A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ECONOMICS OF CHAMOMILE PRODUCTION UNDER ORGANIC AND TRADITIONAL FARMING IN FAYOUM GOVERNORATE

Egypt has an appropriate environment for the cultivation of many medicinal and aromatic plants of great economic potential all over the world. Chamomile is one of the most important crops, especially in Fayoum governorate, where the average of cultivated area under the traditional farming system about 9.8 thousand feddan in the year 2015 represents about 77% of total traditional chamomile area in the whole country, where organic chamomile production area was approximately 6.3 thousand feddan which represent about 84% of total organic Chamomile production area in whole Egypt. This research aimed to evaluate the economic efficiency for Chamomile production under organic farming system compared with traditional system in Fayoum governorate over the growing season 2015 -2016 in the short-run and long-run based on preliminary data of a random sample of traditional and organic chamomile farms. A simple random sample was taken from three districts in Fayoum  governorate (Ebshway, Etsa and Youssef El Siddiq), with 75, 60 individuals for both traditional and organic farms respectively, each sample was divided into two categories; the first category (0.5 feddan – 1 feddan), the second category (1.5 feddan - 2 feddan). Analytical procedures were utilized in processing and analyzing the data. Multiple regressions were used to reach the basic findings of this research. Production and Cost function was specified and estimated, in order to derive some indicators of economic efficiency, production efficiency and economic of scale. The results showed that the total production elasticity for both the selected sample farms in the short and long run, indicating that all farms are produced in the first non-economic phase of the Law of diminishing returns.  The results showed that the net return of organic farms was higher than traditional farms by 63.6% and 52.1% for the first and second category farms, respectively.