Abstract:
Cotton is one of the strategic
crops in Egypt. This article investigates
the impacts of climatic factors and their
variations on the cotton yield and its
economic benefits during the period from
1998 to 2019. We chose the Kafr El-Sheikh
Governorate, where cotton is one of the
major planted crops, was chosen for the
analysis. The climatic factors utilized were
the maximum, minimum and average
temperatures; relative humidity; solar
radiation and wind speed. Precipitation
was excluded, as Egypt depends mainly on
irrigation. The climatic factors utilized
influenced yield during different growth
stages: wind speed showed an influence
only on the germination stage, whereas
temperature had a major impact before and
at the maturity stages. The latter
correlation was positive in July and
negative in August and September.
Relative humidity and solar radiation
impacted on yield at different growth
stages, with an almost positive correlation
with solar radiation and both a positive
and a negative correlation with relative
humidity. For the study of the economic
indicators of cotton, cotton data were
taken for the whole Egyptian Governorate
during the period 2005-2019. The study
showed a decrease in the net return during
the period from 2005 to 2015 that reached
a loss (minus value) of 195 Egyptian
pounds (LE) in 2015, followed by an
increase during the period from 2016 to
2019 due to the increase in farm gate
prices.
