Alaa Al Zagout*(1) Safwan Abo Assaf(2) Amgad Badr(2) and Yehya Sharaf(3)
(1). Extension and Social Studies Department, Agricultural Extension Directorate, Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MOAAR), Swayda, Syria.
(2). Economic and Social Studies Department, Agriculture Research Center in Swayda, General Commission for Scientific and Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Swayda, Syria.
(3). Extension Programs Division, Extension Department, Agricultural Extension Directorate, (MOAAR), Swayda, Syria.
(*Correspoding author: Dr. Alaa Al Zagout. E-Mail: alzagout@hotmail.com).
Received: 04/05/ 2015 Accepted: 01/07/ 2015
Abstract
Apple production is an important agricultural productive activity in Suwayda, Syria, therefore this research aimed to estimate some measurements of the financial analysis, and costs and production functions of the available resources. The primary data was collected from Suwayda governorate using random sample of (268) observations during 2012. The main results of the study were as follow: Land rent, control, and pruning costs were the highest production costs of about 25%, 18%, 9% respectively. All farms within all scales were working in the first stage of the diminishing return law. The optimum size of the apple farm is about 9.5 hectares. The most important factors affecting apple production were: altitude, age of tree, phosphate fertilizer, potassium fertilizer, framer’s job, labor, invested capital, and summer tillage.
Keywords: Apple, Cost function, Production function, Optimum production size.
Full paper in Arabic: التقدير القياسي لدوال تكاليف وإنتاج التفاح البعل في محافظة السويداء