AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF THE PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS SITUATION FOR SOME OIL CROPS IN EGYPT

he problem of research was the low level of the local production capacity of plant oils with the increasing of Consumption requirement so the research aimed to find a way to cover the gap of oil crops.    The main findings of the research are as  follows    - The area of oil crops decreased from about 1160 thousand feddans for the year 2001 to about 697 thousand feddans at the end of the first period by half, in addition to the continued decrease of cultivated areas of oil crops from about 718 thousand feddans in 2009 the beginning of the second period to about 470 thousand feddans in 2016 Second period of study. It was found that the area cultivated during the period (2001-2016) took a general decreasing trend and a statistical significance of about 49.33 thousand feddans annually, with a yearly average of about 5.96% of the total area of about 827 thousand feddans. - Peanuts, rice, maize and cotton are among the most important crops competing to soybeans and sunflowers in terms of the profitability of the invested Egyptian pound, which led farmers to refrain from growing soybean and sunflowers crops.  The statistical estimate of the supply response function of soybeans indicates that the most important factors affecting the cultivated area in the current year depend on the net revenue in the pre vious year. The increase of one pound increases the cultivated area of the crop in the following year by about 6 feddans in the following year. It is also shown that the cultivated area in the current year of soybean crop is directly proportional to the cultivated area of the previous year. On the other hand, area under cultivation is affected by soybean revenue in the current year, in turn, by increasing the net revenue of maize crop. The increase of one pound is due to the shortage of cultivated area of soybeans in the following year by about 4 feddans in the following year. This is consistent with the economic logic. - As for the estimation of the response function of sunflower crop, it was found that the most important factors affecting the cultivated area in the current year depend on the net revenue in the previous year, increasing it by one  Egyptian pound will increase the cultivated area of the crop in the following year by about one feddan. While the cultivated area with sunflower crop in the current year is adversely affected by the increase in the net revenue of maize and peanut. The increase of one pound is due to the shortage of cultivated area of the sunflower in the following year by about 7 feddan, 2 feddan in the following year respectively.  The correlation between the strength of imports as a dependent variable and both the local production and size of the oil gap during the period 2001-2016 shows that there is a significant inverse relationship between the strength of imports and total domestic production. This is consistent with economic logic. Size of the gap is positive and morally significant. Size of the gap is 1,000 tons, which increases the import force by about 0.24%.An Economic study of the production and imports situation for some oil crops in Egypt             Arab Univ. J. Agric. Sci., Special Issue, 26(2C), 2018   In the light of the obtained findings of the research, it is possible to recommend the following points: 1. Apply the contracting farming between farmers for the purchase of oily crops with the predetermined guarantee price for oil crops by the Ministry of Agriculture to cover production costs and achieve a profitable profit margin, encouraging farmers to expand the cultivation of these crops.  2. The need to increase the cultivated area of soybean and sunflowers crops in the new lands away from the competitive summer crops in the old lands. Besides intercropping these tow mentioned crops among the main crops. 3. Improve the competitiveness of soybeans and sunflowers crops with competitive crops, which can be achieved by providing producers with a high yield varieties and new hybrids.