An Analytical Study of the Impact of Fragmentation of Holdings on the Productivity of the Most Important Grain Crops in Sohag Governorate

The main purpose of the present study is to examine the impact of size and land tenure systems on the productivity, costs and returns of important crops in sohag governorate. the study used the descriptive and analytical quantitative approach mainly the analysis of variance in explaining the field data.
To achieve the objective of the study, a sample of 200 farms in four villages in districts sohag and tema were selected and farm data were collected using a questionnaire designed for this purpose.
The study showed that sohag governorate includes a great number of small holdings occupying small area. The average size of holdings was about 1.03 feddan in 1999/2000, it went down to feddan in 2011/2012.
The impact of holding size on productivity, costs and returns was clear. the study showed that productivity of wheat, maize and sorghum has increased with the increase in size of holding. the concept of economies of scale was also clear as costs per feddan has decreased as the size of holding increases. on the other hand, return per feddan increases as the size of holding increase.
The results also showed that owned holdings gave higher productivity of all crops compared with leased and mixed holdings.
Finally, the analysis of variance of productivity, costs and return for various size group and land tenure systems of holding showed significant difference for most of the crops studied.