Estimation of the Economic Losses of the Waste from the Most Important Vegetable and Fruit Crops in Egypt

Abstract

Increasing the waste of agricultural crops in general and vegetable and fruit crops specially, consider one of the main problems which cause economic losses for Egyptian economy. The main objective of the research is estimating of the economic losses for the waste from the most important vegetable and fruit crops in Egypt. The research depends on two kinds of data, time serious data which collected from different sources local and foreign, and cross section data represent during using a random sample collected from AL- Behaira governorate.
The problem of waste considers one of the most important problems that face the agricultural crops, which hinder the performance of the agricultural sector, and the crops of vegetables and fruits of the most important agricultural crops are damaged due to their physical nature and impact of natural factors compared to other crops, causing significant losses of agricultural production and Egyptian food security. The agricultural production waste causing significant losses in national agricultural income and agricultural exports. The losses also cause waste in agricultural resources, specially land, irrigation water and capital and its limited resources in Egyptian agriculture. The results showed that the average annual quantity of Egyptian potatoand orange wastes represented about 135.8% and about 55% of the average quantities of potato exported during the study period, which confirms the importance and necessity of reducing the quantity of waste in the important export potato crop, because if the conservation of this quantity of losses and re-evaluation at the prices of Egyptian exports of the potato and orange exported, the average value of this wastes are about $ 419.4 million and $ 118.75 million, respectively. The study showed that the economic losses represents a loss in the actual cultivated area of potato and orange crops a losses in potato and orange exports, a losses in farmers income, andlosses in irrigation water.
In light of the results obtained from the research, it recommends the following: To reduce the production waste in potato and orange crops, attention should be paid to good pruning, pest control and fertilization. Exclude the damaged fruits when sorting so as not to damage others. Use of transport vehicles equipped to maintain goods.The speed of sorting goods by traders as soon as they reach the retail market.To improve the quality of the containers used and to be strong plastic for transporting and displaying the goods.