Economics of Vegetable Production Under Cover in the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

Abstract

The agricultural sector is considered one of the important sectors in the Libyan Economy. It provides the main needs for food security, industrial inputs, and job opportunities. For these reasons its share of the development plans and investment was estimated to be 4.8 billion Libyan Dinars during the years 1970-1989. Vegetable production in Libya was estimated to be 565 thousand tons in 1985 from an area of about 54 thousand hectares. Water resources were considered the most important limiting factor for expanding the area under vegetable production to meet the demand for vegetable produce. As a result, one of the recommendations that has been made to meet the water shortages problem in the coastal areas was the expansion in vegetable production under cover (greenhouses). The objectives of this paper were: the estimation of production, cost analyis, net returns and evaluation of investment in vegetable production in greenhouses (g.h). The data were collected by means of a questionnaire covering about 30 g.h of three types: Plastic, glass, and fiberglass. Total initial investment for these three types of g.h. was estimated in this paper to be 45,000 dinars, 178,000 dinars and 111,000 dinars, respectively. Average variable cost was found to be 15,000 dinars per hectare for fiberglass, 16,000 dinars per hectare for glass g.h. and 13,000 dinars per hectare for plastic g.h. Average estimated net returns per hectare was calculated to be 45,000 dinars for fiberglass, 37,000 dinars for glass g.h. and 31,000 dinars for plastic g.h. The payback period for these three types g.h. was estimated to be about 2 years, 4 years, and 9 years for plastic, fiberglass and glass g.h, respectively. Finally the study concluded that there were no technical or economical advantages gained by investing in fiberglass or glass g.h. versus investing in plastic g.h. and recommended that expansion in vegetable production in g.h. is more feasible in plastic greenhouses.