Egypt has a limited share of the Nile water about 55.5 km3/yr.  The water flows are controlled by a long and complicated irrigation network.  As a result of water shortage, the irrigation water decreases dramatically from Southern to Northern Egypt.  This Chapter focused on the impacts of irrigation water shortage on the production of the main summer crops.  It compared two villages in Egypt.  One of them located in Upper Egypt (W. Alsawamah), and the other located in Northern Egypt (Elarkoub).  The farm-level survey was conducted to examine the actual farm practices during the summer season.  Consequently, the study tried to determine an appropriate possibility to improve the productivity and profitability of some summer crops in both regions. 

The study found that the production of main summer crops suffers from not only irrigation water shortage but also labor shortage.  Many workers prefer to travel abroad, shift to other sectors, or transfer to the coasts to work instead of working in the agricultural sector.  This occurs mainly because of the higher wages in other sectors compared with the agricultural sector.  The study also found that there are many types of labor; family, hired, and other type the study called it “cooperative labor”.  In this type, the farmers work together periodically in their fields without wages.  This type of labor is common in Northern Egypt especially in crops which need a lot of workers such as rice and cotton.  However, it decreases significantly in Upper Egypt because of some customary rules.  It was further revealed that as a result of high and fluctuating prices of chemical fertilizers in the Egyptian market, their use is non-rational especially in Upper Egypt.

The study estimated production functions of some summer crops in the study villages.  It was found that maize and rice in Northern Egypt have high elasticity values in irrigation water which are about 0.27, and 0.44 respectively because of the water shortage.  Sorghum in Upper Egypt also has high elasticity for irrigation water input because of the lack of irrigation machines and the periodical system of irrigation.  All analyzed summer crops have high elasticity for labor input (up to 0.20) because of the labor shortage.  Thus, the study put a detailed possibility to improve the productivity of some summer crops.  This possibility is adjusted in case of increasing separately the different inputs including irrigation water by 10%.  It can easily help farmers and policy makers to take appropriate decisions in order to make rational use of the different resources.  It also helps them to improve productivity and profitability of the main summer crops.