This study aims to study the estimation of production cost functions as it reflects the relationship between total costs and actual production. The main economic indicators that reflect the extent to which the agricultural production units achieved economic efficiency in their use of the productive resources involved in the production process as well as the extent to which they are achieved These units of maximizing the profits of the agricultural product, as well as the study of production costs and the associated indicators are important both on the productivity unit or at the national level, which can be used in the design and analysis of price policies and help the user Farmers in their productive decision-making, which would encourage producers to continue production or stop production. As well as to determine the volume of production that maximizes profits and thus achieve economic efficiency of the use of productive elements.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between preharvest treatments by salicylic acid, Larginine and L-tryptophan with fruit quality of pear cv. Le-Conte during cold storage at 0◦C and 9095% RH for 12 weeks followed by shelf life at 22◦C for 12 days. Treatments included L-arginine at 100 and 200 ppm, L-tryptophan at 50 and 100 ppm, salicylic acid at 100 and 200 ppm and water as control, all treatments were sprayed on mature trees until run off twice; at full bloom stage and at initial fruit set stage. All conducted treatments were effective in maintaining fruit quality compared with control. Tryptophan at 100 ppm showed the highest significant TSS values, while salicylic acid at 200 ppm showed the lowest significant TSS values during cold storage and shelf life circumstances. Salicylic acid at 100 and 200 ppm showed the lowest weight loss percentages, salicylic at 200 ppm decreased the rate of decay incidence, showed the lowest significant respiration rates, also it was effective in alleviating core browning. In addition, salicylic acid at 200 ppm significantly maintained firmness of fruits, and showed higher h° value of fruits peel, ascorbic acid concentrations, total phenols content and antioxidant capacity values of LeConte pear fruits. Preharvest treatments by salicylic acid, L-arginine and L-tryptophan positively influenced postharvest fruit quality, salicylic acid at 200 ppm effectively maintained fruit quality during cold storage and shelf life.

Productivity efficiency is defined as a measure of the efficiency or efficiency of a particular production component of the production component when used with other elements. This section will address the estimation of the production functions and production efficiency of onion crop in Beni Suef Governorate. Problem and purpose of research To identify the most important problems and obstacles faced by onion production farmers in Beni Suef Governorate Of its strategic importance in Beni Suef Governorate. In light of this, the study aimed to identify the most important problems and problems faced by onion farmers in Beni Suef Governorate, the development of Egyptian onion production. Studying the functions of producing onion crop in sandy  soils to find out the most important elements of production that affect its production. Study the cost functions of the onion crop in the land to the sandy to find out the most important elements of production that affect the production. The total production elasticity was 1.12, with production elasticity in the first 0.77 category, while the second category production flexibility was 1.2. Where the productive flexibility in the third category was 1.01. The cost categories revealed that the total cost elasticity was 0.23, with cost elasticity in the first category of 0.09, indicating the elasticity of the costs of the second category 2.1, where the elasticity of the costs of the third category was 0.30.

The agricultural sector plays a vital role in the economic, social and environmental development process. It depends on achieving many objectives such as providing food needs and raw materials for industries, as well as providing the necessary foreign exchange to finance economic, social and environmental development programs. The State has been interested in drawing up plans to maximize the use of available and limited resources, such as water resources in Egypt, due to its limitedity. What distinguishes the water system in Egypt is that it is a closed system, i.e. water is reused several times. The most important of these uses is the reuse of treated wastewater to irrigate areas cultivated with trees of different types, For the purpose of producing oils, dyes and entering into paper industries, and also to establish sustainable wood forests for the purpose of wood production to contribute to reduce the gap of foreign trade of wood in Egypt, and this use may work to preserve water resources and to reduce of water streams that receive this type of water and improve environmental and health conditions as well as contributing to the creation of large green spaces improve the atmosphere characteristics and work as windbreaks around the cities that have a desert back ground and reduce temperatures in by forest areas. The findings show that economic indicators of the most important trees planted in the forest showed that the Red gum trees are came first in terms of the yield of the invested pound, which is  about 246.41 pounds And in first place in terms of lower cost of production per tonne, amounting to about 2.48 pounds, while the trees come Casuarina sp. second in terms of return Pound, which amounted to 153.70 pounds and the fourth in terms of the cost of production of the ton, which amounted to about 3.93 pounds. Cupressus sp. trees came third in terms of the pound, which amounted to 127.49 pounds and the third place in terms of the cost of production of tons, which amounted to about 3.49 pounds, The yield of the pound for the trees of the Asersus, E.Citriodora, Khayasenegalensis and pine reached 81.95, 65.31, 53.79 and 41.79 respectively, while the production cost per ton was 3.31, 9.48, 6.72 and 9.29 respectively. It is noted that the Red gum trees obtained the highest yield in terms of the pound and the minimum cost of production of tons, and that the increase in investment and expansion of agriculture yields a better return and a good opportunity to invest. The average annual net yield of the most important trees planted in the Sarabum Forest in the Sarabum area was 16155.53 LE / feddan / year, if compared to the net yield of the most important traditional agricultural rotations for some major crops, net annual yield of the period from (20002016) and which corresponds to the age of trees in the forest (area of study) was calculated. It was found that the agricultural rotation of crop (continuous clover + rice) represents the highest average net yield of about 7246.2 pounds / feddan / year. Thus, the average net yield of the most important trees is about 2.23 times that of the counterpart calculated from the traditional agricultural rotations. Therefore, the planting of trees in the forest (area of the study) is considered economical, so the cultivation of the trees should be considered, especially in the desert back ground of the governorates. Without prejudice to traditional crops, as the tendency to plant forests is necessary to improve the environment and a safe way to dispose of treated wastewater so as not to adversely affect the waterways. The results of the economic indicators for the use of the water component in the production of different types of trees planted in the forest were also shown. The price per cubic meter of water  (LE / m3) ranged from a minimum of 1.98 (LE / m3) of Cupressus sp. trees to a maximum of 2.78  (LE / m3) for pine trees with an average of about 2.26 (LE / m3). It was found that the value of net return of cubic meters of water ranged between a minimum of about 27.74 (LE / m3) for pine trees and a maximum of 121.87 (LE / m3) for Red gum trees at an average of about LE 56.80 (LE / m3) The yield per cubic meter (tons / m3) was between 0.056 (tons / m3) for Eucalyptus sp. limmine trees and a maximum of about 0.200 (tons / m3) for Red gum trees at an average of 0.121 (tons / m3). As for the return of the pound of irrigation costs per feddan, the value ranged from a minimum of about 149.8 pounds for pine trees and a maximum of about 855.5 pounds for the trees of Red gum with average of about 383.9 pounds. The ratio of irrigation costs to variable costs ranged from a low of about 47.3% for Eucalyptus sp. limestone trees,  kaya trees with the same percentage and a maximum of 53.4% for Red gum trees, Casuarina sp. trees with the same percentage, and with averaging of about 50.7%. The results of the economic evaluation of trees planted in the forest showed that Red gum trees are better and more efficient tree species in the forest and there is economic feasibility of expanding their cultivation, and therefore some financial measures were made to study the economic feasibility of planting Red gum trees. The results showed that the Profitability Index (PI) at 25% discount rate, 28% for Red gum trees palms without change in cost and revenue factors and the project lifetime attained about 2.02 and 1.45 respectively, which confirms the feasibility of the project Greater than the correct one, which means that each pound invested in the project achieves a net return of 1.02, 0.45 pounds, respectively. As reported the current net cash flows or net present value (NPV) of the project is toward the 15,240, 66081 pounds, respectively. And the internal rate of return (IRR) of the project is 31.5%. This means that the rate of return is greater than the opportunity cost prevailing in the community at the study, which is the interest rate, is 25%. Accordingly, the Pay-Back period of the project capital is estimated at 3.2 years, which confirms that there is a capital turnover of the capital. From the above, it is clear that the expansion of the cultivation of the trees Red gum is economically feasible.

Sweet whey was used as medium for microbial alginate production by Azotobacter chrococcum NCBI MH249629. To optimize alginate production and achieve high yield of alginate, sweet whey medium was prepared using different lactose concentrations (20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 g/L), added organic and inorganic nitrogen sources (yeast extract, Malt extract, ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate), kept at different temperatures (25, 30, 32, 35 & 37ºC), different pH values (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9),  different agitation speed (100, 120, 150, 170 & 200 rpm), different inoculum size (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10%) and cultivated for different fermentation time (0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108 & 120h). After fermentation time, produced microbial alginate was measured. The results showed that sweet whey could be used as a fermentation medium by Azotobacter chrococcum to produce microbial alginate. The highest yield of alginate (12.56%) as well as productivity of alginate (0.08 g/L/h) was obtained by fermentation of Azotobacter chrococcum in sweet whey medium optimized to 45 g/L lactose concentration as a carbon source and by providing the following conditions which yeast extract 1.5 g/L and ammonium nitrate 0.1 g/L as a nitrogen source and growth promoter, Na2HPO4 1 g/L as mineral salts, Initial pH at 7, size of standard inoculums was 9 % of fermentation medium and the incubation period was 72 hrs.

Listeria monocytogenes is a food borne pathogenic bacteria and caused a dangerous infection of humans. Six lytic bacteriophages specific to L. monocytogenes were isolated from irrigation and sewage waters and named ØLG, ØLA, ØLM, ØLD, ØLN and ØLP. The phages were propagated, and then purified by the ultracentrifugation. Morphological properties of Listeria phages showed that the phages were tailed phages, varied in their sizes and assigned to be a member of Siphoviridae (ØLG, ØLA, ØLM) and Myoviridae (ØLN, ØLD, ØLP)   families. All Listeria phages were highly stable under different temperature conditions and its thermal inactivation point was reached to 80°C. The longevity in vitro of the phages was up to 60 days, as well as phages were active at pH values ranging from 4.0 to 12.0. Listeria phages did not lose their infectivity after exposure to UV for 90 min at 35 and 53 cm distances. Results of SDS-PAGE showed that phages had 5-6 protein fragments with molecular weights of 66, 45, 37, 35, 33 and 28 kDa distributed among the six phages.

It is very difficult to find an expert at the desired time and place to give guidance about irrigation scheduling or good management of water and irrigation system. In this study, this problem was tried to be solved by designing and evaluating an expert system for a modified surface irrigation system. A rule-based program named as MSISES (Modified Surface Irrigation System by Expert System) was coded and complied using C#.net programing language. The expert system was designed to support users with information about irrigation scheduling (irrigation operating time and irrigation interval) and the gated pipes as one of the surface irrigation modification tools (gates opening ratio). Two different experiments were held to evaluate the performance of the developed expert system. The first one is to evaluate the irrigation scheduling part by cultivating a field crop (Sweet maize) to make a comparison between the crop yield and water productivity after applying the program’s scheduling and the farmer’s scheduling. The second one is to make a comparison between the fully opened gates situation and when the resulted gates opening ratio is applied. The results indicated that an increase at crop yield and crop water productivity by 9.49% and 32.37% respectively for sweet maize using the developed expert system, and also, there was a slight variation between gates discharges after using the expert system except the last four gates discharge were different because of the superimposed pressure near the closed end.

Four common Egyptian Agricultural by products used for ruminant feeding were treated with different concentrations of Probiotic (ZAD) to study the effect of treatment on chemical composition of roughages. Roughages used were rice straw (RS), wheat straw (WS), corn stover (CS) and sugar cane bagasse (SCB). Concentrations of ZAD tested in this study were 0.05, 1.0, 1.5 and 2 ml/Kg of roughage. Roughages were mixed with ZAD solution and incubated anaerobically for 4 weeks. Results indicated that treatments decreased crude fiber (CF) contents of all roughages by 17 % in CS to 30% in SCB and increased EE by multiplication of 1.45 times in WS to 4.9 times in SCB. Statistical analysis showed no significant interaction between roughage source and ZAD concentration on chemical composition of roughages except for crude protein where interaction was significant (P<.05). Results also indicated that ZAD concentration over 0 ml/kg affected CF & CP contents, it was also noticed that CP of RS showed the highest response for treatment followed by SCB and CS, respectively. Crude protein of WS was not affected by different ZAD concentration. It was concluded that ZAD concentration of 1 ml/ 1 Kg of roughage is recommended for treatment to improve roughage chemical analysis.

Two hundred multiparous Holstein dairy cows post-partum were randomly assigned into two groups. The first group (control, n=100) was fed total mixed ration (TMR) without a supplement of liquid probiotic enzymes. The second group (treatment, n=100) was fed TMR supplemented with a commercial probiotic (ZAD) prepared by Bactizad company, Cairo, Egypt. at the rate of 10 ml/head/day.  According to the guide of the manufacture for 12 weeks ZAD was added and mixed to the TMR at the time of feeding once per day. Each group was placed in a shaded pen equipped with free stalls.    Results obtained showed that     Milk yield increased significantly from 39.57 kg/day for control group up to 41.73 kg/day for treated with ZAD group.  Fat and protein milk percentage tended to be improved due to treated with ZAD but the difference was not significant. Lactose percentage was affected positively and significantly by treated of ZAD, lactose percentage was 4.79 for control group and 4.83 for ZAD group.  Serum total protein increased significantly from 11.52 (g/dl) for control group up to 11.85(g/dl) for treated ZAD group. Albumin was significantly higher in control group.   Results indicated that blood urea concentration in treated group being 34.77 (mg/dl) and for the control group 33.91 (mg/dl), was significantly higher.  Alkaline phosphates increased significantly in treated group from 21.105 U/l for control group up to 26.92 U/l for treated group.   Cholesterol concentration was reduced significantly due to treatment from 240.98 mg/dl in control cows to 190.13 mg/dl in treated cows.  Triglycerides concentration declined significantly due to treatment of probiotic ZAD. In control cows triglycerides concentration was 27.871 (mg/dl) and treated cows was 20.9781 (mg/dl).  T3 concentration increased significantly as a response to treatment by probiotic ZAD. T3 concentration was 117.29 ng/dl in treated group and 62.38 mg/dl in control group.

Sorting machines of fruits are mostly used in the industries. The process of sorting started by detecting the color of the fruits to indicate its classification based on the color of the fruit. In this work, a fruit sorting machine has been designed and built for small scale industries needing low cost compared to those now being used, which are expensive. This quest focuses on sorting the different types of fruits such as apples, tomatoes, and navel orange which are green and red. The fruits are put on a small belt and then entered through a box with a controlled lighting Red- Green- Blue color sensor. The controlled lighting is in a closed space with a servo motor which rotates 130 degree and returns to zero position. Attached to it, a gate pushes the fruit to the line of correct color and RGB color sensor to make scanning, integrated with Red and non-Red (Green) Light Emitting Diode (RGB LED), to detect the color of the fruit. Study also includes productivity, efficiency and costs were determined.    Results revealed the following - The productivity is arranged from low to high as follows: tomatoes (27.3: 61.2 kg/h), apples (34.1: 76.5 kg/h), and navel orange (68.1: 153 kg/h). - The efficiency of sorting was as follows: tomatoes was 96 %  at the lowest belt speed and increased to 100 % at the mean belt speed 0.8 m/s then decreased to 94 % at the highest speed, apples was 95 %  at the lowest belt speed and increased to 100 % at the mean belt speed 0.8 m/s then decreased to  91.25 % at the highest speed, and navel orange was 95 %  at the lowest belt speed and increased to 100 % at the mean belt speed 0.8 m/s then decreased to 80 % at the highest speed. - The most suitable belt speed was 0.8 m/s with very small delay time of servo motor which gives the highest efficiency of sorting within free flowing conditions. The sorting process cost by using the developed machine was less than the manual process in case of navel orange, tomatoes and apples. Using the developed sorting machine reduced the cost of fruits sorting to 1: 2.23 as compared with manual method in navel orange, and to 1 : 1.12 for apples, but it was more expensive sorting tomatoes by the developed machine compared with manual sorting of 12%.