           TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION: EVIDENCE FROM ISMAILIA GOVERNORATE Alboghdady, M. A.* and M. A. Shata** * Agric. Economics Dept., Suez Canal University. E/mail: m.tabei@scuegypt.edu.eg ** Agric. Economics Dept. / Almansoura University E/mail: drshata@mans.edu.eg ABSTRACT The present study seeks mainly to measure the technical, economic, and farm overall efficiency of strawberry production in Ismailia governorate. The results indicated that farmers performed high technical and economic efficiency of some resources combination such as nitrogen fertilizers versus manure fertilizers and human labor working days versus mechanization hours. The optimal production sizes were 14.66, 15.02, and 14.66 ton per feddan in counties: Abou Soware, Alkantara, and total sample respectively. The minimum average variable costs that joint to the optimal production size were 192.33, 203.90, and 189.15 L.E per ton in the mentioned counties respectively. The farm overall efficiency(F.O.E) has been measured to the mentioned counties to extract the overall performance of the strawberry farms in Ismailia governorates. The results indicated that the farmers performed a high performance as the F.O.E were 0.87, 0.94, and 0.86 in Abou Soware, Alkantara, total sample respectively. INTRODUCTION The Egyptian agriculture sector has experienced notable growth during the last decades. Such growth is coming mainly from two reasons. The first one is the horizontal expansion in the reclaimed lands. The second reason is putting the exportation as vital and strategic goal. There is a cause for worry concerning the future development of the agricultural sector in Egypt. That is pattern of growth can no longer continue since Egypt reached its water and/or land frontier. Therefore, a new strategy for agricultural development has been adopted in recent years with emphasis placed on increasing agricultural land productivity. New technology inputs, such as modern varieties of plants, fertilizers, irrigation, mechanization and chemicals, have been widely used. Since the study of efficiency focuses on the possibility of increasing output while conserving resource use, efficiency measurement provides information which is potentially useful in the formulation and analysis of agricultural policy. As Egyptian agriculture is currently adjusting to export maximization regime, it is perhaps timely to study the degree of efficiency on Egyptian farms and, in so doing, gaining some insights from improved performance farms and apply them on new farms. Strawberry has become one of the promising exportable vegetable crops in Egypt. Furthermore, Egypt is recorded as one of the major ten