AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF THE EFFICIENCY AND DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT IN EGYPT

The agricultural sector had considered one of the main pillars on which the Egyptian economic structure depends. The average value of agricultural gross domestic product reached about LE 106.0 billion, representing about 9.7% of the average value of the national GDP which reached about LE 1091.6 billion during the period (1996/1997-2016/2017). Agriculture sector employs a large part of labor, which is about 28.6% of the total number of workers in economic activities, the average volume of national investments directed at agricultural sector reached about LE 9.1 billion, representing 8.5% of the average national investments, which amounted to LE 106.0 billion. The research problem is the decline in the share of the agricultural sector of the national investments, which decreased the relative importance of the agricultural investments volume in the total national investment from about 13.3% in (1996/1997), to about 9.4% in (2016/2017). The research aims to study agricultural investment efficiency and its determinants in Egypt, the research was based on descriptive analysis and quantitative analysis to characterize the economic variables, as well as the use of statistical analysis tools. With respect to the most important determinants affecting agricultural investment by real prices are the exchange rate, the unemployment rate, the interest rate of the banking system, the value of agricultural wages, the value of agricultural exports, and the value of agricultural savings. But in the semi-logarithmic form, the results confirmed that the value of the agricultural trade balance is increasing by 1% would increase agricultural investment volume of about 0.08%. The unemployment rate is declining by 1% leads to increase agricultural investment volume about 0.06%. As for the double logarithmic form, the value of the exchange rate, the value of agricultural savings and the volume of agricultural employment are increasing by about 1% would increase agricultural investment volume by about 0.06%, 0.75%, 0.24%, respectively. The value of exports and the unemployment rate are decreasing by about 1% would increase agricultural investment volume about 0.67%, 0.04% respectively. The elasticity of agricultural investment was about 0.34. With respect to the assessment of the efficiency of agricultural investments, the results confirmed that the rate of investment, return on investment, the investment multiplier, the coefficient of endemism, and the coefficient of capital intensive have reached about 0.11, 14.3, 22.0, 0.3, 1.5, respectively. The study recommended the necessity of optimizing the distribution of national investments among the economic sectors, In addition to increasing the share of the national agricultural sector in the implementation of infrastructure projects economic and social services, the cost of investment is decreasing and agricultural investments are increasing.