split into four dietary treatments; the control (CON) receiving basal diet, the basal diet with 200 gm corn starch and 100 gm of molasses /h/d added (MS), the basal diet with 300 gm/h/d of corn grains added (CG), and the basal diet with 300 gm/h/d of barley grains added (BG).Results:Body weight and temperature of kids were significantly higher in MS and BG groups, respectively. The serum concentration of albumin (Alb), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels are significantly decreased. At the same time, urea and vitamin A increased dramatically in the BG group before giving birth. After birth, conversely, the serum concentration of albumin, AST, ALT, cholesterol, and vitamin A significantly increased with energy supplementation. Kids in the BG group show the most high level of albumin. Furthermore, all supplemented groups increased dramatically in vitamin A. The economic efficiency of the MS group, followed by the BG group, was significantly higher compared to the other treatments.Conclusion:It is beneficial for Egyptian farmers to feed extra concentrate (especially barley) to the does during late gestation stages to produce healthy kids with optimal BW and body temperature, as well as to avoid metabolic disorders that may affect the does at this critical stage. Finally, it can be said that this dietary supplementation may also increases the profit margins of the farmers.

Development of Tractor Front Mounted Mower for Harvest Wheat Crop

The main objective of this research was to fabricate and evaluate a new design of tractor front mounted mower to improve its performance, reduce harvesting costs (operation cost and losses cost) and to minimize energy consumption. The machine was locally fabricated to suit the small and medium Egyptian farmers, the performance of the developed machine was evaluated under four different tractor forward speeds (2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 km/h) and four different conveyor belt speeds (1, 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 m/sec) at 45o of conveyor belt angle with horizontal level and constant speed of the P.T.O at 540 rpm. The traditional mower was evaluated to compare its performance with the developed mower at the same previous four forward speeds, also the same conveyor belt speeds with conveyor chain in the other front mower and used tilting angle of 90o with vertical level. The maximum effective field capacity was 1.34 fed/h, the minimum total grain losses, operating cost and specific energy consumed were 0.8%, 61.5 L.E/fed and 9.5 kW.h/fed compared to 1.04 fed/h, 1.5%, 80 L.E/fed and 13 kW.h/fed for traditional machine at the optimum operating parameters of 4.5 km/h forward speed, conveyor belt, chain speed 1.6 m/s and conveyor belt, chain angle 45, 90o respectively. The cutting efficiencies for the developed and traditional machine were acceptable.

FINANCIAL EVALUATION OF AQUAPONICS PROJECTS AND THE FEASIBILITY OF ADOPTING IT IN EGYPT

Despite the role of the agricultural sector in the Egyptian national economy, the agricultural production falls short of total consumption needs in Egypt, which led to start thinking to intensify the production of food by vertical expansion beside conventional agriculture through the use of modern technologies, such as aquaponics as soilless agriculture, which the Egyptian farmers are not familiar with, so the paper aims to evaluate the proposed aquaponics projects in terms of economic assessment, financial assessment, SWOT analysis and to identify the level of technology adoption of the aquaponics agriculture and from which information sources they obtain their knowledge and to identify the requirements of dissemination of aquaponics technology and the most important problems facing them and proposals to solve. The research methodology used for achieving our objective was based on some statistical and financial tools, such as percentages, correlation, and regression model, as well as the feasibility study for the aquaponics agriculture, where the paper concluded the following results: - The main source of information for the aquaponics derived from the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate at the Ministry of Agriculture. - Most of the respondents belong to the low adoption category with the impact of the exposure degree to information sources and the risk willingness on the degree of adoption of the Aquaponics technology. - The results showed that the payback period of the second category projects is shorter than the first and third category projects. - By comparing the IRR with the alternative opportunity to invest at a discount rate of 23% and 25% showed the project's ability to bear the adverse changes. - By comparing the return on investment (ROI), the internal rate of return (IRR) and the Payback period (PBP) between the three categories, the second category projects has been proved and better results achieved at the level of the financial measures used. - Comparison of break-even analysis of the three categories shows that the second category achieves the common break-even point in terms of quantity and value before the first and third categories. - The most important problems faced the adopters of aquaponics were the interruption of electricity and high-risk rate significantly when implement the aquaponics project and the lack of funding for the implementation of the aquaponics project and the lack of knowledge of responders about who can resort to them to design and supervision of the aquaponics units. - The most important proposals to overcome such problems are raising farmers awareness of the need to provide generators in sufficient numbers to use in the event of power outages and the interest of the authorities responsible for training courses for farmers on the aquaponics and to inform them of the schedule of these courses and provide brochures and booklets on the aquaponic technology and offer Facilitator loans to farmers to finance aquaponics projects and educating farmers about the most important entities where they can resort to them to designing and supervising aquaponic units.

THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF MICRO ENTERPRISES IN EGYPT

The problem of the study can be summarized in the bad situation of economic development in Egypt, which is characterized by the unprecedented of unemployment and inflation rates in recent times, and the shortage of some food commodities, which may be due to the weak role of the small and micro enterprises in Egypt. Hence, the objective of the study is to evaluate the role of micro enterprises in Egypt by studying the current status of one of these enterprises, which also aims at improving the incomes of Egyptian farmers and improving their standard of living. Briefly the study aims at doing the economic and environmental evaluation for IICR project” Improving Incomes and Climate Resiliency”, using an analytical descriptive approach in the analysis of field data obtained through a questionnaire for a sample of 207 farmers from rice and date palm farmers in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate and Siwa oases (targeted by the project). The results of the study indicate the importance of the project in economic and environmental terms. The project achieves high economic and environmental feasibility by improving crop productivity, improving farmers' incomes, providing large quantities of water used for irrigation, and contributing in exploiting and recycling of residuals instead of burning it and causing harmful effects to the environment. Based on these results, the study reached a set of recommendations and suggestions that may contribute directly or indirectly to activate the role of small and micro enterprises in the coming years and to solve the problems facing them. The most important of these recommendations is the need to put an efficient policy to support and activate the role of small and micro-agricultural projects in Egypt during the coming years, and to encourage and facilitate the procedures to establish more training projects such as the project of IICR “Improving Incomes and Climate Resiliency”, in order to train a large number of farmers throughout the Egyptian villages and governorates. Keywords: Small Enterprises – micro-enterprises - Economic Evaluation - Environmental Evaluation - Financial Evaluation.

The Integration of Egyptian Small farmers into Agro-food Global Value Chains: The Role of MNEs in Egyptian Agribusiness

The globalisation of food production has attracted increased attention in recent years especially with the increasing global concerns for food security. The latter is more problematic in developing...