THE PRODUCTIVE AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF BEEKEEPING PROJECTS IN EGYPT

The study aims to evaluate the production efficiency of honeybee-keeping projects in Egypt, to identify the key factors affecting honey production, and to determine both the optimal production level and the cost-minimizing and profit-maximizing levels of output. The sample was collected from Fayoum Governorate and divided into three categories: less than 50 hives, 50–100 hives, and more than 100 hives. The results revealed that the most influential factors affecting honey production varied by category. For the first category, the most significant variables were the cost of bee disease control (EGP) (Xi4) and the beekeeper’s experience in years (Xi5), with production elasticities of 0.696 and 0.173, respectively. For the second category, the most influential variables were the quantity of feeding sugar (Xi2), the amount of labor (Xi3), and the beekeeper’s experience (Xi5), with production elasticities of 0.438, 0.250, and 0.234, respectively. In the third category, the number of hives (Xi1), the amount of labor (Xi3), and the cost of disease control (Xi4) were the main determinants of honey production, with corresponding production elasticities of 0.188, 0.288, and 0.947. Moreover, the findings indicated that the second category achieved superior economic efficiency indicators among all groups. The average honey yield per hive was 11.36, 11.62, and 10.23 kilograms for the first, second, and third categories, respectively. The unit cost reached approximately 68.28, 59.43, and 64.14 EGP/kg for the three categories, while the return per invested pound was about 0.83, 1.08, and 0.95 EGP, respectively.