Moataz Eliw Mostafa Ahmed^{*(1, 2)}  

(1). Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assuit, Egypt.

(2). College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, No.1 Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430070, Hubei, P.R. China.

(*Corresponding Author: Moataz Eliw Mostafa Ahmed. E-mail: moatazeliw@azhar.edu.eg).

Received: 17/09/2019                                Accepted: 04/12/2019

Abstract

Agricultural production, like other economic activities, is affected by the success of agricultural economic policies pursued by government from leaving the farmer free to cultivate his land with the desired crops, and to take his production and marketing decisions in light of the mechanisms of supply and demand and the movement of prices in the markets without any intervention by the government. Therefore, the government’s intervention influences the farmers’ desire to grow any of the crops through its agricultural policies by imposing taxes or subsidizing inputs. Wheat, maize, rice, and potatoes are among the most crucial strategic food and industrial crops in Egypt. The Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) can be estimated by calculating nominal and effective protection coefficients, and then identifying the policy adopted by the government, whether it is a protectionist policy or a policy of direct or indirect taxes on the producers of those crops, as well as the calculation of the cost of domestic resources to determine the relative advantage. The results showed that the financial value of workers’ wages in the production of wheat, maize, rice and potatoes at market prices exceeded the border prices, while the values ​​of the nominal protection coefficients of outputs were about 0.81, 0.81, 0.80 and 0.83 for wheat, maize, rice and potatoes respectively. Nominal protection coefficient values ​​for production inputs were 0.83, 0.83, 0.85 and 0.84 respectively for the four crops, while the effective protection plant values ​​for wheat, maize, rice and potato crops were 0.80, 0.80, 0.80 and 0.84, respectively. The values ​​of the comparative advantage of the four crops, respectively, were 0.49, 0.52, 0.38 and 0.37.

Keywords: Policy analysis matrix, Nominal protection coefficient, Effective protection coefficient, Domestic resource costs.

Full Paper in Arabic: PDF