Characterization of Crop/Livestock Farming System in New Valley of Egypt Using System Approach

Abstract

The current study adopted system approach to characterize the current crop/livestock farming system of small scale farms and to assess its economical efficiency in the New Valley Governorate of Egypt. Four districts were identified, Elkharga, Eldakhla, Baris and Balat. A random sample of 120 farms was taken to represent the four studied districts (30 farms from each district). A questionnaire was designed to cover available production resources, farming activities, variable costs and revenues. Data were collected over the agricultural year from September 2015 to August 2016. Least squares analysis of variance technique using a fixed effects linear model was performed to derive technical coefficients of the considered productive traits for livestock and major crops. Whole farm budget was applied for economical efficiency to determine the overall gross margin (GM) per feddan and benefit/cost ratio (B/C) of the four studied districts.

Some demographic characteristics of farmers and their knowledge of the systems of raising and caring for meat animals in the New Valley governorate, Egypt

“…In the study areas about 63.7% gave their animals immunizations and vaccinations, in contrast the rate of not vaccinating the animals was high (36.3%), may be due to the reduction of medications and veterinary (Mohammady et al, 2018). Only 21% of respondents were satisfied with the animal health services during an experiment in Sudan, while the majority (79%) said they had limited access to suitable animal health treatments (Omer et al, 2021).…”

“…Results of field survey of the studied districts showed that the animals purchased from a reliable source reached to 60.3% from a known source at rate of 85.3%, in contrast to 39.7% purchased from unreliable source with 14.3% from unknown source (Table 4). According to Mohammady et al, (2018), most farm animals came from the local market or were raised as replacements on the farms. As show in Table ( 4), the 81.3 % from the farmers didn't have any reports for record all movements to and from the farm, whereas 18.7% have a clear record of all movements to and from the farm.…”