In the near future, the year 2050, agricultural production should expand to fulfill the needs of approximately 9.7 billion inhabitants. Such an objective should be harmonized with social, economic, and environmental sustainability aspects to maintain safe food production and food security worldwide. For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised and is still strongly disrupting the agro-livestock production sector, similar to several other economic sectors. In this sector, the relationships between suppliers, producers, and consumers should always continue to maintain the activity of the production chain, which are impaired by social distancing decisions taken following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, a global cross-sectional survey (translated into four languages: Arabic, English, French, and Spanish) was shared with people belonging to the agricultural sector to identify: (1) the role of the agricultural information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agro-livestock farming systems sustainability during the period of COVID-19 pandemic, (2) the need for such technologies in the agricultural sector, and (3) the factors that affect the use of such technologies. The results showed that the most frequently used agricultural ICTs were social media (Facebook and/or WhatsApp; 27.3%) and online platforms and Internet services (26.3%), whereas robotic vehicles and/or drones (6.6%) were less frequently used. During the emergence of the pandemic, the major reasons impacting agro-livestock farming systems’ sustainability were social distancing (30.0%), shortage of labor (17.7%), maintaining precision farm management (14.8%), product marketing (14.2%), access production inputs (7.2%), and others (16.1%). Applying agricultural ICTs solved many obstacles related to the production process, such as maintaining precision farm management (25.6%), product marketing (23.6%), and access production inputs (16.1%). The subgroup analyses of the results considering the degree of country advancement, size of agribusinesses, and role/position of respondents in the farm highlighted the importance of supporting the use, availability, and awareness of agricultural ICTs at least for some groups of people such as those belong to developing countries, laborers, and small-scale agri-business holders. This cross-sectional study highlights the urgent need to turn to and to expand the use of new agricultural ICTs to meet the growing demand for food production in the world and to ensure the resilience and sustainability of farming systems, specifically under unexpected and extreme conditions.

استهدفت الدراسة التعرف على تطور المساحة المستصلحة من الأراضي الجيدة وأثرها على كل من الرقعة الزراعية والرقعة المحصولية ومتوسط نصيب الفرد منها ، ومدى مساهمة الأراضي الجديدة في مختلف فروع النشاط الزراعي ونسبة مساهمتها في الدخل الزراعي ، هذا بالإضافة إلى التعرف على أهم مشكلات التنمية الزراعية في الأراضي الجديدة وسبل الحد من آثارهاوتشير الدراسة إلى عدم التوازن بين معدل نمو الرقعة الزراعية وعدد السكان خلال الفترة (2000/2001- 2016/20017 ) حيث بلغ معدل نمو السكان نحو 2,2% في حين بلغ نظيره للرقعة المزروعة نحو 0,9% والرقعة المحصولية 0,8 % ، كما تراجع متوسط نصيب الفرد من الرقعة الزراعية من نحو 0,12 فدان عام 2000/2001 إلى نحو 0,10 فدان عام 2016/2017 ومن الرقعة المحصولية من حوالي 0,22 فدان إلى حوالي 0,20 فدان خلال نفس العامينوقد بلغ إجمالي الرقعة المستصلحة من الأراضي الجديدة في مصر خلال الفترةة من عام 1952 وحتى عام 2017 حوالي 3396,58 ألف فدان ، وقد شهدت الفترة الأخيرة إنخفاض معدلات التوسع في الأراضي الجديدة حيث بلغ إجمالي ما تم استصلاحه واستزراعه خلال الفترة ( 2009/2010-2016/2017 ) حوالي 206,5 ألف فدان فقط ساهمت فيها الدولة من خلال الهيئة العامة لمشروعات التعمير والتنمية الزراعية بنحو 16,56 % والجمعيات...

This research mainly aimed to identify the performance efficiency of the industrial hatching laboratories for broiler chicks, by identifying the time development of the numbers of industrial hatching labs and their production capacity, estimating the construction and operational costs of the hatching labs and the net annual revenue of the hatchery labs in the sample of the study, estimating the various types of efficiencies for the hatchery labs in a sample The study on the level of production capacities included in the study sample to judge the efficiency of its performance from various aspects of performance, identifying the various problems facing the operation of the hatchery labs with the sample of the study. It took a statistically significant incremental trend with a growth rate of about 14%, 14.6% annually at the level of the Republic, and it reached about 12.3%, 13% annually at the level of El-Beheira Governorate for each of them, respectively. It is clear from the results of the study of the economic indicators of the productive and economic efficiency of the industrial hatchery for the production of broiler chicks, the superiority of the producers of broiler chicks for the second production capacity in the economic indicators estimated from their counterparts for the first production capacity, which are represented in the average total revenue, the margin above the variable costs, the average net income, the relative profitability, The total revenues of the total costs ratio, the return on the invested pound, as these indicators amounted to about 376.26 thousand pounds /100 thousand eggs, 96.06 thousand pounds /100 thousand eggs, 76.65 thousand pounds /100 thousand eggs, 0.285, 1.263, 0.263 piasters, respectively, for the first production capacity, while it amounted to about 484.32 thousand pounds /100 thousand eggs, 234.93 thousand pounds /100 thousand eggs, 223.09 thousand pounds /100 thousand eggs, 0.890, 1.852, 0.852 piasters. It was also shown from the results of the data envelope analysis that the average economic efficiency of each the broiler chicks hatching labs for the first production capacity and the second production capacity according to the concept of fixed return to capacity, which is supposed to operate the lab at its maximum capacity, amounted to about 0.829, 0.918 with a minimum about 0.187, 0.817, respectively, An upper limit reached the correct one for each of them, respectively, and this means that these labs can reduce their production costs by about 17%, 8% while maintaining the same level of production, and the number of efficient labs has reached 2, 5 labs only, representing about 22.22%, 45.45% from the total number of broiler chicks hatching labs for each the first production capacity and the second production capacity, respectively. The average economic efficiency of the broiler chicks hatching labs in each the first production capacity and the second production capacity according to the concept of variable return to capacity was about 0.898, 0.971 with a minimum about 0.334 and 0.905, respectively, and an upper limit of the correct one, which means that these labs can reduce its production costs about 10%, 3% and maintaining the same level of production. The number of efficient labs has reached 4 ,7 labs, representing about 44.44%, 63.64% of the total number of broiler chicks hatching labs for each the first production capacity and the second production capacity on arrangement.