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Lowell N. Lewis
“Whoever does not command the means to feed himself can neither feel freedom nor dignity”
Mohamed Hosni Mubarak.”
To: My wife, Montserrat Trueta,
For her patience and support, her editorial help and her interest in Egypt
To: My children, Beth, Brad and Nancy for their personal support and their interest in my interests.
To: My friends and colleagues in Egypt whose patience with an American created my fascination for their country.
To: My colleagues at the University of California who encouraged me.
CONTENTS
Summary of Text 26
About the Author 328
PART ONE 46
HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN EGYPT
Irrigation and Soil Management
Crop and Livestock Production
Economics and Wealth
Energy, Warfare & Trade Routes
The Founder of Modern Egypt
Industrialization and Modernization
Muhammad Ali’s Successors
The Suez Canal
The American Civil War Helped
Constitution, Institutions and Administration
International Relations and Defense
Job Creation, Paramount Challenge for Egypt
Education
Natural Resources & Environment
Energy Provision
Transportation, Communication and the Internet
The Economy
Egypt and the Millennium Development Goals
Nile River Basin Statistics
The History of the Nile
Conflicts and Treaties
Continuing Tensions
Solving Problems with Research
PART THREE 108
JOINT PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT THROUGH FOREIGN AID
The Status of Agriculture in the second Half of the Century
Government Policies Affecting Agriculture and Their Reform
Revitalization—US Presidential Mission
Early Cooperative Research Programs--USAID
Farmer to Farmer Program
Accomplishments of Specific Institutes During NARP
Official Report & Evaluation of NARP
Advances in Egyptian Agriculture
Closing the Food Security Gap
Criticisms of NARP
Research to Improve Efficiency and Productivity in Agriculture is Never Done
Future Efforts in Research Should Include
Agriculture Led Export Businesses (ALEB)
Agricultural Technology Utilization and Transfer (ATUT)
Agricultural Policy Reforms Program (APRP)
Agribusiness Linkages (AgLink)
Agricultural Exports and Rural Income (AERI)
Growth Through Globalization (GTG)
Agricultural Reform Project (CARE)
Center for Business Support (IESC)
Egyptian Exporters Association (EEA)
PART FOUR 181
RESEARCH IN EGYPT
GOALS, ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS
Chapter 8
Present Day Agricultural Research in Egypt
Institutes in the Agricultural research Center of Egypt
Soil and Water Research
Cotton Research
Crop Production is Basic
The Role of Horticulture and Horticulture research institute
Animal Agriculture & Animal research institutes
Genetic Engineering research Institute
Agricultural economics research institute
Food Technology research Institute
Financial support for Egyptian research
Critical emerging issues
PART FIVE 244
AGRICULTURE PROVIDES FOOD AND JOBS THROUGH RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Economics Status of Agriculture
Rapid Growth yields Employment Growth
Required Policy Changes
Wage Rates and the Income of the Labor Class
Urban-Rural Story
CHAPTER 10
A Model for Feasible Growth Rates
Importance of Commodity Composition
Comparative Advantage in Agricultural Commodities
Efficiency of Inputs is Critical to Value Added
Achieving the Comparative Advantage
Summary—Providing 1,000,000 New Jobs per Year
Tables
PART SIX 304
HORTICULTURE CROPS ARE MORE VALUABLE THAN OTHER CROPS AND USE LESS WATER PER VOLUME AND VALUE OF PRODUCTION
CHAPTER 11
Horticulture, Possible Key to Egypt’s Future
Export Market for Horticultural Products
Egypt’s Advantages and Challenges
How to Maximize Horticulture
Opportunities for Growth in the Domestic Market
What does the Future Hold?
Horticultural Export Industry Association (HEIA)
Evidence of Progress in Food Marketing—The Food Council
BIBLIOGRAPHY 320
Preface
The Purpose of this Book is to provide an analysis of present day Egypt that will suggest appropriate pathways to maintain and improve the economy of the country and the quality of life of the people.
The present day picture is based on the history and the 20th century chronology of events that have brought the country to its present day position.
It is my philosophy that the growth of the country’s economy and the employment of the people will be based on the success of its agriculture.
Egypt is the story of people and the management of natural resources through the dimension of time. The value of the analysis given here transcends the boundary of a nation and time. It forms a model/modality for the goal of sustainable development and use of resources which are meaningful globally.
The leaders and people of every developing country are attracted by the miracles of technology and its potential to solve all the problems of a society. These miracles are important but no more so than the knowledge of a country's basic resources, its history and its culture.
During these years there have been many changes in the economy, structure, scientific basis and international standing of agriculture in Egypt. They serve as examples of what can be done in developing an agricultural economy with severely limited land, arid conditions, and cooperation with the support of western countries including Canada, Germany, France and the United States. The events of this period provide a background for other developing countries and for donor countries and should be a foundation for the continued development of Egypt and the other MENA countries.
This is a report of the many changes and how they were accomplished. It is an analysis of the present economic and population challenges facing Egypt and it suggests future directions essential to Egypt’s future. It concludes that Agriculture is essential to Egypt’s well being.
A Note of Recognition
There are many key people who are a part of the story. One who lived, worked and contributed continuously is Yousef Wali. After obtaining a doctorate at the University of Arizona in, he became a professor at Ayn Shams University and built a career as an expert in horticulture. In the early 1970’s he became a consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1982 he became the Minister of Agriculture where he served until his retirement in 2004. Throughout his career, Dr. Wali worked to improve food production, increase Egypt’s independence through a sustainable food supply, and develop a scientific base for agriculture. The motto he often quoted, “He who does not own his food, does not own his freedom” underlines his basic efforts and beliefs.
His diligent work with every component of science, agriculture and business throughout the world helped put Egypt in a better economic and food supply position. This meant cooperation with numerous aid agencies of the USA, Canada, Germany, France, and the European Union and with Israel, and the Arab League. It meant debating the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It meant convincing most of his own colleagues, the Parliament and the other Ministers of the Egyptian Government of policy changes. He knew what needed to be done and he had a good sense of what could be done. The result was a constant debate and compromise to bring Egypt to its present economic and social position.
A second person is Dr. Adel El-Beltagy. During the NARP years, he was Chairman of the Board of the ARC and Director General of NARP. Then he became the Director General of ICARDA and today, he serves as the Chairman of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research He is a life long friend and an inspiration in writing this text. A great pleasure of these years has been working with him and knowing his family.
Numerous Egyptians have always been available to encourage, critique and provide understanding to me and to the programs of joint interest. The alphabetical order is used to indicate their equal value to me and to the programs discussed in this report.
Abdel F. Mohamed Metawie, Chairman Nile water sector
Abdel Aziz Elsherif, Commercial Attache, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Egypt
Adel A. Kader, Professor, University of California
Adel M. Aboul-Naga, International linkages
Ayman Abou Hadid, President, Agricultural Research Center
Magdy A. Madkour, creator Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation
World Opinion Recognizes Agriculture
World Development Report
In announcing "Agriculture for Development" as the theme of the World Development Report (WDR) for 2008, (127) François Bourguignon, Sr. Vice President of the World Bank, said that growth in agriculture makes a disproportionately positive contribution to reducing poverty. By illuminating the links between agriculture, economic growth and poverty reduction, the report offers a timely assessment of how agriculture can best foster development.
According to Nathaniel Don Marquez (126), Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) the theme reflects the importance and prominence of agriculture. Many international summits and conferences have declared that there is an urgency to save agriculture from its demise. Beyond policy changes, the restructuring of global governance and institutional reforms are needed so that commitments are translated into actions leading to a renewed interest in agriculture and a return to the basic objective of food security. Unless there is a fundamental shift in the framework or paradigm in which agriculture is currently operated, then agriculture will lead to the dissolution of small farming households. Indeed, agriculture is the bedrock of human civilization. For as long as food security and agricultural productivity continue to be measured by money and markets, it will continue to pull young people away from agricultural life.
Agricultural development has come to mean increasing productivity alone. To speak of agriculture however, is to speak of farmers. For as Tony Quizon puts it, “development is not about money, it is about people.” By definition, farmers include resource poor cultivators, pastoralists, fisher folk, indigenous peoples, women and agricultural laborers. Agriculture is beyond merely an instrument for development, for millions of poor farmers, it is a way of life. Hence, for farmers, it is addressing the needs of the persons rather than merely the productivity of the farm. It is addressing food security and self-sufficiency as the main ticket to survival of a nation as growth is addressed. It is assuring equity instead of mere national economic growth beneficial to and controlled by a few at the expense of the majority. As Fr. Francis Lucas rightly observes, small farmers feel that farming is a condemnation to poverty, destitution and death. The poor are isolated; they are remote from centers of power and government. They remain largely unorganized with a lack of power. Their access to land, water, technology and other services is tenuous at best. They are the first victims of calamities and political upheavals. Rather than sustaining life, the current global competition for agriculture might mean the extinction of small farmers and farming.
Poverty is the result – not of scarcity, but of mal distribution of resources and power. Compounding the woes is that the small food producers – – who remain most vulnerable to hunger and poverty, are landlessness or limited access to productive land. In most rural areas, land remains a major source/determinant of wealth; it is a symbol of prestige and a means to power.
The current crisis of agriculture and farming communities stems from three major trends which exacerbate poverty and inequity:
· first, the promotion of Green Revolution technology without regard for its social and ecological consequences;
· second, the surrender of agriculture policies and farming communities to strategies aimed at rapid urban industrialization; and
· third, indiscriminate liberalization policies which allow the entry and dominance of extremely powerful multinational agribusinesses.
As to the first trend, while the increase of production from the Green Revolution has benefited developed countries and favorable regions of developing countries, these yield increases unfortunately have not reached the rural poor. Green Revolution requires substantial external inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. While the technology provided yield increases at the start, it was not sustainable in the long term. NGOs criticized the narrow approach of relying mainly on Green Revolution technologies as they are assessed to be environmentally unsustainable and discriminatory to resource poor farmers.
Many new agricultural technologies ignore the complexities of rural life, as well as the cultural and social differences among communities. Indigenous agricultural practices and knowledge that were developed over many generations have given way to the simplified, standardized techniques of the green revolution. The strong sense of values that underpinned traditional agriculture have been overthrown by a production system that is alienated from the community.
Current government policies emphasize meeting urbanization needs and relegate agriculture to the position of support sector. Voices of concern have been raised about the growing bias against agriculture in favor of industrialization, which is thought to be inherent to economic transformation.
Agriculture is viewed merely as a support sector for industry. There is thus an evident lack of emphasis on strengthening producers’ organizations, and their concerns like agrarian reform and access to resources. A major case in point is legislation in relation to land tenure and redistribution. While land and tenure reforms have been enacted in many countries, implementation of these remain fraught with problems. Many policies have failed to make an impact at the local level due to political opposition by vested interests, often in collusion with corrupt officials in government.
As to the liberalization of agriculture, such phenomenon has resulted in trade relations between the big players from the North and the small Southern players becoming even more lopsided. Unfortunately, countries of the South are severely disadvantaged. While their agricultural subsidies are scrapped, and their agricultural trade is liberalized, heavy subsidization of agriculture continues in the North. This leads to massive displacement of agricultural producers, particularly staple food producers, who comprise the bulk of farmers in developing countries. The lure of growing more lucrative luxury crops and non-food items over staple crops increasingly threatens domestic food security. The inclusion of the Agreement on Agriculture under the WTO intensified the dependence of small producers on the external market for production inputs and consequently the already heavy reliance on food imports due to the shifting of land and resources away from food crop production towards export oriented cash crop production. The flooding of local markets with cheap imported (and dumped) food also discourages local production.
The Agreement on Agriculture under the WTO aimed to facilitate the process towards a freer flow of agricultural products among countries. Governments committed to remove quotas, subsidies and tariffs over a period of time. Unfortunately, the current agreement and how it is implemented favored the developed countries to the detriment of developing countries. Agriculture in developed countries continues to be heavily subsidized allowing them to market their products at cheaper price. Moreover, trade barriers are still in place restricting the flow of agricultural products especially those coming from developing countries.
It is imperative that land, water, biodiversity and intellectual practices be under the democratic control of those who produce food. In the run-up to the World Food Summit in April 1996, about 101 NGOs from Asia-Pacific raised the following fundamental principles in reviving agriculture and attaining food security saying agriculture must be:
· built on a vision centered on the integrity of the local farming communities
· based on food security and sufficiency of the national community
· implemented via strategies that promote social equity, ecological sustainability, people’s empowerment and gender balance
According to Thirtle et al. (93) the literature provides overwhelming theoretical and empirical evidence that agricultural growth is essential, especially in the poorer developing countries. It identifies the diverse roles that agriculture plays in the process of growth and development on the one hand, and the link between economy-wide growth and poverty alleviation on the other. Agricultural productivity growth has an impact on GDP growth, both directly and through agriculture’s linkages with the broader economy, that generate increases in non-farm income. Both agricultural growth and GDP growth have impacts on inequality, poverty, and nutrition.
For Egypt there can be no doubt, Agriculture is an essential and basic part of the economy. http://www.landcoalition.org/pdf/07_ev_angoc_wdr2008.pdf.
Peter McPherson, President, NASULGC, USA
Agricultural development is fundamental to any broad-based economic development on the African continent and agriculture has been shown to produce more equitable growth in personal income than other forms of development. Generating and extending research, knowledge and technology, building African human capacity to conduct research and supporting the capacity of institutions to produce creative and productive people is essential to the process.
In summary, Africa faces a multitude of challenges that will affect how successful development efforts will be. Clearly, agriculture is key to making that development successful. Successful agricultural development is most directly achieved through investment in human and institutional capacity that will generate the knowledge, technologies and leaders to eradicate famine and food shortages, and build economies that support stable and democratic societies in Africa.
Institute (IFPRI) study shows that agriculture is truly an important engine of growth for Africa. While its role may vary among countries depending on a diversity of conditions, agriculture is an especially strong force in poverty reduction, because it affects the rural poor who are a large component of the poor of Africa. The study concludes “most African countries cannot significantly reduce poverty, increase per capita incomes, and transform into modern economies without focusing on agricultural development.” This conclusion is similar to that of another study of a broad range of developing countries that found that increasing agricultural productivity is the most efficient way to reduce poverty and inequality.
Yet another study of 62 developing countries demonstrates the power of agricultural development to increase national economic growth. The study shows that changes in agricultural productivity explained 54 percent of the growth in GDP per worker and that this increased efficiency, released labor from agriculture to other sectors that accounted for another 29 percent of the GDP growth. The remaining 17 percent of GDP growth is from non-agricultural increases.
Food security is achieved by addressing a wide range of constraints. Some of these constraints are more obvious than others and more amenable to our development approaches. While connection to markets, trade policy and other components of what is termed an “enabling environment” are important elements to national development they will depend on two factors. First and foremost, they depend on well-trained, visionary indigenous people to design, implement and support them. In short, highly educated human capital is essential.
Second, we need to increase agricultural productivity. Most of the recent gains in agricultural production in Africa have resulted from expanding the area of land cultivated and not increasing the production per unit of land area. The implications are not just a decline in per acre production efficiency but a use of more marginal land with ever increasing negative impacts on the natural resource base. Increases in efficiency per acre are the result of improved technologies and access to inputs. The sustainable way to increase efficiencies is to create Africa’s capacity to generate new technologies; that is build the human capacity and build the institutions that generate that capacity—the universities and the agricultural research institutes. We need to make such investments. Evidence from rural Uganda indicates that public investments in agricultural R&D had the highest impact on poverty reduction of development investments throughout the 1990s. In addition to financial resources, agricultural innovation requires human capital and, therefore, sustaining and improving upon advances in agricultural R&D requires concurrent investments in general education.
Higher Education and research institutes generate knowledge that has economic impact, particularly in agriculture. In a study of more than 1,800 rates of return to research in agriculture the median of the rate of return estimates was 48 percent per year for research, 62.9 percent for extension studies, 37 percent for studies that combined research and extension jointly, and 44.3 percent for all studies combined; a profitable investment by any standards but particularly so for a developing country.
A presentation by Peter McPherson, President, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Universities of the United States, before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health
1. Diao et al. 2006. The role of development: implications for Sub-Saharan Africa. DSGD Discussion Paper No. 29, IFPRI, Washington, D.C.
2. Bourguignon, F., and Morrisson, C. 1998. “Inequality and Development: The Role of Dualism”, Journal of Development Economics, 57(2), 233-258.
3. Gollin, D., Parente, S., and Rogerson, R. 2002. “The Role of Agriculture in Development”, American Economic Review, 92(2): 160-164.
4. Fan, S., Zhang, X., and Rao, N. 2004. “Public Expenditure, Growth and Poverty Reduction in Rural Uganda.” Development Strategy and Governance Discussion Paper No.4, IFPRI: Washington, DC.
5. Alston et al. 2000. A Meta analysis of rates of return of agricultural R&D. IFPRI Research Report 113, Washington, DC.
Summary of Text
Today the entire world is aware that our food supply cannot meet the demands of the world population. How can that be possible? In our high tech world, we can fix every technology, visit Mars, and cure diseases. Why can’t we feed the people of the world? The answer is agricultural development. It is never complete and rarely current. About the time we think we have all the problems solved, there is a new pest or a new disease or just more people. World leaders and financial institutions tire of hearing about the problems facing farmers and food processors. Haven’t we done all that? No we have not; it is a continual process. For the last 20 years support for agriculture has not been a priority. Now it is!
Most international agencies now recognize that something must be done, but what? According to Nathaniel Don Marquez (121), Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC), many international summits and conferences have declared that there is an urgency to save agriculture from its demise. Beyond policy changes, the restructuring of global governance and institutional reforms are needed. Commitments must be translated into actions leading to a renewed interest in agriculture and a return to the basic objective of food security.
In “Egypt’s Future Depends on Agriculture and Wisdom” I describe the history and present day efforts and limitations of agricultural development in Egypt as an example of the history and results in most developing countries.
Agriculture is a major economic issue in Egypt. It is an issue as a local food source, for international trade, for balance of payments, land use and water use and as a basic product for food and fiber manufacturing. Hence every aspect of the economic structure of the country relates to agriculture. Banking, transportation, tax and tariff structure, subsidies, local and international markets and health are all part of the agricultural system of a country. Not to mention politics, of course.
Agriculture's contribution to Egypt’s GDP is gradually diminishing, but it is still an important activity. Even though only 3% of the total land area is arable land, agriculture accounted for 13.9% of GDP in fiscal 2005 and 28% of total employment in 2000/01.
For over 5000 years the farmers of Egypt created a civilization based on the union of the land and the Nile river. It was one of the earliest civilizations and it had a profound influence on the region. Agriculture created most of Egypt's wealth. Grain, vegetables, fruit, cattle, goats, pigs and fowl were grown, and fish from the Nile were caught, and eventual surpluses, after deduction of the various taxes, were sold on the markets.
One person of more recent years who lead Egypt into the modern era in the early 1800’s was Muhammad Ali Pasha. An unusual visionary who knew how to use the talent and support of his advisors, his leadership expanded Egypt's influence and its agricultural technology into the surrounding countries. (76) He learned that British textile manufacturers were willing to pay good money for cotton, Ali ordered the majority of Egyptian peasants to cultivate cotton at the exclusion of all other crops. At harvest time, Ali bought the entire crop himself, which he then sold at a mark-up to textile manufacturers. In this way, he turned the whole of Egypt's cotton production into his personal monopoly. His successor built the Suez canal and put Egypt on the road to a powerful economic unit., but there continued to be many challenges.
Continuous changes in the economy, structure, scientific basis and international standing of agriculture throughout the world had serious impacts on Egypt. By the middle of the 20th century, Egypt was faced with severely limited land and water, arid conditions, an inadequate educational system, food shortages, health problems and internal conflict. Egypt’s leaders recognized the need for help and developed cooperative projects with the support of western countries including Canada, Germany, France and the United States. Experiments of every type were tested. Many things worked and yielded improvement and many did not. It is however a story about the largest Arab country and its interactions with the western world in an attempt to improve its agricultural efficiency and hence the quality of life of its people. The events of this period provide a background for developing countries and donor countries. They are a foundation for the continued development of Egypt and the other MENA countries.
The Arab Republic of Egypt is in 2 continents, Africa and the Sinai Peninsula in Asia. It is the 15th most populous country in the world and the second most populous in Africa after Nigeria. It has one million square kilometers (386.6 square miles) of land of which less than 4% is cultivated for crop production. The 79 million people live on 40.000 square kilometers.
To discuss Egypt is to discuss the Nile. It is formed by three tributaries, the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and the Atbara. The White Nile rises from its source in Burundi, passes through Lake Victoria, and flows into southern Sudan. There, near the capital city of Khartoum, the White Nile meets up with the Blue Nile which has its source in the Ethiopian highlands, near Lake Tana.
The river then flows north through Lake Nasser, the second largest man-made lake in the world, and the Aswan Dam before splitting into two major distributaries just north of Cairo. In ancient times, the number of distributaries was much greater, but slow water flow, human interference, and the accumulation of silt had led to the disappearance of many of the distributaries. This has effectively led to the desertification of large stretches of Egyptian land.
Conflict has never been far from the banks of the Nile. Its source is in central Africa; its value to the 10 countries through which it flows and the total dependence of Egypt and Sudan on this life line have always made the political and biological life of the river a source of conflict.
In 1959 an agreement for the full utilization of the Nile water was signed between Egypt and the Sudan allocating 55.5 billion cubic meters per year for Egypt and 18.5 for the Sudan.
In Egypt 88 percent of the water is consumed in agriculture. About 96 percent of the economically active population in Egypt is engaged in agriculture and Egyptian agriculture is entirely dependent on irrigated land. Egypt’s desperate need for enormous quantities of water is therefore abundantly clear as is its need for efficient use of its limited land suitable for crop production
Egypt Recognizes Food Gap Problem
By the middle of the 20th century, it became obvious that Egypt’s food supply was in serious trouble. In 1960, for example, Egypt had been almost self-sufficient in wheat production. By 1980, the country was importing about three-fourths of its wheat needs. This alarming gap due, resulted in increased attention being devoted to agriculture. The 1982 U.S. Presidential Mission on Agricultural Development in Egypt (PMADE) focused major attention on the rapidly widening food gap in Egypt, and recommended a number of specific actions to deal with the problem.
Recommendations were made for significant policy reforms that would have an impact on the problem by (1) making conditions more favorable for enhanced food production and, (2) slowing down the rate of gain in food demand. It was pointed out that cheap food, made possible by extensive government subsidies, was, in part, responsible for increasing per capita utilization by contributing to excessive waste.
In its report entitled "Strategies for Accelerating Agricultural Development" (102), PMADE addressed many policy issues. For example, the report emphasized that government policies were acting to seriously constrain the growth of Egypt's agricultural sector and recommended that the Government of Egypt (GOE) "Permit agricultural output and input prices to move toward world price levels." The report emphasized that "correcting distortions in relative prices received and paid by farmers is central to using resources in the agricultural sector more efficiently and reducing Egypt’s growing dependence on imported food."
Major emphasis was placed on the need for strengthened research and extension programs aimed at increasing agricultural output. This recognition resulted in the initiation of a new cooperative project financed by USAID and called the National Agricultural Research Program (NARP).
National Agricultural Research Program (NARP).
In early 1994, USAID Egypt requested that Tropical Research and Development, Inc., of Gainesville, Florida, organize an assessment team of U.S. specialists to evaluate the performance and impact of the Egyptian National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) and recommend the nature of future USAID support. Their report recognized the NARP as a tremendous accomplishment.
"Egypt is in the midst of a dynamic agricultural transformation, highlighted by unprecedented yield gains and production of its major crops. For a country that has limited arable lands and water supplies and that already enjoys high crop yields, this is a tremendous accomplishment. This progress has resulted, primarily, from effective research programs and significant policy reform during the past 10- to 15-year period. Yield growth in major Egyptian crops can only be described as phenomenal over the past decade. Productivity gains for many crops have been exceptionally great since the early 1980s. Moreover, since 1981 Egypt’s agricultural performance far exceeds the average for the rest of the world in rate of gain in the indices of total agricultural production, agricultural production per capita, total food production, and food production per capita. It should be noted, as well, that with 31 of 32 major crops, Egypt exceeded world average yields. With two crops, Egyptian yields were the highest in the world. For several other crops, Egypt ranked second or third in the world in average yield.
During NARP, there was a sharp increase in production, with a distinct slowing in the rate of increase in food utilization. When projected to the year 2000, these changes show a potential food gap of some 4.5 million tons. This gap is about 17 percent of the projected gap that would have occurred in 2000 based on extrapolations of the trends in 1980.
During the assessment team’s visit to Egypt, we were asked a very pertinent question by a USAID official: "If Egypt is making all these advances in agricultural production, why is there need to continue support for further research-related activities in agriculture. Isn’t this task now done so that we can move on to address other needs?" The simple answer to that question is that research to improve or maintain efficiency and productivity in agriculture is never done-never finished. Today we are learning that lesson again.
Egypt, because of its very limited arable land and water resources, is probably more dependent on research to expand food production than any other country in the world. Moreover, the primary beneficiary of such research is the consumer, who is served by having not only an adequate supply of food, but also higher quality and less expensive food as well. Therefore, the need for a high-quality, productive agricultural research program is vital to a sound economy and a stable political future. While much has been achieved through past support of agricultural research, much more effort was needed.
Following NARP and its success, the US and European institutions continued to work with Egypt on the issues identified by NARP. Progress continued in many areas, but the identification of continuing problems continue to limit productivity and supply of food.
Cooperative Programs following NARP
Agricultural Technology Utilization and Transfer (ATUT)
With the conclusion of NARP, it was clearly recognized that much of what had been done in this program needed to be continued and expanded. Research had to be expanded in the areas of horticulture and field crops. Extension and technology transfer capability was still immature and needed improvement. New varieties were needed with improved resistance to pests; tolerance to environmental stress and efficient use of water. Further it was clear that improved and expanded research in the basic sciences of genetics and biotechnology would be essential factors for such accomplishments. The project which was developed with USAID for this mission was (ATUT). It was active from 1995 to 2002. (10,14,15, 32, 45, 48, 55, 85, 91, 99) Specifically, ATUT aimed to: improve agricultural technologies in Egypt by identifying and transferring to the private sector improved horticultural production, post harvest handling and marketing technologies, by developing a carefully focused, improved collaborative strategic research program aimed at resolving the major constraints to increased productivity of selected staple crops such as rice, corn, wheat and fava bean, and by supporting the expansion of research and use of biotechnology.
ATUT was successful in improving yields in the field crops and horticultural crops. The ATUT approach was to focus the project on upgrading production and on export sales, rather than marketing. Hence it became clear that this approach was short sited and did not adequately address the development of systems for gathering and disseminating market intelligence and for strategic market analysis and planning.
One of the most important deficiencies, however, was the failure to recruit and train local associates for the technical team.
Agriculture-Led Export Business(ALEB)
ALEB was designed to provide technical assistance and support to Egyptian food processing companies, ancillary service firms, and trade associations. (8,14, 15, 33, 64)
ALEB attempted to capitalize on unexploited export marketing, particularly in the European Union and the Gulf and Middle East, and helped to develop processed food for exports and for producers who sell only domestically. This development resulted in the establishment of the Food Export Council. “The FTC will be run as a demand-driven private business in every sense of the word," Berzi says, "with the overall objective of helping the Egyptian food industry develop into world-class exporters. We will tackle issues like accreditation, hygiene, food safety, technical assistance, testing and professional training."
Agricultural Policy Reform Program (APRP)
The APRP has helped the Government maintain progress on liberalizing agricultural markets and removing policy barriers to private sector participation in agriculture. The government has moved from being the major actor in all realms of economic activity to a role of providing the legal and regulatory framework necessary for the private sector and to the support of market driven trade and investment.
APRP has clearly shown that the public and private sectors need to work together as partners to take advantage of each one's distinctive competencies/ capacities.
Reform progress is still incomplete in cotton, cooperatives, pesticide licensing, registration of dealers, and field supervision and research and extension. There is serious danger of back-sliding on fertilizer use and supply. The wheat sub sector, particularly the milling industry, has significant government intervention, a set of policies that seem to work at cross-purposes, and an overcapacity problem.
Serious concerns persist about the local capacity to do applied policy research and extension. Such work continues to be heavily dependent upon expatriate-led technical assistance teams. No consensus emerged on how to lessen this dependence and develop sustainable local capacity.
Agribusiness linkages for Egypt (Aglink)
Ag Link was a 7 year initiative which made an impressive contribution to transforming and strenghtening the Egyptian livestock sector. It increased the quality and availibilty of milk and meat for local consumption, created a substantial rural employment base and stimulated trade linkages with the US. Aglink was awarded first place ranking for three consecutive years by Price, Waterhouse Cooper based on the number of recomendations adopted, services delivered and trade linkages facilitated.
Aglink increased the productivity, efficiency and sustainability of large commercial, medium and smallholder clients by providing technical assistance and training in basic technologies such as animal nutrition, health and farm management, trade development, association development and facilitating access to credit.
However, deficiencies in the system of collecting and disseminating market information to farmers, producer associations, cooperatives, and industry associations remain and there is a continued need assistance in the basics of association management. A lack of credit is a major limitation for all aspects of the animal industry.
Agricultural Exports and Rural Income(AERI)
This program worked to provide flexible and appropriate technical assistance and grants to support agriculture trade associations that are of critical importance for expanding volumes of high quality agriculture products (dairy and fresh or processed horticulture) for export and the domestic market.
Agricultural Exports and Rural Income through the small horticultural activity trained about 6,119 small and medium sized growers.
Egyptian Research for Agriculture Today
At the beginning of the 20th century the Ministry of Agriculture (MALR) proceeded with the established technical divisions with research capabilities. These endeavors culminated in the creation of the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) in the early 1970s. (5)
Over the past two decades, numerous achievements have been realized, including the development of new varieties, improved agronomic practices, livestock development, maintenance of the national herds and better food processing techniques. New crops and animal breeds have been introduced and research has been dedicated to problem- solving, side by side with basic science. The overarching goal has been to maximize the economic return per unit of land and water.
There is one topic that is an important consideration in every type of research affecting plants, animals, and microorganisms. That topic is biotechnology or genetic engineering or molecular biology. Whatever specific term one uses, it is a powerful tool for the modification of the genetics of an organism. It is an extremely important method of reducing pesticide overuse; it is a means of accelerating the development of new strains of beneficial microorganisms as well as plants and animals. However the almost miraculous benefits of the method bring with it the problem of misunderstanding and rejection.
They also bring with it the question of the use of patents; another important issue in the development and marketing of new varieties.
Soil and Water Research
The search for ways to achieve sustainable agriculture and natural resource management requires changes in the traditional approach to problem solving. Researchers must cross the boundaries of their individual disciplines; they must broaden their perspective to see the merits of indigenous knowledge; and they must look to the farmer for help in defining a practical context for research. This change in vision is under way in various degrees throughout the research community, but the pace of change is slow. (143)
Two key indicators of deterioration in agricultural systems are declines in the quality of the soil and of the water. Poor management of either of these resources quickly leads to decreases in farm productivity.
However the lack of any emphasis on extension of the resulting information continues to be the major problem for Egypt and the region associated with the use of the Nile waters.
Cotton Research
Cotton research has for over 20 years only maintained yields. Yields have not surpassed the levels of the early 1980s. The rest of the world has experienced steady increases in cotton yields. To catch up with the current Israeli level of cotton production is not possible with a business-as-usual approach to cotton research. Considerably greater focus and expenditure are needed. The present research system has been effective in maintaining yields in the face of the usual forces tending to reduce them. It must now focus additionally on what is needed for rapid yield increase.
It often appears that the decisions and regulations of the government interfere with the success of the cotton industry more than does the lack of research and extension.
Hegazy stressed the need to use advanced technology and genetic engineering to develop more productive varieties. Six countries, namely the US, Russia, China, Pakistan, Brazil and India, were able to increase their cotton production by using advanced technology.
The most significant requirement for biotech crops is that they must satisfy a clear agronomic, environmental or social need and can bring demonstrable benefit to local farmers. The trait(s) must be tailored to local needs. Full recognition and value should be placed on locally developed and adapted germplasm during any implementation of biotech cottons. The ongoing importance of conventional breeding efforts through public or private institutions should not be lost in an era of biotechnological advances.
As of 2008, biotech cotton has not become a commercial item in Egypt, but it is being studied thoroughly and perhaps will be part of the new effort to improve the quality and productivity of cotton in Egypt.
Crop Production Research
The world’s demand for food is enormous. The global demand for cereal grains over a 25-year period shows that the industrialized countries account for roughly 15% of this demand while developing countries account for 85%. (Sirageldin. 144). The same is true for meat products. When it comes to roots and tubers, the demand in the most industrialized countries will account for less than 3% of production while in developing countries 85 to 95% will be used. And as new, urban lifestyles lead greater numbers of people to consume more fats and less fiber, more fast food and fewer home-cooked meals, developing countries face a double challenge – widespread hunger on the one hand and rapid increases in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other diet-related diseases on the other.
While this points to the ongoing importance of international trade in food, it also points to the need for a transformation in the efficiency of agriculture in developing countries if these food requirements are to be met. It is argued that increasing yields, and not increasing the cultivated areas, is the only viable option to meet the increasing demand for food at less dollar expense and less damage to and better protection of biodiversity and endangered ecosystems.
The question of whether it is possible to combine the best science and the best management for crop production by the smallholder farmer. In developing countries, the problems are compounded by poor infrastructure for transporting food to urban centers. Long distances, bad roads, and urban crowding cause spoilage of 10 to 30 percent of produce in transit.
Horticultural Research Institute
Horticulture has a special role. The dependence on low- cash generating commodities for agriculture cannot generate enough income for rural inhabitants. Horticultural crops can be a salvation for such a situation. Another point here is related to the dependence on cereals as the main, and probably the sole constituent of diet. Malnutrition is expected due to the lack of vitamins and other food supplements. Horticultural crops provide the necessary supplements to assure a balanced diet for a healthy population. Horticulture also offers potentials for small value-adding activities that could help in generating income for rural areas and create opportunities.
Urban and peri-urban farms already supply food to about 700 million city dwellers, one-quarter of the world's urban population. Urban agriculture involves using small plots such as vacant lots, gardens or roof tops in the city for growing crops and even for raising small livestock or milk cows.
A comparison of recommendations from the USAID Global Horticultural Assessment Priorities with those of the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) is generally favorable, but HRI has no priorities for marketing information and structure and it is short on the post harvest issues. HRI does show a very strong focus for education and extension and for genetic resource conservation and development.
Animal Agriculture
Animal agriculture in the developed world has become increasingly science and knowledge based and where this model has been applied there has been enormous success. To deal with the increasing consumer demand for animal protein across the globe, improvements in productivity will not be sufficient. Genetic improvement is essential, but the loss of biological diversity is a major concern.
While industrial production with the same few breeds is spreading all over the world, local breeds are becoming extinct. The loss of some 8000 breeds have been reported to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), by most of its 190 member governments. More than 100 breeds were reported extinct during the past century.
Clearly, the gains from genetic selection and improvement are important and in a world with a rapidly expanding population, the benefits will be obvious and will tend to be dominant. It is equally clear that there are real concerns. One is genetic diversity. The corn disaster of the 1970’s is an example that should never be forgotten.
As Egypt looks for opportunities to expand its animal productivity and marketing opportunities in Europe, it will need to look at the pluses and minuses carefully, but wisely. The need for decisions based on scientific knowledge and social issues is further evidence that the quality of research in Egypt is one of the most important factors in the country’s future.
Genetic Engineering Research Institute
In their continuing efforts to improve their agriculture, scientists at the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI) in Cairo employ modern biotechnology to develop new ways to improve agricultural production.
AGERI is the primary institute responsible for managing agricultural genetic engineering research in Egypt. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and AGERI have recently initiated several research projects that employ
biotechnology to improve Egyptian agriculture.
Egypt is fortunate in having one of the best centers of GE research in the Mediterranean region. Much of the future growth and improvement of plant and animal food production will depend on the accomplishments of this Institute.
It is important to recognize that such research is not inexpensive and hence to be effective and productive, it will need the best financial and political support possible. Political support because there are so many organizations that delight in doubting the safety and efficacy of this scientific process.
The ongoing research projects undertaken at AGERI are focused on problems facing Egyptian agriculture. The immediate objectives are to utilize cellular and molecular biology methodologies to develop and deliver transgenic elite cultivars resistant to biotic and a biotic stresses and have the potential to cause a significant impact on crop productivity, the economy and the environment.
Agricultural Economics Research Institute
The studies of AERI will focus on local and international economic changes and methods of estimating the agricultural national income as well as the potential of
access to the world markets of agricultural production and to open new markets and improve the marketing information system.
Food Technology Research Institute
The FTRI is principally responsible for the methods of improving quality of food products to cope with the international measures needed for exportation and improving processing procedures in the field of bread and bakery products, dairy products, fish and meat products as well as processed horticultural products.
It must also ensure that these methods and technologies are understood and available to the processing and export businesses.
Summary Comments Regarding Research
We are told repeatedly that the crisis in the World food supply is not one of production but of distribution and that the solution is political. Nevertheless, even if structural solutions improve food distribution, world population will soar from 6 billion to 10 billion, or thereabouts, by 2050. This increase in population will necessitate a vast increase in the amount of food produced. At the same time the area of useful agricultural land is shrinking and, in many cases, deteriorating in quality.
To maintain the historical gains in animal productivity, scientific knowledge through research must continue to advance. Relevant investment in agricultural research is needed throughout the world in developed and developing countries to maintain food production and to achieve agricultural sustainability.
Emerging technologies must also be nurtured and employed effectively. Genetically modified foods are currently at a stage where they could flounder or bring great benefit. Their existence is threatened as the result of perceived but, in many cases, unfounded safety considerations and the ensuing negative public response. The development of technologies can be slowed down and even lost in an incompatible social context. Genetic technologies have a bright future in agriculture as well as in medicine. With proper oversight and risk assessment they can provide great benefit in the difficult times ahead.
Agriculture is an issue as a local food source, for international trade, for balance of payments, land use and water use and as a basic product for food and fiber manufacturing. Hence every aspect of the economic structure of a country relates to agriculture. Banking, transportation, tax and tariff structure, subsidies, local and international markets and health are all part of the agricultural system of a country. Egypt is no exception. Agriculture is the country’s largest employer accounting for about 28% of the labor force and 13.9% of the GDP in 2005.
Agricultural production is intensive and yields are high, but only 3% of land is arable. In spite of land reclamation, the area under cultivation remains about constant because of urban and industrial expansion. With no land expansion and population growth, Egypt will remain one of the world’s largest food importers. Some 95 % of local production is consumed domestically despite the increased emphasis on cash crops for export.
The growing population of Egypt needs employment and rapid agricultural growth results in the quickest employment growth. Agricultural growth of 5% can be achieved through increased productivity, efficiency and competitiveness and could result in about 500,000 jobs. This profound impact on employment growth requires major improvements in policy matters; however, policy constraints continue to prevent Egypt from fully realizing the comparative advantage it has in most commodity systems.
Should Egypt focus on urban or agricultural growth? It is rural and agricultural growth, not urban or industrial growth that reduces poverty and increases demand for labor. These findings are consistent with the fact that agriculture drives the demand for labor through its demand for goods and services produced in the large, labor-intensive, rural non-farm sector.
GDP growth depends largely on the ability to expand production in the tradable sectors, while employment growth depends largely on increases in (domestic) demand for non-tradables.
When agriculture grows rapidly, demand for labor grows rapidly; when urban tradables grow rapidly, GDP grows rapidly. A structure weighted towards agriculture is weighted towards benefits to labor; a structure weighted towards urban tradable items is weighted towards fast growth in GDP. Urban tradables grow primarily through increase in the capital stock. Agriculture tradables grow largely through technological change.
Treating “rural” and “urban” poverty as somehow separate and in competition with each other for resources is not only a conceptual mistake, but a remarkably short-sighted view of the problem. In fact, successful rural development generally stimulates and supports urban development. Conversely, urban growth is a powerful stimulus to food production, especially by small farmers.
The projected expansion of the urban population in Asia and Africa, from 1.7 to 3.4 billion over a period of only 30 years, and the reduced level of available resources, stress the need for a more imaginative but pragmatic response.
A Model for Feasible Growth Rates
In this discussion, employment increase and poverty reduction are used interchangeably because increased employment is the means by which growth reduces poverty.
The World Bank has made frequent use of an average relationship between overall growth and poverty reduction. On average a 2.1 percent decrease in poverty levels is associated with a 1 percent increase in the economic growth rate.
An analytical model for Egypt, finds that, compared with pro-manufacturing policies, pro-agricultural policies have a more positive impact on household welfare in general and the poor in particular. It also shows that improved market access for agricultural exporters and reduced transaction costs in foreign trade reinforced the effect of generally positive policies toward agriculture.
Raising farm incomes—which can be achieved through technological change and globalization—increases the demand for output and hence for labor in the massive rural non-farm sector that is home to the bulk of the poor and underemployed.
That is why agricultural growth is not only important to growth in national income, but also absolutely vital to growth in employment and reduction of poverty.
This section of the report describes the commodity composition for a high growth rate for Agriculture. Farmers make decisions about resource allocation among specific commodities. Much of investment, institution building, and policy are also commodity specific.
For all commodity groups, two inputs, water and fertilizer, are particularly important to achieve strong growth rates. Fertilizer is already used at very high rates in Egypt. Increasing the efficiency of fertilizer use will favor higher farm incomes as well as being environmentally sound. Efficiency of water use is also critical to achieve strong growth rates.
As success is achieved on export markets with non traditional crops, horticulture will become increasingly a tradable commodity with demand not constrained by the domestic market. Horticulture uses rather little land relative to its value of output. However, even though high in general, Egyptian yields lag well behind what can be achieved with current technology.
Egypt has a strong comparative advantage in extra-long staple cotton, but Egypt must focus on what is needed for rapid yield increase. The present research system has been effective in maintaining yields in the face of the usual forces tending to reduce them. It must now focus additionally on what is needed for rapid yield increase. Similar statements can be made for other internationally traded commodities including maize, wheat and rice.
Egypt has highly productive agricultural resources that are reflected in high crop yields. Such conditions are normally highly responsive to the new opportunities offered by technological advance and the forces of globalization.
There is an implicit assumption that new lands will be allocated optimally and will be comparable in quality to past additions. It also is assumed that sufficient increase in water use efficiency will occur to meet the rapidly growing urban needs without productive loss in agriculture. These are all heroic assumptions. For them to become reality will require continuing attention to water use policy and the making of hard decisions about where new water will be allocated. In this context, difficult conflicts between the best allocation for employment and national income growth and broader national objectives will have to be resolved.
Thus, the solution to Egypt’s employment problem can be met only with major efforts in agricultural employment as well as accelerated growth of the urban, tradable goods and services sector. It is not a matter of one or the other, it is a matter of the total of both sectors.
The importance of the task is challenging and enormous. A recent statement from the Office of the Minister of Commerce and Industry of Egypt in July of 2007 estimated that one million new jobs are needed in Egypt each year.
Horticulture could be the Future
Egypt enjoys a significant comparative advantage in the production and export of high value horticultural products. This comparative advantage is based on a number of factors, including favorable agro-climatic conditions, physical proximity to important markets and counter-seasonal production capabilities. The growth in industry cohesiveness and sophistication and an increasing awareness on the part of government toward the importance of private sector primacy in decision-making are also important factors.
The initial competitive advantage of production and sales will not be maintained without explicit efforts to do so. Market prices are declining both absolutely and in relation to Egyptian prices. Egypt will have to reduce the delivered cost of its products to remain competitive. This will have to be accomplished through the adoption of new technologies. These include inadequate post harvest facilities, costly transportation, need for approval of varieties and pesticides, tariffs and sales taxes, high commercial financing, and inadequate technical and management skills.
The farming practices employed for Egypt’s principal horticultural crops, grown by hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized holders principally for domestic demand, can be improved and thereby increase rural income. Costs can be reduced, yields increased, and quality improved through the introduction of even low-technology, low-cost techniques. This has not been accomplished because of a lack of well trained horticulture extension advisers. It is also essential that there is a broad base of cooperation with all government entities involved in the export sector, including the Ministry of Foreign Trade (see food council) and the Ministry of Transportation.
One of the most urgent of these specific problems is the impending imposition of the EUROGAP protocol being promulgated by major European retailers. This embodies food quality assurance measures combined with social and environmental responsibility standards. Failure to meet those standards will deny Egyptian horticultural products access to current European markets and will prevent entry into new EU markets.
While the focus is on exports, the Egyptian horticulture industry should not lose sight of the fact that there is also a growing demand for higher quality foodstuffs in the domestic market, led by five-star hotels, up-market restaurants, fast food chains and an increasing number of supermarkets.
Food Export Council
New activity in the food processing industry fueled record industrial growth of 5.1% last year as companies tapped lucrative Gulf and European markets. Members of the new Food Export Council are convinced they can grow last year’s $500 million in exports to $3-4 billion within a decade.
Quality control has never been Egypt’s forte, to say the least. Across all sectors, industry’s failure to meet international quality standards has been one of the biggest obstacles to the penetration of foreign markets. Last year, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry began overhauling its existing centers and establishing new ones. There are now a total of 13, ten of them sectoral and three cutting across industry lines for packaging, clean production and total productivity management. All of them are adopting proactive, client-centered business models.
According to Tawfik, head of the Food Export Council, the processed food sector has the capacity to export something in the range of $3-4 billion per year, an ambitious goal in light of today’s $500 million figure. But he and others on the export council are convinced they can make it happen.” Tawfik says. “Everyone has to carry his own weight — we can’t always have to look to the government to bail us out.
PART ONE
HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN EGYPT
Although there were reports of agricultural development as early as the Pleistocene period, it is clear that Egypt has enjoyed a strong agricultural economy for the past 5000 years. Modernization of the food and fiber system was given a push by Muhammad Ali in the 1800’s.
For over 5000 years the farmers of Egypt created a civilization based on the union of the land and the Nile river. It was one of the earliest civilizations and it had a profound influence on the region. Today agriculture in Egypt combines the use of traditional methods with a rich base of knowledge of the land and the environment. A professor of horticulture at Purdue University and a colleague of mine, Dr. Jules Janick (49), provides this description of agriculture in ancient Egypt.
"Ancient Egypt and Natural river irrigation shaped the early landscape of ancient Egypt. Drainage was not required for the Valley to become livable. It may have constituted a problem in the lower lying parts of the Delta which were often marshy. With the natural flooding and draining of the floodplain the annual inundation permitted a single crop-season over two-thirds of the alluvial ground.
Organized by regional authorities, every Egyptian had to move about thirty cubic metres of soil in about ten days every year. With this relatively small investment of labour, they kept the system in working order. Once the main canals, many of them natural, were in place, they just had to be dredged yearly to prevent their clogging up; the levees had to be raised, and smaller ditches had to be re-excavated.
The building of dams at right angles to the flow of the Nile, separating the Nile Valley into basins, precedes the Old Kingdom. Dikes were built along the banks of the river and the basins which covered between 400 and 1700 hectares, were carefully levelled. The river water was diverted into canals on either side of the Nile. At the time of the highest flooding (towards the end of September) most of the Nile Valley was covered with water, only villages and cities, built on higher ground and connected by dams, were above water. When the water level reached the mouths of the canals, the dams separating the canals from the river were opened and the basins and canals flooded. When the highest water level was reached, one to two metres above the ground, the canals were stopped and the water left standing until it evaporated or was drained off during the next two months. The waterlogged earth did not need much further irrigation. The boundaries of the fields were marked with boundary stones. These had to be replaced frequently after the inundation, based on cadastral records.
The building of dams and canals was done at local or regional levels, and while in the past many held irrigation to be the prime cause for the emergence of a central government, most think nowadays that the involvement of the national government in the irrigation was probably minimal: the opening and closing of the canal sluices to Lake Moeris in the Fayum in order to regulate the flow of the river must have been a task for the central authorities.
In most countries heavy ploughs have to be used to turn over the soil, so that the growing plants get enough nutrients, but in Egypt the Nile flood deposited the nutrients on top, and the ploughing served just to break up the top soil before sowing or for covering the seed The Egyptian plough was lightly built and tied to the horns of the cattle. Cows were generally used for ploughing, which caused their milk production to decrease during ploughing time. A helper, often a child, led the animals, sometimes urging them on with a stick. When draft animals were unavailable, humans would pull the plow.
Hoeing was another way of loosening the soil. Because the handles of the hoes were very short (a feature of these tools even today in southern countries), this was back-breaking work. The sower walked back and forth over the still moist field, a bag in one hand and spreading the seed with the other, or having a two handled woven basket tied around his neck, both his hands free for sowing. Sometimes a plough covered the seeds with earth. Driving hogs or sheep over the field served the same purpose.
The total amount of grain harvested depended on the surface covered by the flooding Nile, which was between perhaps 20,000 and 34,000 square kilometers. Taking pre-green-revolution wheat yields of about 750 kg/ha as a base, the annual amount of corn produced was approximately between 1.5 and 2.5 million tons, supposing that most of the surface was used to produce corn. About 4 to 5 million people lived in Egypt during the New Kingdom. In a bad year the annual yield was less than 300 kg per head, possibly considerably less.
Occurrences of corn dearth were frequent. Some estimate that there would have been sufficient grain only every third year. This may be a bit pessimistic. At any rate, Egypt seems to have had grain surpluses often enough that they could be stored in state granaries and even be exported. During Roman times it was one of the bread baskets of Rome.
The harvest generally took place shortly before the beginning of the next flooding, about in May or June, at times in April. The whole population took part and on big estates journeying harvesting teams were employed. These itinerant reapers began the season in the southern part of the country and followed the ripening crops downriver. The Egyptians seemingly knew ergot which does not proliferate well under the dry Egyptian weather conditions and was probably never the health danger it was to be in the rye eating countries of northern Europe during the late Middle Ages.
The administration was involved in everything the farmer did, from the assignment of the land to the collecting of the taxes. Before the harvest began, surveyors, scribes, supervisors and inspectors came to measured the size of the fields and estimated the quantity of grain. These officials fixed the tax the peasant had to give up to the royal treasury or the representative of one of the gods, among whom Amen had the vastest and best properties. Scribes trying to impress their pupils with the harshness of a peasant’s daily struggle for survival, may have slightly exaggerated the methods used by tax-collectors, but Egyptian officials were not noted for sparing the rod (nor have peasants ever shown an alacrity to part with the fruit of their labor)
Low inundations were the main reason for bad harvests and they affected the whole of the country. But there were no end of causes for low yields, from the failure of the local administration to care for the upkeep of canals and dykes, to the destruction of the harvest by pests and raids of thieves. Corn that was not destined for immediate consumption was stored in communal granaries, which served as a kind of bank.
Important crops were emmer (Triticum dicoccum) which stopped being grown by the Roman period, barley (Hordeum hexastichon), used for baking bread and brewing beerx, the significance of which declined during the Roman Period when wine replaced beer to a large extent, wheat (Triticum aestivum), an unidentified sort of cereal, flax (Linum usitatissimum) for the production of cloth and ropes, the naturally occurring papyrus reeds (which became extinct in Egypt and were recently reintroduced), used for paper, boats, ropes, mats and many other things and the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis), from the fruit of which oil for many purposes (among others as a sort of money) was pressed.
Domesticated in Mesopotamia, the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) may have been grown on a commercial scale near Thebes during the New Kingdom, and opium thebaicum was possibly traded by Phoenicians to southern Europe, the Levant and North Africa. Jewelry and small, perhaps foreign, containers looking somewhat like poppy-heads dating to the 18th dynasty have been found, but few - if any - traces of the plant itself or its products. Oil was extracted from poppy seeds in the Fayum during the third century BCE. Some scholars think that the production of opium for medicinal purposes was introduced into Egypt only in Roman times.
Gardening was much more labor intensive than agriculture. Gardens, orchards, and vineyards were often on high ground and quite a distance from the Nile. They had to be irrigated by hand with the water drawn from wells or the river. Moreover, in the absence of the depositions of silt with which the Nile revitalized the inundated areas, the soil of the higher lying ground needed fertilizing. During the Roman era at least, farmers at Karanis in the Faiyum kept pigeons in dovecotes and used their dung to fertilize the soil. Pliny thought that growing conditions in Egypt were especially favorable to the horticulturalist. He claimed that in Egypt the leguminous plants appear as early as the third day after they are sown. Gardeners grew radishes, sesame, lentils, beans and chickpeas (Cicer arietinum), lettuce, onions, leeks, dill (Anethum graveolens), grapes, melons, cucumbers and gourds. Many Egyptians had gardens adjacent to their homes where they grew small quantities of vegetables and fruit for their own consumption.
The first official mention of honey production dates to about 2400 BCE, in official lists of apiarists; the oldest pictures of bee-keepers are found in New Kingdom tombs. The kind of hives depicted in these reliefs, woven baskets covered with clay, are still seen in the Sudan today. Cylindrical hives were made of clay.
The main centre of bee-keeping was Lower Egypt with its extensive cultivated lands, where the bee was chosen as a symbol for the country. One of Pharaoh's titles was Bee King, and the gods also were associated with the bee. The sanctuary in which Osiris was worshiped was the Mansion of the Bee. But even nomadic Upper Egyptians probably kept bees, as their use of honey in the production of green eye paint indicates. There were itinerant apiarists in the Faiyum in Ptolemaic times and possibly also beekeepers living by the Nile who loaded their hives onto boats, shipped them upriver in early spring, and then followed the flowering of the plants northwards as they were reported to do in the 19th century CE.
The Egyptians seem to have valued wild honey even more. Honey hunters, often protected by royal archers, would scour the wild wadis for bee colonies.
Honey Temples kept bees in order to satisfy the desire of the gods for honey and for the production of medicines and ointments. But demand far outran local production. Honey, like many other luxury goods was imported from Djahi or Retenu (north of Jerusalem) and possibly even further afield. Canaan, for instance, was called Land of Milk and Honey in the Hebrew tradition, and the probably fictitious Sinuhe waxed lyrical about the riches of Yaa, an unidentified Asiatic region.
Sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and geese were raised from earliest times and supplied milk, wool, meat, eggs, leather, skins, horn and fat. Even the dung had its uses. There is little evidence that mutton was consumed, while domesticated pigs were eaten at least since the beginning of the 4th millennium BCE, but pork had no place in religious ceremonies. Goat meat on the other hand was acceptable even to upper class Egyptians. Goat skins served as water containers and floating devices.
The Egyptian farmers, in their early experimental phase, also tried to domesticate other animals such as hyenas, gazelles and cranes, but abandoned these attempts after the Old Kingdom. The domestic chicken didn't make its appearance until the New Kingdom, and then only in isolated places. It became more common in the Late Period. By then the Egyptians seem to have mastered artificial incubation.
On the whole the ancient Egyptians seem to have been accomplished farmers, and they were certainly lucky with their system of irrigation which prevented the salinization of the soil. Other cultures relying on artificial irrigation suffered from. Diodorus Siculus, a Roman historian writing during the first century BCE, had a high opinion of the agricultural expertise of the Egyptians.
The economy of Pharonic Egypt has been called an ancient command economy, but one should always remember that such modern definitions are not as absolute as they might be today. Still, there was a specialized bureaucracy which monitored or controlled much of its activity, one of the hallmarks of planned economies. On the other hand, the officials - as state employees and not as private landowners or managers of state farms - probably did not tell farmers what to grow. But they remeasured and reassigned the land after every inundation - based on past assignments, assessed the expected crops, collected part of the produce as taxes, stored and redistributed it. Storage and redistribution were generally done on a local basis. Regional facilities provided produce in case there was a shortfall in one of the local centers. Bureaucrats were also in charge of public works which were mostly religious in character and involved at times tens of thousands of workers and administrators.
The vast majority of the population, probably more than nine tenths during the first two millennia of Egypt's history, lived on the land in mostly autarkic village communities and, in early times at least, in a state close to serfdom. The land they worked belonged in theory to the gods, Osiris and after his demise to Horus and his earthly incarnation, the pharaoh. In practice a virtual ownership evolved, a development which culminated in the Late Period, when land could be freely bought and sold. Apart from the tenant peasants, a large section of the population worked as farm laborers on the estates of noblemen and of the temples. During the New Kingdom perhaps a third of the land was in the hands of the Amen priesthood, with a proportionally large number of workers and slaves. Administrators, priests, traders and craftsmen lived mostly in the cities along the Nile, which could be supplied with victuals relatively easily and cheaply by boat.
Agriculture created most of Egypt's wealth. Grain, vegetables, fruit, cattle, goats, pigs and fowl were grown, and fish from the Nile were caught, and eventual surpluses, after deduction of the various taxes, were sold on the markets.
Thanks to the yearly inundations the soil remained fertile. But agricultural techniques were not very efficient. Improvements were rare, implements remained primitive and the breeding of better livestock was haphazard. Fishing appears to have existed on a very small scale. But practically all the fish consumed were caught in the Nile. Hunting, a leisure activity to the rich, and gathering played a small economic role over all, but may have been crucial to the survival of the poorest.
A large part of the manufactured goods came from the families which produced the raw materials. Labor was divided according to gender, with the processing generally left to the women. While the men grew flax, their women spun it into thread and wove the linen. A sizable proportion of the grain produced was used for beer production. The fish caught by the men had to be cleaned and dried by the women to be of much use in the hot climate of Egypt. In the towns small factories appeared, often financed by rich noblemen: bakeries, breweries, carpentry workshops and the like with a few dozen employees. In these manufactories weaving, for instance, became a largely male occupation with the introduction of upright looms during the New Kingdom.
Most of the things mined were of little interest to anyone but a small number of rich people. Precious metals were not in general circulation until the Late Period and even then remained in the hands of few. The metals used for tools - copper, bronze and, from the Late Period onwards, iron - were expensive and the implements fashioned from them were beyond the reach of many. Poorer people continued to use stone and wooden tools for most purposes well into the bronze and even iron age.
Gems too remained in the possession of a wealthy minority and the stone quarried for temples and tombs served the same class of people and profited only the craftsmen involved in building. Natron needed for the embalming process, was mined in the Wadi Natrun. Embalming was too expensive for all but a few.
Most of the produce was consumed by the producers themselves. What was left after landlords and tax-collectors had taken their share, could be sold by barter on the free market either directly to consumers or to professional traders. Little is known about these merchants. It is generally assumed that they were, at least until the Late Period, for the most part agents of the crown or the great estates. Some of the wheat harvested and belonging to private owners was stored in state warehouses. So was much of the grain collected as taxes. Written withdrawal orders by owners of lots of grain were used as a kind of currency. These grain banks continued to serve growers and traders even after the introduction of coined money. Under the Ptolemies a central bank at Alexandria recorded all accounts of the granary banks dotting the country. Payments were transferred from account to account similar to the modern giro system. Credit entries were recorded with the owners name being in the genitive or possessive case and debit entries in the dative case.
Since the second half of the first millennium BCE gold, silver, and copper in
specie were used mostly in dealings with foreigners, be they mercenaries or
merchants.
High interest rates did not encourage commerce and during the first millennium
BCE they may well have put Egyptian merchants at a disadvantage vis-á-vis
foreign traders who were funded from abroad. During the Saite Period monthly
interest rates could reach 10%.
The main energy source of ancient times was muscle power provided to a large extent by humans. The harnessing of animals was inefficient. The yoke resting on the animals' shoulders was unknown, and the shafts of the ploughs were fastened to the horns of the cows.
Vehicles with light spoked wheels came into use during the New Kingdom and served mostly for warfare and sport. Horses were introduced during the Second Intermediary Period and never achieved economic importance. Anything tansported by land, even in arid desert regions, was either carried by humans or donkeys, or dragged on wooden sledges.
Wind energy was exploited only by ships and even there quite inefficiently: The square sails used enabled only sailing before the wind. The Egyptians were fortunate in that the Nile flowed from south to north. The prevailing winds were northerly and sufficed to blow the ships upriver. They were let to drift downriver with furled sails. But often a destination could only be reached through rowing which required large crews.
Fire was needed for cooking and baking food, smelting and casting metal, burning pottery and very rarely for making bricks. For the working of metals high temperatures had to be achieved and this was done quite possibly with charcoal. No coal was available in ancient times and wood was not very plentiful. One suspects that ordinary fires were fed with any dry vegetable or animal matter that was at hand. The heat of the sun on the other hand was put to very good use in the production of mud bricks, which were the perfect building material in a practically rainless country like Egypt.
Military ventures can be a source of income - as long as one is successful. Egypt was fortunate in this respect until the Late Period, when it came under the domination of foreign powers. What began with relatively benign occupations by the Libyans, Kushites, Assyrians and Persians, became oppressive under the Roman Empire, which exploited its provinces ruthlessly. The attempts of Cleopatra VII to retain independence were unsuccessful and the country fell prey to Octavian. For as long as Rome ruled the Mediterranean, Egypt was little more than its bread basket.
Unlike the much vaunted empire of the New Kingdom, which was mostly a string of subject states in Lower Retenu run by local potentates, the real and lasting conquests lay in the south, in Nubia and Kush. Nubia at least was directly ruled and exploited by the Egyptians. Its importance as supplier of gold, slaves and luxury goods is underlined by the appointment of vice-roys. No other region conquered by Egypt was as closely integrated economically and culturally and retained this affinity for centuries after Egypt's power had declined in the first millennium BCE.
Bravery in battle was rewarded with appointments, decorations in the form of golden necklaces and bracelets, and gifts of land and slaves, part of the booty plundered from vanquished enemies. Tribute was imposed on defeated nations and the 'exchange' of gifts between the pharaohs and the kings of client states was generally in Egypt's favor.
The practice of slavery was practically ubiquitous in ancient times. In Egypt it was seemingly less harsh and widespread than in other societies. Still, some branches of the economy like mining depended to some extent on the labor and expendability of slaves, above all during the New Kingdom, when warfare and trade greatly increased the number of enslaved foreigners.
Ancient Egypt is considered by some to have been the most heavily taxed nation and to have collapsed under the weight of the levies imposed on the populace. But, with a few minor interruptions, its society existed peacefully and basically unchanged for more than two millennia. The state relied on revenues in the forms of labor and taxes paid in kind.
A major part of the levies imposed on the people was used to stabilize society. A bureaucratic administration, at first native and in the Late Period increasingly foreign, enforced order throughout the country during most of its history. Three millennia of mainly quiet development point to the success of this policy: Grain was stored which could be distributed in times of famine. Corvée workers were fed from these stores during the months of inundation when work in the fields was impossible. Artisans constructing public buildings found employment, paid by the royal treasury. Even the offerings at the temples were at least partially used to feed the poor. Of course, different classes of people benefited to different degrees, but care was taken not to leave too many people with nothing to lose, a lesson the Spartans and the Romans for instance never learned. While famines affected the poor much more than the rich, in normal times there was not that much difference as regards health, survival of ones children or even longevity.
In a society where precious metals were not considered a special means of exchange and were mostly in the hands of the pharaohs and the temples, wealth was synonymous with possession of land. Theoretically all the land belonged to the pharaoh who could dispose of it at will. Large tracts were given to the military, above all during times of unrest when the kings needed their support and were unable to recompense them in any other way. Officials were also beneficiaries of such royal munificence. But most of the land came to be owned outright by the temples and the peasantry.
A considerable amount of wealth was invested in the building of tombs and the services following burial, which were supposed to go on for ever. The gods had to be propitiated by offerings and rituals celebrated by great numbers of priests. To maintain this clerical establishment large parts of Egypt were donated to the temples. By the New Kingdom they appear to have owned as much as a third of the arable land and were exempt from paying taxes. Even the people in their employment were protected by law against impressments. This concentration of wealth may have contributed to the decline of the state under the 20th dynasty.
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(89) “Rediscover Ancient Egypt with Tehuti Research Foundation” www.egypt-tehuti.org |
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Superficially, Ancient Egypt seems isolated and distinct from the rest of the world, isolated by the deserts that hem in the narrow valley of the Nile. Yet the Egyptians were in constant contact with other countries. The needs of a civilized society, such as the Ancient Egyptians, are not fully satisfied with the produce of its homeland. Thus, trade routes were developed to faraway places. The Nile was navigable throughout the length of Egypt. The Red Sea gave access to Africa and the Far East. The Mediterranean Sea gave them access to countries in Europe and even to northern Europe and the Americas. Travel in ancient days was much more extensive and common than is generally imagined.
The Forty Days’ Road links Asyut in the Nile Valley to El Fasher in the Dar-Fur Province of Sudan, a journey of 1,082 miles (1,721 km). It was the shortest and safest distance to travel into western Africa. From El Fasher, another route led west through Dar-Fur, toward Lake Chad, ending in the area of Kano (northern Nigeria), at the upper reaches of the Niger River Basin. It began at Sunt (Aswan), and went to El Fasher in Dar-Fur, by way of the oases of Selima and Bir Natrum. Sunt (Elephantine) Road also branched off to Semna West, where the caravans and expeditions transferred to ships in order to continue the journey to beyond the trading post established at Kerma, above the Third Cataract. During the time of the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE), this highway was in continuous use all the way throughout the Roman Era, as many inscriptions on the Rock of Offerings at Sunt(Elephantine) testify.
There were also several trade routes to the Red Sea from the Nile Valley, which allowed trade with Asian countries. Some of these ports along the Red Sea were: Suakin, Massawa, and Zeila. The whole African continent was known to the people of Egypt, as confirmed by Herodotus, who reported that Necho, King of Egypt, c. 600 BCE, sent an Egyptian ship with Phoenician sailors to circumnavigate Africa, and that they returned safely and reported of their endeavor.
One person among the many who have lead Egypt through its 5000 hears of history is Muhammad Ali Pasha. An unusual visionary who new how to use the talent and advice of his advisors, his leadership expanded Egypt's influence and its agricultural technology into the surrounding countries. (76)
Muhammad Ali Pasha (Arabic: محمد علي باشا) or Mehmet Ali Paşa (Kavalalı Mehmet Ali Pasha in Turkish) (c. 1769 - August 2, 1848), was a viceroy of Egypt and is often cited as the founder of modern Egypt. Muhammad Ali was born in the town of Kavala (in present day Greece) in an Albanian family. After working for a time in his youth as a tobacco merchant, Muhammad Ali took a commission in the Ottoman army.
Ali spent the first years of his rule fighting off attempts to unseat him and extended his personal authority over all of Egypt. In one of the most infamous episodes of his reign, Ali definitively broke the power of the Mamluks by massacring their leaders. Having worn down the Mamluks for years with raids and skirmishes, he invited their amis in 1811 to a feast to celebrate his son Tosu Paşa’s appointment to lead the army being sent against the Wahhabi rebellion in Arabia. As the procession of Mamluk princes made its way through a narrow gated alley in the Citadel, Ali's men shut the gates, trapping all the Mamluks and his rival Kadeem, as the soldiers positioned in the buildings facing the alley opened fire from above. When the shooting ended, soldiers on the ground finished off any Mamluks still living with swords and axes. In the following days, he ordered his men to kill any other Mamluks they could catch.
The reign of Muhammad Ali and his successors over Egypt was a period of rapid reform and modernization that led to Egypt becoming one of the most developed states outside of Europe. It also led to massive government expenditures, that ended up bankrupting Egypt and eventually led to it falling under control of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Muhammad Ali executed one of the greatest land grabes in history. He confiscated the feudal farms of the Mameluk grandees and stripped Cairo’s religious institutions of their 600,000 prime acres of landholdings. Thus decapitating Cairo’s medieval order and Egypt was now the viceroy’s private plantation. With the help of the French, Muhammed Ali set about making changes. He ordered wide-scale planting of a new strain of cotton, which was to be the cash crop that would finance the economic revival.
Since British textile manufacturers were willing to pay good money for such cotton, Ali ordered the majority of Egyptian peasants to cultivate cotton at the exclusion of all other crops. At harvest time, Ali bought the entire crop himself, which he then sold at a mark-up to textile manufacturers. In this way, he turned the whole of Egypt's cotton production into his personal monopoly. He also experimented with textile factories that might process cotton into cloth within Egypt, but these did not prove very successful.
He created state monopolies over the chief products of the country. He set up a number of factories and began digging in 1819 a new canal to Alexandria, called the Mahmudiya (after the reigning sultan of Turkey). The old canal had long fallen into decay, and the necessity of a safe channel between Alexandria and the Nile was much felt. The conclusion in 1838 of a commercial treaty with Turkey, negotiated by Sir Henry Bulwer (Lord Darling), struck a deathblow to the system of monopolies, though the application of the treaty to Egypt was delayed for some years.
Efforts were made to promote education and the study of medicine. To European merchants, on whom he was dependent for the sale of his exports, Muhammad Ali showed much favor, and under his influence the port of Alexandria again rose into importance. It was also under Mehemet Ali's encouragement that the overland transit of goods from Europe to India via Egypt was resumed.
The needs of the military likewise fueled other modernization projects, such as state educational institutions, a teaching hospital, roads and canals, factories to turn out uniforms and munitions, and a shipbuilding foundry at Alexandria, although all the wood for ships had to be imported from abroad. In the same way that he conscripted peasants to serve in the army, he frequently drafted peasants into labor corvées for his factories and industrial projects. The peasantry objected to these conscriptions and many ran away from their villages to avoid being taken, sometimes fleeing as far away as Syria. A number of them maimed themselves so as to be unsuitable for combat: common ways of self-maiming were blinding an eye with rat poison and cutting off a finger of the right hand, which usually worked the firing mechanism of a rifle.
He died in August 2, 1849. He had done a great work in Egypt; the most permanent being the weakening of the tie binding the country to Turkey, the starting of the great cotton industry, the recognition of the advantages of European science, and the conquest of the Sudan.
On Ibrahim's death in November 1848 the government of Egypt fell to his nephew Abbas I, the son of Tusun Abbasad. Abbas put an end to the system of commercial monopolies, and during his reign the railway from Alexandria to Cairo was begun at the instigation of the British government. Opposed to European ways, Abbas lived in great seclusion. After a reign of less than six years he was murdered in July 1854 by two of his slaves.
He was succeeded by his uncle Said Pasha, the favorite son of Mehemet Ali, who lacked the strength of mind or physical health needed to execute the beneficent projects which he conceived. His endeavour, for instance, to put a stop to the slave raiding which devastated the Sudan was wholly ineffectual. He had a genuine regard for the welfare of the fellahin, and a land law of 1858 secured for them an acknowledgment of freehold as against the crown.
The pasha was much under French influence, and in 1854 was induced to grant to the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps a concession for the construction of the Suez Canal. Lord Palmerston was opposed to this project, and the British opposition delayed the ratification of the concession by the Porte for two years. To the British, Said also made concessions to the Eastern Telegraph Company and another in 1854 allowing the establishment of the Bank of Egypt. He also began the national debt by borrowing 3,293,000 from Messrs Fruhling & Gbschen, the actual amount received by the pasha being 2,640,000. In January 1863 Said Pasha died and was succeeded by his nephew Ismail, a son of Ibrahim Pasha.
The reign of his son Ismail, from 1863 to 1879, was for a while hailed as a new era into modern Egypt. He attempted vast schemes of reform, but these coupled with his personal extravagance led to bankruptcy, and the later part of his reign is historically important simply for its compelling European intervention in the internal affairs of Egypt. Ismail re-established and improved Mehemet Ali's administrative system, which had fallen into decay under Abbas's uneventful rule; he caused a thorough remodeling of the customs system, which was in an anarchic state, to be made by English officials; in 1865 he established the Egyptian post office; he reorganized the military schools of his grandfather, and gave some support to the cause of education. Railways, telegraphs, lighthouses, the harbour works at Suez, the breakwater at Alexandria, were carried out by some of the best contractors of Europe. Most important of all, the Suez Canal was opened in 1869.
Early in Ismail's reign Egypt took advantage of vastly inflated cotton prices, caused by the American Civil War. Once that conflict ended Ismail had to find new sources of funding to keep his reform efforts alive. Thus the funds required for these public works, as well as the actual labor, were remorselessly extorted from a poverty-stricken population. (76)
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http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Egypt.html
Most people know about the pyramids and the Nile river and the major cities of Cairo and Alexandria. The more dedicated visitors know about Luxor and the valley of the kings. Perhaps others can find Sharm el Sheik and the Aswan dam on a map of the country. Egypt is surrounded by Israel and the Red sea on the east, Sudan on the south, Libya on the west and the Mediterranean sea on the north.
It has one million square kilometers (386.6 square miles) of land of which less than 4% is cultivated for crop production.
It is a country in North Africa officially known as the Arab Republic of Egypt and includes the Sinai Peninsula which is located in Asia. It is the 15th most populous country in the world and the second most populous in Africa after Nigeria. The 79 million people live on 40.000 square kilometers.
The 1971 constitution provides for the separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Islamic law is officially the principal source of legislation, but the Napoleonic Code is a more significant progenitor. The president, the head of state, has executive authority, including the ability to veto legislation, and enjoys vast powers of patronage. Presidential appointees include the vice-presidents, the prime minister and ministers, provincial governors, armed forces and security heads, major religious figures and High Court judges. The president is also supreme commander of the armed forces.
The president was previously nominated by a two-thirds majority of the Majlis al Shaab (People's Assembly) and elected by referendum. Following an amendment to the constitution, in September 2005 the president was for the first time elected by universal suffrage. Candidates fielded by legal parties are eligible if the parties are five years old and hold 5% of the seats in parliament, whereas independent candidates must win backing from 250 elected politicians drawn from the People's Assembly, the Shura Council (advisory chamber) and provincial councils. The stipulation was contentious since the NDP holds almost all the seats in the Shura Council (a mainly ineffective 264-member consultative body) and local councils and overwhelmingly dominates the People's Assembly.
The People's Assembly, which comprises 444 directly elected members, exercises legislative power. One-half of the assembly are in theory farmers and labourers, but in practice this is not observed, and ten members are nominated by the president. Presidential decrees also have the force of law. The president may dissolve the Assembly only if he gains support for such a course in a referendum, and a minister can be required to resign if the Assembly passes a vote of no confidence in him. Should that happen against the president's wishes, the matter may be put to a referendum. The ruling NDP emerged from the October-November 2000 parliamentary election with its usual commanding majority, but only after elected independents rejoined the party following the poll. The election was the first under full judicial supervision, allowing a more diverse outcome than usual, but allegations of malfeasance persisted. In any case, the Assembly's ability to change the government or to amend legislation remains severely limited.
The president appoints one-third of the members of the Shura Council; one-half of its elected members face election every three years and all members sit for six years. Elections for the council, which is dominated by the NDP, were last held in May-June 2004.
Egypt's overloaded judiciary is independent, but the government tends to circumvent rulings not to its liking, often by employing the state of emergency regulations that have been in force since Mr Sadat was assassinated. These allow the police almost unlimited powers of search and arrest, and control of the media. "Fast track" military courts are used to try Islamist cases as they are considered to be more effective in achieving convictions than civilian trials, which can take years, in part because of legislative complexities.
Although formally accountable to parliament, the prime minister is the president's primary lieutenant and is responsible for implementing his policies throughout Egypt's all-pervasive bureaucracy. Important decisions are made by the president in consultation with ministers and advisers. The main ministries are defense, foreign affairs, information, economy and interior.
Egypt's historically close ties with the US, its status as the most populous Arab country and its tireless diplomacy have enabled it to carve out a position as a regional powerbroker, and following the demise of several influential leaders in the Arab world-King Hussein of Jordan and King Hassan of Morocco both died in 1999, followed by the Syrian president, Hafez el-Assad, in 2000-Mr Mubarak has become the unquestioned senior Arab statesman. Relations with Sudan, which had been tense since June 1995 when there were allegations of Sudanese complicity in an assassination attempt on Mr. Mubarak, warmed considerably following the ousting from the inner circle of power of Sudan's Islamist leader and parliamentary speaker, Hassan al- Turabi, in 2000. Despite periodic setbacks and concern over the nature of Muammar Qadhafi's rule, relations with Libya have also improved under Mr Mubarak, as Egypt views its neighbor as the provider of an important source of employment for its labor force, and as a useful buffer against Islamist extremism within the region.
However, Egypt's regional diplomatic clout has suffered under the presidency of the US president, George W Bush. Egypt was taken aback by the fact that it did not have a say in the US-brokered Machakos Protocol, a framework peace treaty signed in July 2002 between the Sudanese government and the southern Sudanese People's Liberation Army, which allows for the possibility of a referendum on the issue of the secession of the south after a six-year interim period. Egypt considers the issue to be of strategic importance for its own interests: its main concern is the security of its share of water from the River Nile.
Further a field, Egypt has improved relations with both Turkey and Iran. Egypt's role in the 1990-91 Gulf crisis strengthened its relationships with Gulf states considerably, particularly with Saudi Arabia. Egypt's entry to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) in June 1998 and its participation in that body's free-trade area, launched in October 2000, serves to highlight its push to revive neglected trade ties with Africa. A major focus of foreign policy is to open up new export markets, but the emphasis on upgrading relations with Africa also has another dimension: the Nile runs through nine other states, and Cairo is likely to have to make water agreements with all of them.
Since the signing of the Camp David accords, Egypt's most important international relationship has been with the US. Relations strengthened as Egypt played a crucial role in winning over Arab support for the US's campaign to oust Iraq from Kuwait in 1991-92, and then fulfilled the role of key Arab partner in US efforts to achieve peace between Israel and Arabs. In the early part of this decade, however, the foundations on which this relationship was built were shaken. Egypt's ability to influence the Israeli-Palestinian conflict waned, as for stretches there was no peace process to speak of; when the US re-engaged, the decisions were frequently made bilaterally between the governments of Mr. Bush and the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Moreover, Egypt's direct ties with the US came under strain as the US's global "war on terror" led to unprecedented scrutiny of the nature of Mr. Mubarak's rule. Egypt therefore welcomed with gusto the opportunity to advance the peace process provided by the death of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, in November 2004. Simultaneously, the US has, in reality, receded somewhat from its initial ambitions for the promotion of democracy in the region, thereby allowing Egypt greater leeway. However, overt pressure from US policymakers for greater political plurality will endure-at least until the end of Mr. Bush's second term, and probably beyond-as the policy now forms a central part of US foreign strategy.
Ties with the European Union, Egypt's largest trading partner, are gaining higher priority as Egypt looks to balance its ties with the US. A wide-ranging Association Accord with the EU-aiming to strengthen political, social and, particularly, economic ties-came into effect in June 2004 after years of negotiations.
Egypt's population stood at 71.8m in January 2005, according to the latest official estimates, with 69.9m resident citizens and some 1.9m others working abroad. The Economist Intelligence Unit expects the population to rise to almost 81m by 2010 and to above 98m by 2020. Reducing the population growth rate presents a major challenge for the government. The domestic population growth rate slowed slightly in 2004 to 1.84% (compared with 1.96% in 2003). More than half of the population is under 24 years old, while less than 4% are over 65. With such a youthful population, the pressures on the labor market and social services are considerable. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (20) (CAPMAS, the national statistical agency) the labour force grew by 2.4% during fiscal year 2005 (July 1st 2004-June 30th 2005), to 21.2m. Of this total, some 19.1m are employed. According to the latest data, in fiscal 2003 the workforce was made up of 5.3m civil servants, 900,000 working in state enterprises, 5.1m in the formal private sector and 6.9m in the informal private sector.
"A mission of the International Monetary Fund led by Mr. Klaus Enders (31), the mission chief for the Arab Republic of Egypt in the Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD), visited Egypt during April 3-16, 2006 to conduct the 2006 Article IV Consultation discussions. Mr. Mohsin Khan, the Director of MCD, attended the policy discussions.
"The mission took stock of recent economic developments and reviewed future economic policies. The discussions serve as input for the preparation of the annual report on Egypt for the IMF Executive Board. The discussions were conducted against the backdrop of accelerating economic growth, low inflation, strong balance of payments and foreign reserves positions and, more broadly, growing confidence in the direction and depth of economic policies. The establishment of a smooth-functioning foreign exchange market has been a major source of market confidence. Banking sector reform and privatization are moving ahead at a pace exceeding expectations. In the fiscal area, there has been progress in strengthening the tax and customs regimes and bringing more transparency and efficiency to budgetary operations.
"Job creation is the paramount challenge facing the Egyptian authorities today. Indeed, the ongoing reforms are aimed at laying the ground for sustained private sector-led investment and growth. The next phase of reforms would need to reduce the constraints on private sector activity arising from weaknesses in financial intermediation, absorption of a large share of national savings by the public sector, and bureaucratic barriers to business development. Implementing these reforms will require building a strong political and social consensus. At the same time, the timing is appropriate, given the unique combination of favorable economic conditions, the strong reform momentum, and growing investor confidence.
"The IMF team views fiscal policy as the key to maintaining macroeconomic stability. The budget deficit and public debt in Egypt—while still manageable—are relatively high, and cannot be sustained at current levels without compromising Egypt's economic potential. The recent tax reforms were an important development, and need to be complemented by an ambitious and credible medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy that puts public debt as a share of GDP on a firmly declining path. Toward this end, the authorities agreed with the team on the need for a comprehensive expenditure reduction program, aimed at rationalizing the size of government, increasing the productivity of expenditure, and improving the targeting of pro-poor spending. Meanwhile, the team welcomes the authorities' structural reform efforts aimed at streamlining cash management.
"The policy focus of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) should remain on keeping inflation low, building on its success so far. The CBE is also moving forward on schedule to implement its multi-year program of financial sector restructuring and divestiture, and to strengthen bank supervision.
"The government has made impressive progress with its privatization program. Ongoing efforts to reduce red tape, enhance the flexibility of labor markets, and facilitate access to finance and land for small and medium-sized enterprises, are welcome and should accelerate in order to bring Egypt's business environment closer to those prevailing in successful emerging markets.
"Finally, much progress has been made on data quality in Egypt, but both the authorities and the Fund team share the view that further improvements in this area are required in order to better support economic analysis and effective policy formulation. In particular, additional work is needed to improve statistics on prices, balance of payments, real indicators of economic activity, and public finances. The IMF stands ready to continue providing technical assistance to Egypt in improving the statistical base."
In 1960 there were only 2.7m primary school student but by fiscal 2002 this had risen to 7.2m. By fiscal 2003 the ratio of primary enrolment had reached 97% and secondary enrolment had risen to 88% from 71 % in fiscal 1991. The number of students in higher education had risen from 134,000 in 1960 to 1.5m in fiscal 2002. These increases are partly accounted for by population growth, but they also reflect the government's commitment since the 1960s to provide free education for all.
High population growth places severe demands on the under funded education system. According to CAPMAS, a major school building program to raise the number of primary schools to 15,653 in 2001/02, up from 14,654 in 1993, succeeded in lowering the average number of primary school students per class to 41 in 2001/02, compared with 44 in 1996/97, although the ratio remains high and can be far higher in densely populated and poor areas. The government's bias towards high cost urban and tertiary education has resulted in unequal access to education for different groups within the country, with women in Upper Egypt the most deprived. As the state system is overloaded, some 70% of students take extra private lessons.
The proportion of Egyptians with university degrees rose from 4.3% in 1986 to 7.3% in the late 1990s. There are 13 state universities, five private universities, the Islamic university of Al Azhar and 125 technical institutes.
The rigid education system, with its emphasis on rote learning over critical thinking and its ranks of poorly paid and trained teachers, is failing to supply the labour market with the necessary skills. Illiteracy has fallen gradually but is still high, according to the World Bank. Male literacy among the 15-and-over age group stood at 67% in 2002, with female literacy at 44% in the same year, up from 60% and 34% respectively in 1990. In the 15-24-year-old age group, 79% of men were literate in 2002, compared with 71 % in 1990, and 67% of women were literate, up from 51 % in 1990. (12)
Egypt's total land area is just under 1m sq km, of which only 35,190 sq km is settled and cultivated. About 95% of the land is uninhabitable desert, so that more than 97% of the population lives in the narrow strip of the Nile Valley that runs the length of the country, and in the Nile Delta. Population density in non-desert areas is therefore high, at about 870/sq km. The governorates of Cairo, Giza and Kalyoubia, which include Greater Cairo, contained 16.7m inhabitants in 2002. Cairo has a population density of about 31,700/sq km, and in some urban districts the density reaches more than 100,000/sq km. Government concerns about overcrowding in the Nile Valley and the destabilizing social problems that could result were the main impetus behind the Southern Valley development project that aims to reclaim a large swathe of desert by pumping water from Lake Nasser.
The government and the public are slowly becoming aware of the need for environmental protection, and the country's first environmental action plan was produced in 1992 with assistance from the World Bank. With little rainfall, the country relies on the Nile to meet nearly all of its water needs. Egypt is currently categorised by the World Bank as under "water stress" and heading towards water scarcity; the action plan noted that about 90% of Egypt's used water goes untreated, while most of the industrial wastewater is discharged unmonitored. Air pollution levels are very high. According to the World Bank, the air in Cairo has the world's highest lead content, eight times over the internationally accepted safety level. Egyptian industries are estimated to dump at least ten tones/minute of solid waste, 33% of which goes into uncontrolled landfills, canal banks and drains.
The security of Egypt's water supply has become of growing concern following statements by a number of riparian states that they want to revise the 1929 Nile Basin Treaty. This treaty was signed by Britain on behalf of its then colonies and gives Egypt a veto over the use of Nile waters by East African nations if it believes this would be detrimental to downstream levels. Moreover, the 1959 treaty between Egypt and Sudan apportioned the Nile waters between them, with Egypt taking the lion's share at 55.5bn cu meters/year, and failed to include any of the remaining eight Nile basin countries. Egypt, which relies on the Nile for more than 95% of its water, has always maintained that both treaties are untouchable. However, the other Nile states are increasingly questioning why they should abide by a colonial-era agreement that hampers their development.
The matter has begun to come to a head. In March Tanzania began building a 170-km water pipeline to supply dry inland towns from Lake Victoria, a project that contravenes the 1929 treaty. In early April the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, criticised Egypt's long-standing monopoly of the Nile waters, demanding that "this egocentric approach on the uses of Nile water must stop" and a new treaty be negotiated. In addition, Kenya has said that it will not accept any restrictions on its use of Nile water. In response, the Egyptian government has stressed its willingness to extend technical and financial aid to the Nile basin countries, but has so far refused to back down.
The government and the public are slowly becoming aware of the need for environmental protection, and the country's first environmental action plan was produced in 1992 with assistance from the World Bank. With little rainfall, the country relies on the Nile to meet nearly all of its water needs. Egypt is currently categorized by the World Bank as under "water stress" and heading towards water scarcity; the action plan noted that about 90% of Egypt's used water goes untreated, while around 50% of industrial wastewater is discharged unmonitored. Air pollution levels are very high. According to the World Bank, the air in Cairo has the world's highest lead content, eight times over the internationally accepted safety level. Egyptian industries are estimated to dump at least ten tones/minute of solid waste, 33% of which goes into uncontrolled landfills, canal banks and drains.
The rail system, which had 9,455 km of track as of the end of fiscal 2003, is the oldest in the region. Modernization will be required if the goals of carrying containerized transport from Egyptian ports to continental Africa and increasing the share of domestic freight moved by rail are to be realized. The rail network carries some 800m passengers/year, or 2.3m passengers/day (excluding the estimated 10,000 passengers/day who ride on top of carriages without a ticket), and some 12m tones/year of goods. Nevertheless, with cheap third-class trains serving more than 80% of passengers, revenue only covers around 60% of expenses. Egyptian National Railways receives some E£l.4bn/year in government subsidy, and is considered to be under funded.
Following an extensive modernization and expansion program that was begun in the 1980s, Egypt had 45,500 km of paved roads by 2005, but many are in poor condition. The four-lane, 9.5-km Mubarak Peace suspension bridge over the Suez Canal near Ismailia that links Sinai with the rest of Egypt was inaugurated in 2001, when a nearby railway bridge was also completed. The first suspension bridge over the River Nile-the 1 km, E£120m (US$27m by average 2002 exchange rate) Aswan Bridge-was officially opened in December 2002. A 250-km Greater Cairo ring road is under construction. The Mediterranean coastal road is also being renovated as it forms part of the link between North Africa and Europe's Mediterranean road network via the Gibraltar crossing. Some 85% of domestic freight and 60% of passenger movements are by road. Road safety is of major concern as Egypt has one of the highest incidences of traffic fatalities in the world, with an official death toll of 6,000 people in 2002, and 28,000 injuries.
The state-owned carrier, Egypt Air, is by far the largest Egyptian airline, carrying some 8.6m passengers in fiscal 2004. The 72-year-old airline is a significant economic actor, employing some 22,000 people. The airline reported net income of E£644m (US$105m at prevailing exchange rates) in fiscal 2004, reversing losses of US$300m in fiscal 2002, and E£S21m (US$55m at 200S rates) in fiscal200S. The recovery is in part due to dramatic growth in the tourism sector after a downturn in 2001 and 2002.
Internet use is constrained by cost, language, rates of literacy, inadequate infrastructure and skills shortages, while e-commerce, still in its infancy, is beset by legal and regulatory hurdles. However, with strong support from the government, which hopes to turn the country from an IT laggard into an IT hub, Egypt is witnessing something of an Internet boom By August 2005 there were 5m Internet users, up from 535,000 in 2000. In a bold move, the government launched free Internet services in January 2002. The consumer no longer pays fees to Internet service providers (ISPs), but instead pays only the price of a regular call-extremely cheap by international standards. ISPs lease access ports from TE and purchase a dial-up number, which they then market to consumers. In return, TE pays the ISPs 70% of the revenue from connections made through their phone number. However, the measure is controversial with ISPs who complain of high leasing rates and say their profit margins are low. Many of the smaller ISPs among the 64 which were operating when the new system was introduced have since closed.
Demand for power has continued to rise rapidly as a result of demographic and economic growth. The shortcomings of hydroelectric power, which used to provide more than 25% of Egypt's electricity, were highlighted in 1988 during the water crisis that followed eight years of drought in the catchments areas of the River Nile. In response the government launched a crash program to build power stations that would depend on locally produced natural gas, with the additional bonus that oil would be saved for export. All oil-fired power stations have now been converted to run on natural gas as their primary fuel. Installed capacity now stands at 17,600 mw, of which 84% is based on natural gas and the rest is hydroelectric, mainly from the Aswan Dam. The Ministry of Electricity and Energy is implementing plans to bring on stream 12,875 mw of new power generating capacity over the next ten years. In the first phase, financed by development agencies, 4,500 mw will be added by mid 2007, based on an assumed annual increase in demand of 7.5%. In the second phase 8,375 mw will be added by mid-2012, assuming annual demand growth of 6.6% from 2008.
Nuclear plans in the 1980s, including a US$ one billion nuclear power station at Al Dabaa, were shelved owing to cost and safety considerations. In November 1997 an Argentinean-built US $l00m, 22-mw research nuclear reactor became operational, replacing the 2-mw facility built by the Soviet Union at Inshas, north-east of Cairo, in 1961. Egypt now generates about 150 mw of wind power, mostly sited at Zafraana on the Gulf of Suez, but also at Hurghada and on the north coast. There are also plans to build a part-solar power plant at Kureimat as a BOOT project, which will have so mw of solar capacity out of a total planned capacity of 150 mw. The World Bank is expected to offset the difference in cost between the solar and thermal projects.
|
Origins of GDP 2001/02 |
% of total |
Components of GDP 2001/02 |
% of total |
|
Trade, finance & Insurance |
22.2 |
Private consumption |
75.0 |
|
Industry & Mining |
20.1 |
Gross fixed capital formation |
18.2 |
|
Social Services |
18.8 |
Government consumption |
10.1 |
|
Agriculture |
16.6 |
Exports of goods & services |
15.8 |
|
Transportation & the Suez Canal |
9.2 |
Imports of goods & services |
-19.6 |
|
Petroleum & electricity |
6.7 |
Changes in stocks |
0.4 |
In fiscal 2005 growth rose to an estimated 4% as the pound stabilized and business and consumer confidence strengthened following the appointment of the government of Mr Nazif. Agriculture has grown steadi1y, albeit modestly, at around 3-4% a year, and Egypt therefore continues to be a large-scale food importer. Despite liberalization, the public sector continues to play an important role in the economy accounting for 33% of the total GDP and 30% of the total work force.
Egypt has the largest population in the Arab world and, after Saudi Arabia, the largest GDP. The economy is dominated by services, which, including public administration, account for about one-half of GDP. Tourism and the Suez Canal are important service sectors. Tourism, vulnerable to political events, has become increasingly resilient and has recovered strongly from the effects of both the September 11th 2001 suicide attacks in the US and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 200S. The Suez Canal has performed strongly in recent years as high fuel prices have made the longer trip around Africa more expensive for ships traveling between Europe and Asia.
Agriculture is a major economic issue in Egypt. It is an issue as a local food source, for international trade, for balance of payments, land use and water use and as a basic product for food and fiber manufacturing. Hence every aspect of the economic structure of the country relates to agriculture. Banking, transportation, tax and tariff structure, subsidies, local and international markets and health are all part of the agricultural system of a country. Not to mention politics, of course.
Agriculture's contribution to GDP is gradually diminishing, but it is still an important activity. Even though only 3% of the total land area is arable land, agriculture accounted for 13.9% of GDP in fiscal 2005 (July 1st 2004-June 30th 2005), according to local data, and 28% of total employment in 2000/01. Manufacturing industries are also important, accounting (including oil refining) for 18.2% of GDP in fiscal 2005, and are heavily concentrated in Cairo and the Nile Delta. Mining (which includes petroleum and natural gas) is also a mainstay of the economy, accounting for 14.8% of GDP in fiscal 2005 (a proportion that was swollen by exceptional oil prices) and 38% of merchandise exports, despite a decline in crude oil production. There is a large informal sector, which the finance minister has put at some 30% of total economic activity.
The gradual elimination of subsidies and price controls was to be a central plank of the economic reform program. Although the government chose not to implement its IMF commitment to raise energy prices to market levels by mid-1999, subsidies on basic foods were cut back in the 1990s, leaving bread, sugar and cooking oil as the only subsidized items for low-income consumers. The sluggish performance of the private sector, however, has led the government to boost subsidy spending in recent years. Explicit spending on subsidies, grants and social benefits rose from E£18.1bn (US$4bn by average 2002 exchange rate) in fiscal 2002 (15.7% of spending) to E£29.5bn in fiscal 2005 (18.5% of spending) in fiscal 2005 and was budgeted to leap to E£50.5bn in fiscal 2006 as implicit petroleum subsidies were incorporated.
With such a large public sector, the government is necessarily deeply involved in the labor market. Government estimates put the number of Egyptians employed within the country at 19.1m in fiscal 2005, while another 1.9m work abroad. As around 800,000 people join the labor market every year, finding employment is a major problem.
A long-standing government guarantee to provide work for all university graduates has produced huge waiting lists for state jobs and a surfeit of underemployed, badly paid civil servants. Successive budgets have raised state wages and pensions, but only recently have these gone up by more than the rate of inflation. Private-sector jobs are better paid, but limited in number. Even the highest wages and salaries in Egypt are low by international standards. Recently introduced labour legislation sets a minimum wage rise of 7% on the wage on which social insurance is calculated. As the maximum this wage can be currently stands at a low E£1,125 (US$195 by average 2005 exchange rate), the new law is unlikely to have a significant impact.
According to the World Bank, the poverty rate fell from 25% in 1995 to 17% in 2000 as the economy grew strongly. However, in September 2005 the World Bank director for Egypt warned that, because of the economic slowdown, poverty could be on the rise again. There is great affluence at the other end of the social scale. As early as 1994 Egypt was one of four countries singled out in the Arab Human Development Report (12) published by the UN Development Program (UNDP), as being "in danger of joining the world's list of failed states because of wide income gaps between sections of their populations".
|
Lending rate |
13.5 |
13.4 |
13.4 |
13.4 |
|
Government balance (% of GDP) |
-6.1 |
-5.6 |
-7.0 |
-7.9 |
|
Exports of goods fob (US $ bn) |
9.0 |
12.2 |
14.2 |
16.5 |
|
Import of goods fob (US $ bn) |
15.2 |
21.6 |
24.0 |
26.1 |
|
Current-account balance (US $ bn) |
3.7 |
4.0 |
2.5 |
2.6 |
|
Current-account balance (% of GDP) |
5.0 |
4.8 |
2.6 |
2.8 |
|
External debt (year-end; US $ bn) |
31.4 |
34.1 |
34.2 |
34.4 |
|
Exchange rate E£:US$ (av) |
5.84 |
6.20 |
5.78 |
5.72 |
|
Exchange rate E£: ¥ 100 (av) |
5.04 |
5.72 |
5.36 |
5.56 |
|
Exchange rate E£: euro (av) |
6.61 |
7.71 |
7.09 |
7.22 |
|
Exchange rate E£: SDR (av) |
8.18 |
9.18 |
8.50 |
8.54 |
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(28)The economist intelligence Unit 15, Regent Street, London, United Kingdom
The Egypt of today is a complex social and political entity, and one that faces a struggle against poverty, population growth and authoritarian government on the road to equitable human development.
The Millennium Development Goals (74) seek to eliminate poverty and foster sustaining development, taking a time horizon to 2015. They reflect a decade of conferences and summits supported by Nations. Primary issues include: infant, child, and maternal mortality, malnutrition, access to safe drinking water, access to education, completion of primary education, and "Goals," "targets," and "indicators" were discussed and outcomes, to be measured over time, were agreed upon. In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed and 147 Heads of State signed the Millennium Declaration, the commitment to work toward a world in which the highest priorities are eliminating poverty, and sustaining development.
Egypt approaches the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a country with a dual identity. The first Egypt is led by a dynamic, reform-minded government, and is determined to achieve prosperity and social cohesion through the mechanism of overall economic and political reform. The second Egypt is, through the effects of decades of deeply embedded poverty and political disaffection, distanced from and indifferent to the first. The majority of Egypt’s 78 million people are in the latter category. Slowly, however, things are beginning to improve as we see in the following table:
|
MDG Goal |
Targets |
>>>>>> |
Prospects |
For >>>>>> |
Achieving |
|
|
|
Likely |
Possible |
Unlikely |
Inconclusive |
|
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger |
Reduce by half the percentage of the population living in poverty |
|
X |
|
|
|
|
Reduce by half the prevalence of underweight among children |
|
|
|
X |
|
Achieve universal access to education |
Attain 100 % school enrollment by 2015 |
|
X |
|
|
|
Promote gender equality and empower women |
Reduce the gender gap in primary and secondary enrollment and literacy for 15-24 year olds by 2005 |
|
|
X |
|
|
|
Increase the share of women in nonagricultural employment and in the national parliament |
|
|
X |
|
|
Reduce infant and child mortality |
Reduce infant and child mortality by 2015 by 2/3 |
X |
|
|
|
|
Improve maternal health |
Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by ¾ by 2015 |
X |
|
|
|
|
|
90% of all births attended by skilled staff by 2015 |
X |
|
|
|
|
Combat HIV/AIDS and malaria |
Slow the rate of HIV/AIDS |
|
|
|
X |
|
|
Increase contraceptive prevalence |
X |
|
|
|
|
Ensure environmental sustainability |
Reduce by ½ the percentage of the population without access to safe drinking water by 2105 |
X |
|
|
|
Area: 3.3 million km ² more than 81,500 km² are lakes and 70,000 km² are swamps. There are ten riparian countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Total rainfall and flow: The mean annual rainfall over the entire basin is about 2,000 billion cubic meters. The average annual flow at Aswan is about 84 billion cubic meters.
Irrigated agriculture: In Egypt and Sudan, irrigated agriculture is the dominating sector. Over 5.5 million ha are under irrigation, with plans to expand an area of over 4.9 million ha. The present irrigation in the upper White Nile riparian areas is very small and there are plans for a future expansion over an area of 387,000 ha in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. In Ethiopia, the potential identified in the Blue Nile basin includes 100,000 ha of perennial irrigation and 165,000 ha of small-scale seasonal irrigation. The other riparian countries have no potential for irrigation in the basin and depend almost completely on rain-fed agriculture.
Population: The present 280 million is expected to grow to 591 million by 2025 at an average rate of 2.5-3.0%, with an average population density of 955/1,000 ha.
Poverty indicators: GINI Index (> 50%); Half the population is below the international poverty line at $1 a day.
The Nile probably gets its name form "nahal" which means "river valley" in Semitic, later "neilos" in Greek and "nilus" in Latin. (129) It is the world's longest river, stretching 4,187 miles from its source in the mountains of Burundi. The source of the river is so far from the Mediterranean that it took man until the middle of the 20th century to find it. For centuries, the most accurate source of knowledge on the location of this source were the writings of Herodotus (Greek Historian, 460 BC), who wrote that the Nile's source was a deep spring between two tall mountains. When Nero ordered his centurions to follow the flow of the river in order to find its source, they got no further than the impenetrable valley of the Sudd. John Henning Speke thought that he had finally found the source when he reached Lake Victoria in 1862, only to be later proven wrong and forgotten by history. In 1937, the source was finally stumbled upon by the little known German explorer Bruckhart Waldekker (127).
The Nile is formed by three tributaries, the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and the Atbara. The White Nile rises from its source in Burundi, passes through Lake Victoria, and flows into southern Sudan. There, near the capital city of Khartoum, the White Nile meets up with the Blue Nile which has its source in the Ethiopian highlands, near Lake Tana. Over 53% of the Nile's waters come from the Blue Nile. The two flow together to just north of Khartoum, where they are joined by the waters of the Atbara, whose source is also located in the Ethiopian highlands.
The river then flows north through Lake Nasser, the second largest man-made lake in the world, and the Aswan Dam before splitting into two major distributaries just north of Cairo. The two distributaries are the Rosetta branch to the west and the Dameita to the east. In ancient times, the number of distributaries was much greater, but slow water flow, human interference, and the accumulation of silt had led to the disappearance of all the other major distributaries. This has effectively led to the desertification of large stretches of Egyptian land.
In ancient Egypt, the Nile, and its delta, were worshiped as a god. The god Hapi, who came in the shape of a frog, represented the Nile delta. Several times throughout history, Egyptians have tried to unify the Nile valley under their rule by conquering the Sudan. The lands to the south of them that bordered the river were in constant danger. The Sudan was invaded during the reign of Queen Sheba, during the Roman rule of Nero, and countless other times. This is because the Egyptians have always feared that one day the Nile's waters would no longer reach their country. People believed that since the flow of the Nile was so unpredictable, something had to have been affecting it. A legend says that during one particularly bad famine in Egypt, the Egyptian Sultan sent his ambassadors to the king of Ethiopia in order to plead with him not to obstruct the waters. A Scottish traveler in the 18th century recounted a story that the King of Ethiopia had sent a letter to the pasha in 1704 threatening to cut off the water. Given this fear it is quite natural that the Nile countries desire to secure their water supplies.(127)
The modern history of the Nile conflict began with the 20th century. The English were quick to realize the importance the river would have for their colonies. Over the centuries, in the swamps of the Sudd, strong winds and the force of the river had created natural dams made up of plants and soil, similar to those made by beavers. These dams had made all navigation up the Nile past a certain point completely impossible. Soon after Sudan was reconquered in 1898, the English began to free the Nile of the vegetation which was obstructing the passage of ships. By the time enough blockages had been removed to clear a path through the Sudd in 1904, the English had already begun drawing up massive alternative drainage plans in order to ameliorate the flow of the Nile. However, the British did not control the Ethiopian portions of the Nile, from which over 80% of the Nile's waters come. Therefore, they had to sign an agreement with the Ethiopians in 1902 in order to assure themselves that the Nile would not be interfered with. They also had to assert a significant amount of pressure on the Italians and the French so that they would not interfere with the dominance of the Nile basin (Collins, 127). This approach worked well with the Italians, but a little less well with the French. The Egyptians caused the most problems for the English as planned developments on the Nile became a disputed matter between the two governments. In 1929, Great Britain sponsored the Nile Water Agreement, which regulated the flow of the Nile and apportioned it use (131).
After World War II, the British government commissioned a complete hydrological study to be made of the Nile Basin as a whole. Unfortunately, the study was not able to include the Ethiopian portions of the Nile due to political problems. The rest of the Nile valley was included. The study was finally released in 1958 as the Report on the Nile Valley Plan. It was the culmination of 50 years of study. The report suggested various ways to increase the amount of water which reached Egypt. The most important of these suggestions was the construction of the Jonglei canal, which would divert the flow of the Nile in southern Sudan (in the Sudd) to avoid the enormous evaporation losses which occur there. The report, however, treated the entire Nile Basin as a single unity, which was unacceptable to the newly independent African states, especially since it was published just two years after the Suez Canal incident (134)
Furthermore, the Egyptians had already planned a major construction which would significantly improve the flow of the Nile in their territories. They had decided to build the High Aswan Dam in order to control the yearly floods of the Nile and in order to harvest the hydroelectric power of the river. However, this project was to have major repercussions on the lands of northern Sudan. Building this dam would mean that whole sections of northern Sudan would be inundated by what was to be Lake Nasser. There were also severe environmental concerns as to how the dam would change life on the banks of the Nile. To deal with this problem, the two nation signed an agreement on the "full utilization of the Nile waters" in 1959. This agreement stipulated that Sudan's yearly water allotment would rise from the 4 billion cubic meters stipulated in the 1929 agreement to 18.5 billion cubic meters. The Sudan would also be allowed to undertake a series of Nile development projects, such as the Rosieres Dam and the Jonglei Canal. In exchange, Egypt would be allowed to build a huge dam near the Sudanese border which would regulate the flow of the river into Egypt and provide water during droughts. The result of this dam, however, would be the inundation of over 6,500 square kilometers of land. The treaty also formed a joint committee which would be in charge of supervising and directing all development projects which affected the flow of the river (135).
This agreement was only bilateral and did no include any of the other riparian countries of the Nile despite the fact that it portioned out all of the Nile's water. Ethiopia, from which 80% of the water comes from was not even consulted and no water was even allotted for future usage by any upstream country except Sudan. All of the Nile's average water flow is divided between the two most downstream countries. Nevertheless, this 1959 agreement is still the most comprehensive agreement ever signed on the use of the Nile's waters.
Apparently, the residents of northern Sudan and southern Egypt were not consulted on the treaty either. In the 1960's, over 100,000 Nubians lost their homes due to development projects stemming from that treaty.(140) Some of these same people had to be moved again in the 1990's in order to build another dam, this time near the border with Ethiopia. The government of Sudan said that these people would be compensated, but the overwhelming feeling amongst the villagers was that they would not be. One villager claimed "We were not informed when the government decided... to build a dam in our area. They just sent tractors with a large number of strangers. These strangers were surveyors." (126).
Construction of the High Dam at Aswan began in 1959 -- as soon as the agreement with Sudan was signed. When it was finally finished in 1970, the dam was more than 17 times the volume of the Great Pyramid at El Giza. It now stretches 4 kilometers across the river's path, rises over 100 meters for its base, and is almost a kilometer thick. Behind it, the waters have formed Lake Nasser, which is 600 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide in some places. This reservoir is the second largest man-made lake in the world. The Aswan Dam is arguably one of the great architectural accomplishments of the 20th century. To build it, Egypt had to obtain outside funding, because it was to cost over one billion dollars to build. Rebuffed by the United States and the World Bank, Nasser had to turn to the Soviet Union, which was only too glad to help (135)
In the 1970's Sudan and Egypt began the joint construction of the Jonglei Canal, which would have increased the flow of the Nile waters by diverting the Nile away from an area where a great deal of water is lost to evaporation. Unfortunately, construction was stopped in 1983 one hundred kilometers short of completion due to "rebel action". The civil war in the Sudan has taken its toll on the development project, which was funded in large part by the World Bank. The failure of this project was a great failure for both the Sudanese government and the World Bank. Over 100 million dollars were spent on the Jonglei Canal project (135).
The most complete agreement on the use of the Nile waters remains the 1959 agreement between Sudan and Egypt. This agreement, however, did not put an end to the conflict over the rights to the Nile waters. A strong tension still exists between the Nile basin countries whenever a new Nile development project is proposed. The water needs of all of these countries are barely being met now and will probably not be met in the future, especially in view of the development plans in Ethiopia and Sudan. In addition, Egypt, as the country most in danger of losing access to the Nile waters by development projects in other countries, remains willing and able to intervene militarily in order to keep the status quo."
The vital importance of the Nile to Egypt, the river's furthest downstream state, is widely accepted and well documented. Throughout recent history Egypt has exerted the greatest degree of control over the Nile both politically and physically. Egypt's dominance over the Nile is a function of the influence of colonial agreements, the shifting, yet timely alliance and support from global superpowers, and the power of Egypt relative to the instability of the upstream states. As a result, Egypt has been able to make unilateral decisions regarding out-of-basin use of Nile water.
Unfortunately some of these decisions have put into question the responsibility and justice of Egypt's stewardship of Nile waters. Indeed, under the pressure of a burgeoning population, as well as for political reasons, the Egyptian government has for two decades embarked on a program of diverting billions of cubic meters of precious Nile water out of the basin and into land reclamation and development projects in the Sinai desert.
Conflict has never been far from the banks of the Nile. The same is true of most international water ways, but none to the degree of the Nile. The source in central Africa; its value to the 10 countries through which it flows and the total dependence of Egypt and Sudan on this life line have always made the political and biological life of the river a source of conflict.
The security of Egypt's water supply has become of growing concern following statements by a number of riparian states that they want to revise the 1929 Nile Basin Treaty. This treaty was signed by Britain on behalf of its then colonies and gives Egypt a veto over the use of Nile waters by East African nations if it believes this would be detrimental to downstream levels. Moreover, the 1959 treaty between Egypt and Sudan apportioned the Nile waters between them, with Egypt taking the lion's share at 55.5 B cu metres/year, and failed to include any of the remaining eight Nile basin countries. Egypt, which relies on the Nile for more than 95% of its water, has always maintained that both treaties are untouchable. However, the other Nile states are increasingly questioning why they should abide by a colonial-era agreement that hampers their development.
Nile waters come from rainfall on the Ethiopian highlands and the catchments areas of the equatorial lakes. The northern part has virtually no rainfall in the summer, while the southern area has heavy rains during the summer months. During the October-May season, both regions are relatively dry due to the presence of the northeast trade winds. The main problem that all countries of the Nile basin face is to ensure the food security of their growing populations. Except for Egypt and Uganda, all the other Nile basin countries had lower per capita food and agricultural production indexes compared to 1982. In Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Ethiopia, the food-security situation deteriorated with an average of 17 percent. Access to high-quality water is likely to lead to a conflict in a situation where the availability of freshwater per capita is decreasing rapidly.
Some of the basin countries are experiencing acute water stress and others are suffering water scarcity during a large part of the year. The arid and semiarid regions of the basin are now experiencing serious environmental degradation that, in turn, affects aquatic ecosystems. The drought cycles and the threat of hunger in many pockets are creating panic among the basin societies, leading to demographic changes and mass rural migration to already strained urban centers. In such a situation of panic, further destruction of the basin's resource base is continuing. This trend will continue in the coming decades unless a concerted effort of the basin's nations, combined with assistance from the international community control the situation so that threats to national security are minimized.
During the rainy season, the White Nile overflows into the vast floodplain surrounding the permanent Sudd swamps, bringing nutrients and new life to the dry, cracked ground. The Sudd is one of the largest floodplains in Africa, providing watering and feeding grounds for populations of migratory mammals and birds. This floodplain borders the arid Sahelian region and is thus an important watering hole for many species as they move across the landscape. Civil war, which resumed in 1983, poses the greatest threat to conservation here. As is so often the case in wartime, conservation has ceased to be a priority, and most reserve areas in Sudan probably now only exist on paper. Moreover, the increased use of automatic weapons and vehicles has led to a decline in wildlife through uncontrolled hunting and greater accessibility to game. The incomplete Jonglei canal, at a width of 75 m, a depth that varies between 4 to 8 m, and a length of over 360 km, is also detrimental to wildlife in the area, acting as a large game trap.
The White Nile (known in various sections as the Bahr-el-Abiad, Bahr-el-Jebel, Albert Nile, and Victoria Nile) rises in the headwaters of Lake Victoria in a region of year-round rainfall, and after running through Uganda, overflows in southern Sudan into a shallow depression within the Kalahari Sands, creating the Sudd swamps at 380-450 m above sea level. The gradient of the river through the Sudd is greater than that on its subsequent course from Malakal to Khartoum (125). The southern portion of the floodplain is wetter than the northern, receiving on average about 800 mm/yr compared to the north’s 600 mm/yr. These rains fall between April and September (132), and temperatures average 30-33oC during the hot season, dropping to an average of 18 degrees C in the cold season. The Sudd swamps are extensive -- about 600 km long, and a similar distance wide. Vertisols are the main soils that have developed in the waterlogged conditions over these nutrient poor sediments, although fluvisols and patches of luvisols can be found along the river courses.
The Jonglei Canal Project in Southern Sudan: why the hurry and for whose benefit is it? By Jacob K. Lupai* http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article22060
* The author is an agricultural extension expert and a researcher on household food security with reference to peasant farming. He can be reached at jklupai@yahoo.co.uk .
May 26, 2007 —
The expected resumption of the digging of the Jonglei canal is bringing back fresh memories of the controversies surrounding the Jonglei canal project when it first started. The project was considered one of the most important integration projects between Egypt and the Sudan with the primary objective of ensuring the flow of 4.7 billion cubic metres of the Nile water annually to be distributed between Egypt and the Sudan. It was seen as the development of modern irrigation and drainage facilities that would put an end to agriculture being tied to the annual patterns of flooding and drought in the two countries. In 1974 Egypt and the Sudan agreed on the construction of the Jonglei canal that would drain the Sudd and provide Egypt with water needed during the arid season.
The problem was resolved when in 1929 British sponsored the Nile Water Agreement which regulated the flow of the Nile and apportioned its use. However, the Nile Water Agreement was nothing but for Egypt to consolidate its grip on the use of the Nile water. This agreement included the following:
· Egypt and the Sudan utilize 48 and 4 billion cubic meters of the Nile flow per year respectively
· The flow of the Nile during January 29 to July 15 (dry season) would be reserved for Egypt
· Egypt reserves the right to monitor the Nile flow in the upstream countries
· Egypt assumed the right to undertake Nile river related projects without the consent of upper riparian states
· Egypt assumed the right to veto any construction projects that would affect its interests adversely
In 1959 an agreement of the full utilization of the Nile water was signed between Egypt and the Sudan. The agreement is known as the Nile Waters Treaty which has been held until the present time. The average flow of the Nile is considered to be 84 billion cubic meters per year, and evaporation and seepage are considered to be 10 billion cubic meters. This leaves 74 billion cubic metres for Egypt and the Sudan to divide between themselves. According to the 1959 Nile Waters Treaty the allocation for Egypt is 55.5 and for the Sudan is 18.5 billion cubic metres per year respectively.
About 96 percent of the economically active population in Egypt is engaged in agriculture and Egyptian agriculture is entirely dependent on irrigated land. In Egypt 88 percent of the water is consumed in agriculture. As Egypt is about 98 percent desert any expansion of agriculture to feed the growing population means an increase in irrigated land. Egypt’s desperate need for enormous quantities of water is therefore abundantly clear. The Jonglei canal project was seen as the ultimate solution to Egypt’s high demand for water. In the colonial era the British were quick to realise the importance the Nile would have for their colonies in Africa. Over the centuries strong winds and the force of the Nile had created natural dams made up of plants and soil in the swamps of the Sudd in Southern Sudan. These natural dams made navigation up the Nile past a certain point difficult if not impossible.
Egypt has an ambitious desert reclamation plan of 6,000 square kilometres of new fields so that it needs another 9 billion cubic metres of the Nile water per year. To increase the flow of the Nile in order for Egypt to realise its ambitious desert reclamation plan, Egypt sees the completion of the digging of the Jonglei canal through the vast swamps of the Sudd in Southern Sudan as the top priority.
The Jonglei canal project is likely to affect the bio diversity and ecosystem of the area. The Sudd is one of the largest floodplains in Africa, providing watering and feeding grounds for populations of migratory mammals and birds. This floodplain borders the arid Sahelian region and is an important watering place for many species as they move across the landscape. The floodplain ecosystem supports a variety of plant species. Wild rice grassland dominates the seasonally inundated floodplains.
One of the most costly and politically and economically dubious of these efforts is a huge land reclamation project in the North Sinai desert called the North Sinai Agricultural Development Project (NSADP). The North Sinai development is currently estimated to cost about $1.5 billion (about 5 billion Egyptian pounds) and is going forward despite the warnings of its own environmental impact study. Since 1987 this project has been diverting Nile water to agricultural development plots west of the Suez Canal.
However, in an even more dangerous and politically sensitive development, for the first time, plans are in place and work has already begun to facilitate the diversion of Nile water to the North Sinai desert east of the Suez Canal by means of tunnels underneath the Canal. The project was given dramatic confirmation in November 1996 when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, addressing Arab journalists in Cairo, announced the opening of a third tunnel underneath the Suez Canal. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported that "In October 1997, Nile water will ... begin flowing through the Peace Canal ... and will irrigate 600,000 acres in the North Sinai desert."
The last leg of the project will bring Nile water just south of the North Sinai town of El Arish, only 40 km away from the border of the Gaza Strip at Rafah. Most alarming to many in the region are t he rumors that the project will ultimately bring Nile water to Israel. As a matter of fact, a similar project was envisioned as early as 1974 by Israeli water expert, Elisha Kally,(136) as a way of satisfying Israeli water needs. http://www.amcham.org.eg/BSAC/StudiesSeries/Report25.asp
The matter has begun to come to a head. In March Tanzania began building a 170-km water pipeline to supply dry inland towns from Lake Victoria, a project that contravenes the 1929 treaty. In early April the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, criticised Egypt's long-standing monopoly of the Nile waters, demanding that "this egocentric approach on the uses of Nile water must stop" and a new treaty be negotiated. In addition, Kenya has said that it will not accept any restrictions on its use of Nile water. In response, the Egyptian government has stressed its willingness to extend technical and financial aid to the Nile basin countries, but has so far refused to back down.
“On March 28, 2007, Aljazeera news reported that the African countries that form the Nile basin have agreed to set up a commission governing the river’s use. Kenya’s water minister reports;
The 6695 km river has been a source of conflict for decades between the impoverished nations in its catchments area and Egypt, for which it is the lifeline.
On Wednesday, March 28, 2007, Mutua Katuku, Kenya’s water minister (137), said: “We have agreed on most of the things on the Nile Basin Co-operative framework. We will be establishing a commission which will be able to regulate the use of the waters of the Nile.
Katuku said the 10 Nile basin countries were yet to decide on the definitions of some contentious terms, such as the meaning of “water Security.” But he said he expected the co-operative framework would be ready in a month’s time.”
Under a 1929 pact between Egypt and the UK, acting on behalf of its then east African colonies, downstream Egypt can veto use of water higher up that it feels threatens levels.
This agreement has generated resentment and predictions of future wars over the water of one of the world's biggest rivers.
The commission will replace the Nile Basin Initiative formed in 1999 by Burundi, Democratic Republic
The Nile river is the main source of water for the nine nations which make up the Nile basin. As is, the water provided by the river is barely enough to satisfy the enormous water demands of the region. Early in the 21st century, it is expected that at least six of the nine nations which share the Nile's water will experience acute water stress (134). Access to the Nile's waters has already been defined as a vital national priority by countries such as Egypt and Sudan. It is an issue over which the two nation's have professed themselves willing to go to war over. Current tensions between Egypt and Sudan, its neighbor to the south, are merely a continuation of a two thousand year-old struggle over who will control the regions scarce water resources. As more of the nations in the Nile valley develop their economies, the need for water in the region will increase. And while the demand for resources increases, the supply is likely to remain unchanged, drastically increasing the chances for armed conflict over the waters of the Nile river. In addition, development projects that are aimed at increasing the flow of the Nile remain endangered by tension and instability in the region, as well as by environmental and financial concerns.
In Northeastern Africa, water is a scarce commodity. Yet it is also a vital one, as it is needed for irrigated agriculture, industrial expansion, and human consumption.
In the Nile basin, the river remains the only reliable source for renewable water supplies. Underground water supplies, or aquifers, can only be harvested once and will eventually run out. This places the Nile basin countries in a position of reliance on the waters of the Nile. (121)
The waters, however, do not flow in sufficient quantities to satisfy the future water requirements of all these nations. The nations are barely satisfied by what they now receive and it is foreseen that their needs will increase as populations rise, industrial growth takes place, and more land is irrigated with Nile water for agricultural use in nations besides Egypt. Egypt's cropland is already 100% irrigated, fostering an amazing reliance on the flow of the Nile. It is estimated that Ethiopia and Sudan could achieve high levels of food production if they chose to irrigate as much land as possible.
Water stress is present when nations find themselves with less than 2000 cubic meters per person of renewable water supplies. By the end of the century at least five nations in the Nile basin expect themselves to be suffering from water stress. This figure does not include the water that would be needed to feed the citizens of the Nile countries. It is unlikely that the flow of water in the Nile could be increased without the completion of the Jonglei Canal, which, given Sudan's internal problems, seems highly unlikely in the near future. (134)
In addition, the environmental situation is further complicated by the problems surrounding the Aswan Dam. Even though the environmental damage to Egypt's environment caused by the Dam has been much less than originally predicted, it is still quite significant. One major problem is that the silt from the river which for millennia fertilized Egypt's cropland is no longer being allowed to flow down the river. This means that more chemical fertilizers are being used. It is also causing erosion along the banks of the Nile, which were previously replenished by the silt carried down the river. Much of the Nile delta is now being swept into the Mediterranean. In fact, if barriers near the Nile's outlet continue to erode, much of low lying Egypt could find itself in the sea, as the sea slowly advances. The Nile is also bringing more salt to the fields of Egypt because of the increased evaporation which takes place in Lake Nasser. (135)
This evaporation also presents a severe problem. Over 2 meters of water evaporate from the surface of Lake Nasser every year. This is because or its location in the middle of the desert. For this reason many opposed the construction of a dam in that location. A similar dam in the highlands of Sudan or Ethiopia would lose much less water. However, if the dam were located elsewhere, Egypt would lose out on the hydroelectric power the dam provides (roughly one third of Egypt's electrical power comes from the dam).
In 1997, Egypt is to begin the construction of a new valley of the Nile, by creating a new, self-sustaining, river which would flow through the Western Desert. To do this they would cut a canal, called the New Valley Canal, which would connect a series of oases to one another. This would allow Egypt to settle a large number of people far from the Nile; something which has proven impossible up until now. Over 62 million people live on just 4% Egypt's land. This project would allow Egyptians to take advantage of the good soil quality which is prevalent throughout the country. However, the estimated cost of the project is 2 billion dollars, which Egypt does not have. However, the real problem remains that of where Egypt will find the water to fill the canal and to keep it flowing as it already its full allotment of the Nile's water (128)
By Tanzina Vega , REUTERS
BOSTON, July 18 (Reuters) - A newly found imprint of a vast, ancient underground lake in Sudan's Darfur could restore peace to the region by providing a potential water source to an area ravaged by drought, a U.S. geologist says.
"What most people don't really know is that the war, the instability, in Darfur is all based on the lack of water," said Farouk el-Baz, director of Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing.
The potential water deposits were found with radar that allowed researchers to see inside the depths of the desert sands. The images, el-Baz said, uncovered a "megalake" of 19,110 square miles (30,750 sq km) -- three times the size of Lebanon.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in four years of rape, killing and disease in Darfur, violence the United States calls genocide. Sudan rejects that term and puts the death toll at 9,000.
Widespread environmental problems are a root cause of Sudan's violence, the U.N. Development Programme said in a report last month, noting that deserts had spread southwards by an average of 62 miles (100 km) over the past four decades.
Many refugees from Darfur settled in regions that were once the domain of nomads, straining water resources and sowing conflict between farmers and nomads, said el-Baz.
"So now, if you find water for the farmers ... in addition to that for the nomads ... for agricultural production, to feed them, to give them grain, then you resolve the problem completely," he told Reuters in an interview.
His initiative, called 1,000 Wells for Darfur, has gained the support of the Egyptian government, which has pledged to start building an initial 20 wells.
El-Baz, who expects groundwater deposits below the surface can be drilled for water, hopes for backing from other regional governments and has urged non-governmental organizations to get involved.
"As we began to look into this, we realized we were dealing with a vast low area, a depression. And then we began to look at the details of the depression and we actually found the terraces, meaning the edges of the lake, way up on the nearby mountains," he said.
"That's why we call it a megalake, because it is an incredibly large lake. It is the size of the state of Massachusetts, or Lake Erie."
Researchers said the ancient lake would have contained about 607 cubic miles (2,530 cubic km) of water when full during past humid climate phases.
"One thing is certain, much of the lake's water would have seeped through the sandstone substrate to accumulate as groundwater," el-Baz said in a report.
El-Baz, who worked on NASA's Apollo program as a supervisor of lunar science planning, conducted similar research in Egypt that led to the construction of 500 wells in an arid region of his native country.
That project helped irrigate up to 150,000 acres (60,700 hectares) of farmland where wheat and other crops are grown.
Despite all these problems, however, the resources of this large and complex water system—containing ecosystems as diverse as equatorial Africa’s Lake Victoria and Egypt’s Mediterranean delta 3,500 km to the north—have enormous potential to address poverty.
The Challenge Program on Water and Food of CGIAR recognizes that efficient water use, environmental protection, poverty alleviation, and the promotion of peace and security are critical issues for the region. Directly or indirectly, the program’s scientific agenda reflect these overriding concerns.
Research priorities include:
· Enhancing rain fed agriculture in upper basin areas
· Identifying practical water saving technologies
· Improving human health
· Increasing river yield from swamps and through control of aquatic weeds in open water courses and lakes
· Promoting sustainable fisheries
· Improving hydropower potential
The trans boundary nature of the Nile Basin presents formidable obstacles to sustainable resource use and national economic development. Unilateral management and control of each country’s individual territory cannot, over the long term, benefit the region as a whole. Equitable and effective water allocation and environmental protection depend on institutionalized regional cooperation. The Challenge Program on Water and Food offers a multidisciplinary research framework for the design of trans boundary solutions to the Nile Basin’s many challenges. The program, led by Egypt’s National Water Research Center, is complementing ongoing activities and cooperating with national and other stakeholder organizations in the region. Results of this work will be particularly valuable in other regions where water sharing and basin management require joint action by several countries. (CGIAR challenge program on water and food)
The NWRC acts as the lead organization for the Water and Food in the Nile basin. The national institutions dealing with water resources in the ten riparian countries are potential stakeholders. The Permanent Technical Commission for Nile Waters, established between Egypt and Sudan in 1960, is a good example of a sub-regional stakeholder in the basin.
Through NWRC, a close collaboration with the ongoing process of cooperation or reform (e.g., Nile Basin Initiative, Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Project, Nile Basin Water Resources Projects, and Lake Victoria Environment Management Project) is maintained.
Updated August 1st, 2005
The National Water Research Centre (NWRC) of Egypt, was established 1975 by the Ministry of Water Resources Irrigation (MWRI). It is the organization responsible for research in the field of the water related issues. The organization chart of the NWRC is consisted of twelve research institutes. The NWRC through its different institutes is conducting researches in many water related fields such as irrigation, drainage, water distribution, hydraulics, river engineering, water resources planning and management, hydraulic structures and shore protection. The main objectives of the NWRC are to propose and study long-term water resources policies and solve the technical and applied problems associated with general policies for irrigation, drainage, and water resources. In addition, the NWRC is responsible for research activities conducted for the extension of agriculture land and utilizing water resources of the country in the most efficient and cost-effective way. On the regional scale, NWRC acts as the Coordination unit for the African Water Resources Network and is a member of the water resources networks in Europe and Middle East countries. (125)
PART THREE
JOINT PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT THROUGH FOREIGN AID
Although Egypt had become almost food independent, it became clear by the late 1970’s that a major food gap was developing. With aid from the United States and several European countries, programs of joint research were initiated. Thanks to a major expansion in research and extension activities, the food supply became much more dependable by the early 1990’s. However, it was recognized that the rapidly growing population and the fragile nature of agricultural systems required a continual series of extensive programs in research, marketing, food processing and resource efficiency.
EGYPT RECOGNIZES FOOD GAP PROBLEM
The Status of Agriculture in the Second Half of the Century
During the 1970s, despite substantial investment in land reclamation, agriculture lost its position as the dominant economic sector. Agricultural exports, which accounted for 87% of all merchandise export value in 1960, fell to 35% in 1974 and to 11% by 2001. In 2000, agriculture accounted for 17% of GDP and 34% of employment.
Cotton had been the staple crop, but it is no longer important as an export. Production in 1999 was 243,000 tons. Egypt is also a substantial producer of wheat, corn, sugarcane, fruit and vegetables, fodder, and rice; substantial quantities of wheat are also imported despite increases in yield since 1970, and significant quantities of rice are exported. Citrus, dates, and grapes are the principal fruits by acreage. Agricultural output in tons in 1999 included corn, 9,350,000; wheat, 6,347,000; rice, 5,816,000; potatoes, 1,900,000; and oranges, 1,525,000.
The government exercises a substantial degree of control over agriculture, not only to ensure the best use of irrigation water but also to limit the planting of cotton in favor of food grains. However, the government's ability to achieve this objective is limited by crop rotational constraints.
Egypt's arable area totals about 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres), about one-quarter of which is land reclaimed from the desert. However, the reclaimed lands only add 7% to the total value of agricultural production. Even though only 3% of the land is arable, it is extremely productive and can be cropped two or even three times per year. Most land is cropped at least twice a year, but agricultural productivity is limited by salinity, which afflicts an estimated 35% of cultivated land, and drainage problems.
Irrigation plays a major role in a country the very livelihood of which depends upon a single river. Most ambitious of all the irrigation projects is that of the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1971. A report published in March 1975 by the National Council for Production and Economic Affairs indicated that the dam had proved successful in controlling floodwaters and ensuring continuous water supplies, but that water consumption had been excessive and would have to be controlled. Some valuable land was lost below the dam because the flow of Nile silt was stopped, and increased salinity remains a problem. Further, five years of drought in the Ethiopian highlands—the source of the Nile River's water—caused the water level of Lake Nasser, the Aswan High Dam's reservoir, to drop to the lowest level ever in 1987. In 1996, however, the level of water behind the High Dam and in Lake Nasser reached the highest level since the completion of the dam. Despite this unusual abundance of water supply, Egypt can only utilize 55.5 billion cu m (1.96 trillion cu ft) annually, according to the Nile Basin Agreement signed in 1959 between Egypt and Sudan. Another spectacular project designed to address the water scarcity problem is the New Valley (the "second Nile"), aimed at development of the large artesian water supplies underlying the oases of the Western Desert.
The agrarian reform law of 1952 provided that no one might hold more than 190 feddans for farming and that each landholder must either farm the land himself or rent it under specified conditions. Up to 95 additional feddans might be held if the owner had children, and additional land had to be sold to the government. In 1961, the upper limit of landholding was reduced to 100 feddans, and no person was allowed to lease more than 50 feddans (1 feddan = 0.42 hectares). Compensation to the former owners was in bonds bearing a low rate of interest, redeemable within 40 years. A law enacted in 1969 reduced landholdings by one person to 50 feddans. By the mid-1980s, 90% of all land titles were for holdings of less than five feddans, and about 300,000 families, or 8% of the rural population, had received land under the agrarian reform program. According to a 1990 agricultural census, there were some three million small land holdings, almost 96% of which were under five feddans (2.1 hectares/5.2 acres). Since the late 1980s, many reforms attempting to deregulate agriculture by liberalizing input and output prices and by eliminating crop area controls have been initiated. As a result, the gap between world and domestic prices for Egyptian agricultural commodities has been closed. (98) (Agriculture in Egypt 1970 -1980(4)
To better understand the current policy environment in agriculture, it is helpful to consider briefly the evolution of government policies affecting agriculture over the past 40 years. These policies have had a major impact on the performance of the agricultural sector during this period.
Dr. Ahmed Goueli, Governor of Ismalailia, has provided an excellent summary of the changes occurring during this period in the paper entitled "Egyptian Agricultural Policy and Challenges for the 1990's. The following is information, in part, from his paper. (39)
The Land Reform Law of 1952 was the first major intervention of government into agriculture. The law imposed a ceiling on agricultural land ownership, with distribution of excess land to the landless. It also gave farm tenants rights of inheritance which, in effect, gave tenants quasi-ownership. Agricultural rent was established at a level seven times the tax rate on the land. Furthermore, the land subject to the law was organized into cooperatives known as "land reform cooperatives" and was administrated by village and district offices and a central agency. Many of these regulations and institutions are still in existence.
During this period, both domestic and foreign trade in cotton was nationalized and brought under control of the government. This system of agricultural cooperatives was expanded to include "new reform" land. The government program for land reclamation began in this phase with about 78,000 feddans being reclaimed. The Land Reclamation Policy was based on small-farmer ownership of the reclaimed land.
In this period, dramatic change in agricultural policy occurred, reaching the very ultimate in government intervention and control A policy of low agricultural prices was adopted to transfer the surplus of the agricultural sector to the urban and industrial sectors. Public agencies were contracted to run agricultural activities-from the farm gate to domestic consumption and exports. Land reclamation and cultivation of New Lands was organized around state farms. The Aswan high dam was constructed. With the additional water resources, a large land reclamation program was implemented, involving some 500,000 feddans.
The rate of growth in agricultural production was high, reaching almost 4% annually due to the transformation of basin irrigation land to permanent irrigation and the shifting of the growing season for maize and rice. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a stagnation of public investment in the economy, in general, and agriculture in particular.
After the Sixth of October War in 1973, Egypt adopted an open-door policy to attract foreign investment. In agriculture, slogans such as "food security and "green revolution" emerged. The private sector was allowed, in a very unorganized fashion, to reclaim desert land for agricultural use or speculation. With large amounts of workers remittance from foreign employment, urban encroachment on agricultural land expanded greatly.
The same price policies as in 1960's for agricultural commodities continued to prevail. Due to these policies and a low rate of government investment in the agricultural sector, the high growth rate in the agricultural sector which prevailed in the 1960's was not sustained.
The most important institutional change was the creation of a village based system which took over all the functions of the village credit cooperatives. There was also a huge expansion in "food security" loans to farmers at highly subsidized rates, which was responsible for a large expansion in the poultry industry. Poultry and livestock feeds were subsidized which further stimulated the expansion in the production of animal products.
The only positive change which occurred during this period" was the beginning of foreign aid in agricultural research and technology transfer, particularly by USAID.
Within two months after President Mubarak assumed the Presidency in 1981, he visited Washington, D.C. and asked U.S. President Reagan for assistance in efforts to revitalize the agricultural sector. A part of the U.S. response to this request was to send a high level "Presidential Mission on Agricultural Development" to Egypt in early 1982, comprised of experts in agricultural research, extension, administration, production, policy, irrigation, etc. to analyze the problems constraining the development of the agricultural sector and recommend actions to overcome these constraints and accelerate development. In earlier years, the food gap (the gap between domestic production and consumption) had widened significantly. (102)
The 1982 U.S. Presidential Mission on Agricultural Development in Egypt (PMADE) focused major attention on the rapidly widening food gap in Egypt, especially the spread between the amounts of food produced and consumed. This gap was increasing at an alarming rate, and PMADE recommended a number of specific actions to deal with the problem. In 1960, for example, Egypt had been almost self-sufficient in wheat production. By 1980, the country was importing about three-fourths of its wheat needs. This alarming gap due, in part, to a stagnant agriculture in the 1970's and early 1980's, resulted in increased attention being devoted to agriculture.
Recommendations were made for significant policy reforms that would have an impact on the problem by (1) making conditions more favorable for enhanced food production and, (2) slowing down the rate of gain in food demand. It was pointed out that cheap food, made possible by extensive government subsidies, was, in part, responsible for increasing per capita utilization by contributing to excessive waste. For example, farmers often found it desirable to buy cheap, heavily subsidized bread and feed it to the chickens and livestock. Moreover, some farmers were feeding their own government controlled and under priced wheat to livestock and buying subsidized bread for their own consumption. Both actions were resulting in increasing demand for imported wheat.
Furthermore, PMADE recognized the need for the establishment of effective programs of family planning to reduce the rate of population growth-as a primary means of reducing the rapid rate of increase in demand for food. PMADE also emphasized a number of actions needed to increase food production-above and beyond recommended policy changes. Major emphasis was placed upon the need for strengthened research and extension programs aimed at increasing agricultural output.
In its report entitled "Strategies for Accelerating Agricultural Development" (102), PMADE addressed many policy issues. For example, the report emphasized that government policies were acting to seriously constrain the growth of Egypt's agricultural sector and recommended that the GOE "Permit agricultural output and input prices to move toward world price levels." The report emphasized that "correcting distortions in relative prices received and paid by farmers is central to using resources in the agricultural sector more efficiently and reducing Egypt’s growing dependence on imported food."
Many of the government policies and other factors constraining agricultural development were recognized in an excellent report by Dr. Youssef Wally and associates, entitled "Strategies for Agricultural Development in the 1980's for the Arab Republic of Egypt," . This document, published in June 1983, proposed various strategies for addressing these constraints. In fact, when the Presidential Mission's report was presented to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Wally, he indicated that he was firmly committed to modifying a wide range of government policies constraining agricultural development but that these changes would have to be in a gradual, stepwise fashion.
Another related policy problem highlighted in the Presidential Mission's report was the heavily subsidized bread prices. In 1980, a loaf of "balady" bread sold for one piaster-a price that had not been increased in many years, despite high inflation rates. In real terms, prices paid by consumers for bread declined significantly from 1965-1987 causing the bread subsidy costs to approach $1 billion, representing more than half the total food subsidy in some years. Even with the low fixed prices paid to the farmer for wheat, the government was still spending enormous sums to subsidize the cost of bread. This situation was contributing to the government's efforts to keep the prices paid to the farmer for wheat low.
In 1982, Dr. Wally (98) was appointed Minister of Agriculture (MOA) a few weeks before the Presidential Mission arrived. He worked very closely with the Mission and began immediately to take steps to address the problems identified by the Mission. In late 1982, the price of bread was increased 100% to 2 piasters and the size of the loaf was simultaneously reduced almost 8%. There was another slight reduction in loaf size in 1986. Then in 1989 the price of balady bread was raised to 5 piasters and the size of the loaf was reduced another 18 %. Better quality breads are priced at even higher levels. These adjustments resulted in significant reductions in GOE expenditure for bread subsidies and made it easier to raise prices paid to farmers for wheat.
Additional major economic policy reforms were needed to address problems that were limiting the development of the agriculture sector. In 1986 additional reforms were announced that included the following actions:
· Government controls on commodity prices received by farmers and procurement quotas on all crops except cotton and sugar cane were removed.
· Farm gate prices of sugar cane and cotton were increased.
· Farm input subsidies were removed
· Government constraints on private sector importing, exporting, and distribution of farm inputs were removed, allowing the private sector to compete with the Principal Bank for Development and Credit. (PSDAC).
· Government constraints were removed to allow the private sector to import and export agricultural crops.
· The role of the PSDAC was gradually limited to that of providing financial services.
· Limitations on state ownership of land were imposed and the sale of new lands to the private sector was facilitated
· The role of the MOA was proposed to be limited to agricultural research, extension and legislative policies along with a program to facilitate the development and implementation of economic policies.
· Adjustments were made in the land tenancy system.
· Interest rates were adjusted to reflect commercial rates.
· Foreign exchange rates were adjusted to reflect the real value of local currency.
In summary, the economic reform program initiated by the Minister of Agriculture had as its objectives:
· removing all restrictions and distortions from the agricultural sector;
· encouraging the private sector; improving agricultural terms of trade;
· encouraging farmers to use modern technology;
· increasing cultivatable areas, productivity and farm income;
· improving the standard of living for farmers while providing food for citizens at reasonable prices;
· and increasing exports and raising the share of the agricultural sector in the social and economic development of the country. (From paper supplied by Dr. Saad Nassar-77.)
This very strong process of liberalization and privatization began under Minister Wally's leadership in the early 1980's, resulted in the fact that, agriculture became the most privatized sector in the Egyptian economy. In fact, 97% of agricultural lands were held by the private sector. The impact of these reforms had immediate impacts on agriculture in the following areas:
· Interest rates rose from a subsidized level of 6% to a market rate of some 20% (now around 12%).
· There is now active participation of the private sector in trade and distribution of agricultural imports, especially fertilizer.
· State managed production enterprises have been transferred to a system of holding companies while they await privatization.
· State marketing systems have been privatized for all crops except cotton.
· The amount and scope of agricultural subsidies have been limited.
As a result, by the end of the 1980's, productivity of major crops, including wheat, maize, rice, fruits, and vegetables had increased substantially over the levels of the 1970's.
In addition to policy changes, there were also major improvements in the development and application of improved agricultural technology through cooperative research programs funded by USAID. One of the earliest of these was the California project and another was the Farmer to Farmer program.
The ‘California Project’ (120) was formally entitled Agricultural Development Systems (ADS). It was known as the California Project because it was managed by the University of California, Davis. Its objective was to introduce new fruit and vegetable cultivars to improve stock and to provide material for varietal development by the Agricultural Research center. The program had two components: Agricultural Economics and Horticultural Research.
While the project did not introduce any new crops, it was successful in introducing new varieties of open field tomatoes, grapes, and strawberries. It also made significant scientific advances in rice seed multiplication by small farmers, plant pathology, plant virology, and nematology.
Tomatoes were notably successful. The variety known as UC Tomato led to dramatic increases in yields. Egypt is still growing high yield tomatoes, based on the UC varieties as well as others from Israel, introduced under the trilateral research activity, funded by USAID.
Unable to work on citrus directly because of USG regulations, they nevertheless assisted this sub sector by working on soil and water management. At the time of the California Project, the Egyptian fruit and vegetable industry was not quality- or cost conscious. By convincing Egyptians that they could grow competitive varieties, the project laid the foundation for later generations of projects, including current projects such as Agricultural Technology Utilization and Transfer (ATUT). The California Project also worked closely with the GOE on policies required to increase horticultural competitiveness. It thus paved the way for the consensus-building mechanisms and approaches that have led to the reforms proposed and supported by Agricultural Policy Reform Program (APRP).
The objective of the Farmer-to-Farmer Program (3) was to increase private sector agricultural investment, productivity and income. The program used US volunteer technical assistance, US and local participant training, and outreach activities to provide Egyptian farmers and MALR extension agents with improved farming technologies and farm management techniques. It was a major influence in encouraging a true extension program to link the farmer with new technologies.
The Farmer-to-Farmer program built on the legacy of an earlier program, the Small Farmer Production Project (SFPP). Implemented in the 1980s, it provided technology transfer with credit packages to increase rural incomes and productivity.
The program, carried out by a group known as the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA). It operated in 16 of Egypt’s governorates and worked with a core group of 600 farmers and reportedly reached more than 12,000 other farmers indirectly. It was also the largest program working with graduates in the new lands. The program’s person-to-person approach and multiple interventions helped farmers to increase yields, decrease costs, and improve the quality of their produce. One of the main successes of the project was that it strengthened the incentive among farmers to share successful experiences and led to the establishment of at least three farmer associations. The current AgLink project in the livestock sector (also implemented by ACDI / VOCA)(3)was later to build on the successful methodology of Farmer-to-Farmer.
It was easy to recognize that a continuing flow of improved agricultural technology would be essential for the agricultural sector to take full advantage of these significant policy reforms. This recognition resulted in the continuation of cooperative research and development with financial assistance from USAID and the initiation of a new cooperative project called the National Agricultural Research Program (NARP). It will be discussed in detail in the following chapter.
NARP, which operated from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s, represents the largest agricultural research development project ever undertaken by USAID in Egypt, and perhaps the largest of any in the developing world. The $205 million undertaking was directed at improving Egypt‘s adaptation and use of modern technology to strengthen agricultural production. (90)
In 1986, the project‘s goal was to improve the capacity for state-of-the- art agricultural research in Egypt. The accomplishments of the project over its eight year life span include:
· capacity building, human resources development, seed policy, agricultural engineering,
· research system improvement, research management and administration, as well as
· improving the capability of the agricultural research and technology transfer system,
· including ARC, Universities and National Research Center (NRC).
Among NARP’s principal accomplishments was human resource development in agricultural research. More than 6,000 Ph.D., M.Sc. and B.Sc. holders participated in research under NARP. In addition, 90 students obtained their Ph.D. degrees from US universities, 20 obtained their M.Sc. degrees, and 2,150 traveled to US universities for post-doctoral training and exchange visits. This cadre of agricultural scientists is now serving in leadership positions in public and private sector institutions in the agricultural sector.
The NARP project also had an Agricultural Policy Analysis Component (APAC). Its principal objective was to provide technical assistance to strengthen the planning, policy analysis and monitoring capabilities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources. This was the analytical tool used to help develop benchmarks for the policy reform component under APCP. It therefore was one of the predecessors of later programs such as APRP. It also built the foundation for later programs such as Agricultural Data Collection and Analysis (ADCA).
The NARP legacy provided a basis for a number of future USAID programs in agriculture. The best illustrations of NARP’s achievements are that Egypt’s agricultural research capability was enhanced, and that resulted in high yields of most crops, and the narrowing the food gap, despite the continuous increases in population.
During the 10 years of the NARP program, the institutes of the Agricultural Research Center expanded their research programs through the support of the Egyptian government, resources from European governments and the financial, educational and facility support of USAID. Many of the institutes sent members to the United States for training and scientists from the US participated in joint research programs. This interaction enabled each institute to accomplish the goals needed to improve the productivity of Egypt’s agriculture.
The following summaries of the accomplishments of several institutes was a joint effort by the offices of Dr. Wally, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Gomaa, Director General of the Agricultural Research Center and the Dr. El-Beltagy,Chairman of the Board of the Agricultural Research Center and the NARP program.
Virus diseases affect numerous crops and cause huge or even total loses. By using advanced molecular techniques such as the Elisa immuno assay and the Octerlony technique, detection of several very serious diseases including Barley Yellow Dwarf , Faba Bean Necrotic Yellow Virus and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus have been made possible cooperation between the PPRI and the CRI has lead to the development of cotton varieties with resistance to cotton wilt with the result that there were no serious outbreaks of wilt during this 10 year period.
· to reduce the dependency on pesticides through the production of transgenic cotton;
· produce transgenic potato plants resistant to potato virus and potato leaf roll virus;
· enhance nutritional quality of faba beans by adding the methionine gene;
· cloning the genes in tomato related to stress-tolerance and disease resistance;
· develop an efficient regeneration and transformation system in maize to develop resistance to corn borer insects;
· map the genome of rapeseed to develop varieties suitable to Egyptian conditions;
· develop efficient diagnostic tools for the identification of major virus diseases of crops in Egypt.
Soil survey and studies: From 1983 to 1986, a major project on land resources resulted in revising earlier studies on soil on both banks of the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt, the Eastern Delta and the Suez to update soil maps.
Plant nutrition and soil fertility: SWRI surveyed the fertility of 4 million feddans and recommended supplementing rice nurseries with zinc sulfate. This resulted in a 20-25 % increase in rice yield.
The Agricultural Microbiology department inoculated 90% of the soybean,40% of the peanut, 30% of the lentil and 25% of the bean acreage with Rhizobia specific for each legume.
Because of the problems of soil and ground water pollution with nitrates and heavy metals, the institute established a network of more than 4000 observation wells. Limited water supplies of water have lead to the reuse of drainage water and the suitability of ground water was evaluated. Water consumption of field and horticultural crops was determined. The number of irrigation cycles for major field crops and the feasibility of reducing water use were evaluated.
Animal Reproduction Research Institute research has improved the reproductivity in cattle, buffalo and sheep. Gonadatrophins were extracted from buffalo pituitaries for diagnosis and control of ovulation in livestock. A mass survey of reproductive diseases was conducted throughout Egypt. As a result brucella infection has dropped from 3% to 0.25% and camplyobacteriosis from 5.3% to 0.3%. Trichmonas fetus has been eradicated. Brucellosis was recognized as being the most devastating problem. The strict test and slaughter program being followed has caused a drop in the disease to about 2% in Cattle and 0.9% in buffalo. In addition the test used has been improved through the use of the ELISA system of testing. Diagnosis and control of newborn calf diseases revealed that 10 to 15% of newborn calves die during the first two weeks of age due to diarrhea, respiratory infections and mismanagement. Treatment with specific and non-specific immune stimulants and the isolation and identification of bacterial and viral agents causing enteritis and pneumonia using ELISA have been effective in reducing loss. Fundamental research on the freezability of buffalo semen with the result that the conception rate increased by 60%. Similarly in sheep the use of improved artificial insemination has improved wool and mutton production and the conception has improved from 56 % to 77%.
Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI) was designated as the national institution responsible for the preservation of animal resources in Egypt. AHRI worked to fulfill its role through its diagnostic research efforts and by providing services to the community. AHRI is responsible for recommending treatment and preventive measures to inhibit the spread of diseases, Not only are its efforts vital for the preservation of animal resources, but also for the protection of human health. To meet these goals, AHRI is actively involved in overseeing various aspects of animal health in Egypt.
With an overwhelming array of viral and bacterial strains of enzootic and exotic animal diseases, and a supply of animal stock that is often limiting, AHRI is constantly concerned with updating its diagnostic techniques and improving its recommended control methods. Although the ELISA technique was introduced into the institute nearly a decade ago, it still carries promising potential for more widespread applications including, but not limited to, the identification of pathogenic bacteria. For enhancing diagnosis, the prospects hold plans for more efficient utilization of such equipment as the fluorescent and electron microscopes and cell culture techniques.
Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR) In its short history, CLAR has performed extensive research in a wide variety of subjects. One area of major concern for aquaculture in Egypt is the supply of water. In an effort to conserve water from the River Nile, CLAR studied the use of ground water in fish culture systems. With ground water being used more extensively, water quality becomes a critical issue. The development of fish culture systems requires a full accounting of water quality, especially of heavy metals, which are produced by rain water percolating through the Earth's crust. In one study, high concentrations of iron were detected in the water drawn from a depth of 100 meters . High levels of iron destroy the liver cells and gills and decrease the growth rate of common carp and Clarias lazera. Treating the underground water using KMnO 4 lowered the iron content to a permissible level and restored water quality.
Also in the area of water use, different management systems were compared, such as multiple harvesting against traditional methods. The effect of fresh water and drainage water on pond productivity was investigated in a comparative study.
Several studies on reproductive physiology shortened the interval between pituitary extract doses and showed that pituitary gland extraction is superior to using injections of gonadotrophin and steroid hormones. The effect of stocking rates on growth performance, production and carcass traits of mullet in polyculture systems has been evaluated; however, mullet culture is still based entirely on natural spawning. This results in insufficient numbers of fish for stocking the ponds. Efforts are under way to spawn mullet artificially and thus improve stocking rates.
Other polyculture systems under study include fish-rice and fish-duck systems. The best techniques for duck production are being evaluated. Researchers already know that in a fish-duck system, efficient use is made of total biological production in a pond, and total protein production can be doubled.
Tilapia is considered one of the most desirable fish for aquaculture because of the good price its high quality meat commands. However, because Egypt has a semiarid climate and tilapia is a tropical fish, special measures must be taken to ensure success. Since most tilapia do not eat or grow at temperatures below 15oC and will not spawn at temperatures below 20°C, they must be over wintered indoors.
CLAR has devised a low cost over wintering system suitable for Egyptian conditions. In addition, enhancing the growth of Nile tilapia through the use of the dietary steroid hormone “17-methytestosteronell” has been studied.
With respect to nutrition, a number of topics have been investigated. These include the effect of natural food and artificial feeding on growth performance of mullet, winter feeding regimes of Nile tilapia, physical and nutritional modifications for improving the commonly used cattle feed in fish farms, and the effect of dietary levels of protein on the growth and reproduction of Nile tilapia.
In the area of genetics of salinity resistance, different species of Tilapia and mullet collected from varied locations were used to investigate differences in gene expression. The use of electrophoresis techniques to analyze the data indicated that salinity locations influenced gene expression among species.
The rapidly growing demand for fish cannot be met by a reliance on traditional fisheries and existing fish farms. Therefore, CLAR is actively engaged in extension programs designed to increase the acceptance of aquaculture, thus providing employment opportunities and increasing the supply offish.
Since its inception in 1987, the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Expert Systems (CLAES) has established itself at the forefront of agricultural expert systems applications in the developing world. CLAES occupies a unique position for conducting original research on the use of expert systems in agriculture. The laboratory achieved early success in adapting pre-built expert system shells to local conditions. In addition, original expert system programs were created at CLAES for the cultivation of cucumbers under plastic tunnels. These locally designed programs are a great source of pride for the scientists and staff of CLAES.
Studies have shown that expert systems help improve the performance of extension agents, the vital link between research activities' and the field. The expert systems training courses provided by CLAES increase the knowledge base of extension agents and speed the introduction of new technologies and agronomic practices. Expert systems already in place are helping farmers prepare land for cultivation, establish water and fertilizer regimens and identify and treat 45 cucumber and 50 citrus disorders.
In early 1994, USAID Egypt requested that Tropical Research and Development, Inc., of Gainesville, Florida, organized an assessment team of U.S. specialists to evaluate the performance and impact of the Egyptian National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) and recommend the nature of future USAID support. The following paragraphs are a summary of the evaluation team’s report. The full report is available through USAID Egypt (Cairo), the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reform, Cairo, Egypt, and Tropical Research and Development, Gainesville, Florida, USA. (York, E.T.--105, 119)
"Egypt is in the midst of a dynamic agricultural transformation, highlighted by unprecedented yield gains and production of its major crops. For a country that has limited arable lands and water supplies and that already enjoys high crop yields, this is a tremendous accomplishment. This progress has resulted, primarily, from effective research programs and significant policy reform during the past 10- to 15-year period.
The case for research in Egypt is easy to make. Limited land, limited water, rapidly growing population, food needs outstripping production—these require continuing intensification of production on a limited natural resource base. Such intensification requires increasingly higher yields, greater input efficiencies, reduced negative environmental effects, a greater knowledge base, and superior management. But this picture, while daunting, is not all bleak, for the Egyptian farmer is one of the best in the world. Egyptian farmers know much about the land and the soil and water to be managed; they also possess an abundance of knowledge and experience concerning the art and craft of farming.
While the Egyptian farmer is exceptional in skills and acumen, to continue to be successful, each farmer also needs a continuous flow of new technologies. Only a productive, problem-solving research system can fulfill that need. We are convinced that Egypt is building an effective research system to help solve its agricultural and natural resource management problems, and that such a research system is essential to Egypt’s future. The National Agricultural Research Project and its predecessor projects have played a key role in the changes and improvements that have taken place, and the work that the project has begun or stimulated will become even more valuable in the future. What is important now is to build on the base that has been established in order to ensure that Egyptian agricultural science can be vibrant and innovative in solving the great problems faced.
Yield growth in major Egyptian crops can only be described as phenomenal over the past decade. Productivity gains for many crops have been exceptionally great since the early 1980s. Moreover, since 1981 Egypt’s agricultural performance far exceeds the average for the rest of the world in rate of gain in the indices of total agricultural production, agricultural production per capita, total food production, and food production per capita. It should be noted, as well, that with 31 of 32 major crops Egypt exceeded world average yields. With two crops, Egyptian yields were the highest in the world. For several other crops, Egypt ranked second or third in the world in average yield.
In the performance of animal-based agriculture, Egypt has not done as well as with crops-except, perhaps, with poultry. For example, Egypt’s production of milk per cow equals only one-third of the world average."
"There have been very significant advances made in Egyptian agriculture since 1985 during the period of the NARP’s existence. It cannot be said, however, that the National Agricultural Research Project, by any means, was totally responsible for such improvements. We believe these improvements can be attributed to three major factors (not in any priority order):
1. The major policy reforms implemented during the past 12 years under the dedicated and enlightened leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Wally (98). Many of these reforms have removed significant disincentives that were holding back agricultural development, providing a policy atmosphere that is much more supportive of such development.
2. The improvement in agricultural research programs made possible, in part, by the USAID-sponsored projects in the late 1970s to mid-1980s. These projects helped to provide the technology and demonstrated the capacity to increase agricultural output significantly. We would note that this significant progress would likely not have been realized in the absence of either the policy reforms or the improved research programs. Each was, in some respects, dependent on the other for its full impact to be realized.
3. Contributions by NARP, building on the foundation established by the earlier USAID-supported research projects, including a major policy project. The NARP has not only built on that foundation but also has supported other research areas not covered by the earlier projects. The results of these efforts will likely be felt primarily in later years.
NARP has also supported extension and technology transfer activities that are vital to help the farmers apply the technologies generated through research. These programs are beginning to contribute to more rapid adoption of new technologies and the further strengthening of the agricultural sector.
Improvements in the seed industry in recent years-also a major objective of NARP-are beginning to contribute to the improvement of the agricultural sector.
The New Initiatives component of the NARP has provided an excellent vehicle to address emerging problems or opportunities that could not be anticipated when the project was originally designed. The benefits of most of these efforts will be realized after the National Agricultural Research Project has been completed.
With 21 major crops there was a modest increase in the crop production index from 1980 to 1983 (l percent annual increase)--but a substantially higher rate of 36 percent from 1983 to 1990, reflecting a 4.5 percent annual growth rate. These data indicate that improvements in crop production have not been limited to cereals only but significant improvement have been made in a broad spectrum of other crops as well. Such advances with the 21 crops are even more dramatic when changes in the current or nominal value of these crops during this period are examined. These data indicate a growth rate in nominal values of these crops of some 19 percent annually since 1980-with growth much more rapid since 1984.
Such improvement in value reflects not only greater production but also significant improvements in prices of the commodities resulting from the major policy changes of the 1980s and early 1990s.
These rapid gains in current value since 1980 reflect inflationary price increases as well. However, there were also significant improvements in the real value of this production. In fact, in the period from 1980 to 1990 the real crop production value increased 89 percent with an annual growth rate of 6.6 percent. Such improvement in the real value of such improvements in production, we believe, has been reflected in significant advances in income to the farmer. Perhaps the significance of these improvements is best reflected in the fact that wheat production increased more in Egypt since 1987 than in all of Egypt’s history prior to that date.
But the greatest impact of the NARP, we believe, is yet to come. The National Agricultural Library is yet to be equipped and stocked. Laboratory equipment, vehicles, and many other commodities are ordered and are yet to arrive. Buildings and laboratories are still being renovated, and improvements continue to be made in upgrading the land and other infrastructure at the research centers.
Important improvements are being made through the technology transfer program in upgrading facilities for extension workers. At some nine locations, management information systems for use by extension are being installed through the technology transfer component.
Four regional research and extension councils have just been formed for the major regions of Egypt. When fully activated they should serve a very useful function in helping to coordinate more effectively the total research effort of the country and in focusing attention on continuing needs for research and extension as new problems emerge.
The extensive training program, which is still in progress, should continue to pay dividends for many years to come. Significant improvements have been made in the seed industry, which should contribute to further improvements in the agricultural sector.
Measuring capacity for effective research is very difficult and, at least, somewhat subjective. However, we have identified several indicators that we believe are important in assessing the development and effectiveness of a national agricultural research system. There is strong and unmistakable evidence that NARP is greatly enhancing Egypt’s capacity to do excellent agricultural research. All of the capacity-building indicators discussed in our report point strongly to an enhancement which should contribute to Egyptian agriculture well into the twenty-first century."
"In the report of the U.S. Presidential Mission on Agricultural Development in 1982, major attention was devoted to the "food gap" in Egypt. The gap had been increasing since 1960 when Egypt was essentially self-sufficient in food. Food production increased at a steady but slow’ pace from 1960 to 1980. However, utilization of the 10 primary food products-wheat (and flour), maize, groundnuts, lentils, sugar, cooking oil, red meat, white meat, dairy products, and fish-was increasing at a much faster rate than production, especially from 1974 to 1980. If nothing had been done to modify these two trend lines, the food gap would have grown from approximately one million tons in 1960 to nine million tons in 1980 and 26 million tons in 2000 (figure 1 [in the full report, figure 5.5]).
From 1980 to 1992, however, there was a sharp increase in production, primarily since 1985, with a distinct slowing down in the rate of increase in food utilization. These changes in the slopes of the two curves since 1980, when projected to the year 2000, show a potential food gap in 2000 of some 4.5 million tons. This gap is about 17 percent of the projected gap that would have occurred in 2000 based on extrapolations of the trends in 1980 (fig 2)
Most of this narrowing of the gap has resulted from the sharp upturn in production since 1985. It is obvious, however, that the rate of utilization is beginning to slow down as well.
These changes were also reflected in wheat imports, which reached a maximum level of around 7.4 million tons in 1987 and dropped to around 5.3 million tons by 1993.
Data indicate that little progress has been made since 1980 in improving the self-sufficiency level in vegetable oil, fish, and red meat. This would suggest that there is significant need to produce more of these products for domestic consumption.
There is considerable evidence that technology is available to facilitate significantly higher crop yields than are currently realized. Despite this, perhaps Egypt should never be expected to fully close the food gap or to become totally self-sufficient. It would be desirable, however, for Egypt to become self-reliant or economically self-sufficient in food production. This would entail exporting sufficient products from agriculture to cover the costs of importing the agricultural commodities that were not produced domestically.
There would appear to be excellent opportunities for such exports, especially of higher valued horticultural products. Several factors make this feasible: the nearness to large markets in Europe and the Gulf States; the ability to supply these markets during winter months when needs in Europe, especially, are greatest; unusually favorable weather conditions, including an almost totally frost-free climate; the ability to control water supplies; the absence of major, damaging storms, etc. In fact, Egypt has been likened to a large greenhouse in which environmental conditions, can, in large measure, be controlled.
Egypt has thus far developed only a modest export market for horticultural crops, and these markets are not stable. They fluctuate greatly from one year to the next. If Egyptian farmers are producing enough to supply the high levels of demand in some years, they are undoubtedly producing too much in other years when exports are significantly lower. We saw evidence of this in Ismailia in talking with several growers who said they had great difficulty some years in selling their strawberries and other crops for export.
Obviously, to be truly competitive in export markets, any country must consistently have available a high-quality product. This requires the development of a good system of grades and standards, handling procedures which do not damage the product needlessly, refrigeration facilities for storage and transportation, etc. To date, Egypt has done little in these areas. There is urgent need to take advantage of what would appear to be excellent opportunities in this area.
With the move towards privatization of agricultural operations, there is also a great need to develop effective storage and marketing procedures for commodities to meet domestic market needs. Officials point out that at harvest time, farmers flood the market with their product because they have no storage facilities and they need income as soon as possible. With farmers all over the country doing this at about the same time, prices drop precipitously. However, prices quickly come back up once the glut is gone.
We strongly recommend that steps be taken to improve and further develop both domestic and export markets for agricultural commodities to take better advantage of excellent production capacities."
NARP has received rather severe criticism from some sources, including a critical audit by the Regional Inspector General Cairo. This audit resulted in a prominent U.S. senator in 1989 criticizing the project and expressing serious concern about the effort. This episode, and perhaps other incidents, caused USAID Washington and USAID Egypt to focus much attention on NARP, leading to serious questioning of whether the project should even be continued. There was, in fact, a major reduction in AID funding and a total cancellation of important parts of NARP and a reduction of its budget
We were told by a senior USAID official that "many USAID and Government of Egypt actions, reactions, and responses that hindered the project can be traced back to the early negative history." There were also changes in leadership on both sides of the project (three USAID Mission directors, for example) as well as "changes in direction as natural responses to different leadership management styles and visions."
The assessment team feels that the problems and delays were apparently contributed to by both sides, and the burden of responsibility for these problems and delays does not reside with one party alone; both must share some of the burden. Frankly our team has had difficulty understanding why USAID’s commitments were drastically cut in the first place, given NARP’s obvious successes.
While there have continued to be implementation delays and other less serious administrative difficulties, which are undoubtedly irritating and frustrating to both parties, we believe minor difficulties should not be the source of undue concern and must be weighed against the overall outstanding accomplishments of the project. "
"We are fully in accord with the Government of Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture’s major strategic goals for the agricultural sector, namely, to optimize crop returns per unit of land and water, to enhance sustainability of resource patterns and protection of the environment, to bridge the food gap and achieve self-reliance in agriculture, and to expand foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports.
During the assessment team’s visit to Egypt, we were asked a very pertinent question by a USAID official: "If Egypt is making all these advances in agricultural production, why is there need to continue support for further research-related activities in agriculture. Isn’t this task now done so that we can move on to address other needs?" The simple answer to that question is that research to improve efficiency and productivity in agriculture is never done-never finished. As long as there are more human mouths to feed, there is continuing need for such research.
In fact, a significant amount of such research would be needed merely to accommodate the food needs of a stable human population. But neither Egyptian nor global population is stable. In fact, over 90 million additional people are added to the world’s population annually, and Egypt’s rate of population growth of some 2.3-2.5 percent is above the world average of 1.6 to 1.8 percent.
Such constantly growing need resulting from population growth demands increasing levels of research-especially in situations like those found in Egypt where yield levels are already high. When a country reaches a very high level on the crop yield curve, as Egypt has, each additional increment of production may become more difficult to achieve.
But Egypt, because of its very limited arable land and water resources, is probably more dependent on research to expand food production that any other country in the world. Moreover, the primary beneficiary of such research is the consumer, who is served by having not only an adequate supply of food, but also higher quality and less expensive food as well. Therefore, the need for a high-quality, productive agricultural research program is vital to a sound economy and a stable political future. While much has been achieved through past support of agricultural research, much more effort is needed.
USAID projects have contributed immensely to improving the productivity of Egyptian agriculture for some fifteen years through their support of research, policy reform and other programs. NARP, we believe, has been a vital part of that effort for the past eight to nine years. However, because of the significant delays in the implementation of the project, along with major reductions in the amount of USAID financial commitments, there is still much to be done."
· Expand research collaboration both internationally and domestically;
· Research on New Lands;
· Research activities for maintaining a sustainable agriculture;
· Breeding to reduce need for pesticides;
· Development of cultivars more tolerant to environmental stresses;
· Research aimed at producing more per unit of land and water;
· Public policy and data analysis;
· Market research and development-for both export and domestic markets;
· Further improve research infrastructure;
· Build on the experience of the Technology Transfer Component and continue
· the improvement of extension;
· Restore cotton ginning capabilities for breeding work;
· Greater emphasis on research dealing with food animals;
· Greater effort on improvement of vegetable oil production;
· Continued support in genetic engineering and other areas of modem biotechnology research;
· Further development of the "Expert Systems" Program to be used by both
· extension and the private sector in technology transfer;
· Continued emphasis on human resource development;
· Consolidate and emphasize on-farm water management;
· Research to address long-term strategic goals
The team firmly believes that while great progress has been made over the past fifteen years or so through USAID assistance, there is continuing need to develop strong and sustainable capacity to accommodate further support for agricultural research and related efforts. This is especially true until there can be developed means for assuring adequate financial support from local sources—Government of Egypt and otherwise.
At some point USAID support will likely be greatly reduced or cease. Hopefully that will not occur until a much strengthened research capacity is developed and until there is better assurance that there is adequate support to maintain the capacity of such enhanced programs.
The national research effort in agriculture will likely be primarily dependent on future Government of Egypt funding. We firmly believe that agricultural research and related efforts should receive higher priority in such funding. Given past experience, however, there is little assurance that this will be adequate to maintain a vigorous research program. Therefore, we suggest two possible approaches through which funds could be generated to complement Government of Egypt funding.
We recommend that consideration be given to the development of programs to generate research funds through fanner assessments or contributions. For example, a possible approach could be one in which each ton of fertilizer or feed purchased and/or each ton of product a farmer sells is assessed a very small percentage of the value, with the funds so generated being put into a special fund-to be used only for supporting research-related activities. The amount of the assessment would likely be no greater than one-tenth of one percent per ton-although different rates could be established for different items.
A "Piasters-for-Pounds program or something similar could be effective, with farmers realizing that they are investing very modestly in programs that will pay them great dividends in terms of enhanced incomes resulting from the application of research results.
In addition to direct funding for current programs, we recommend that while the United States is committing large sums of money to Egypt, consideration be given to using some of these funds to establish an endowment, the proceeds from which could be used to provide continuing support for research-related activities.
Funds put into the endowment could either be in the form of U.S. dollars from ESF commitments or from local currency generated through PL 480, PL 416, or other U.S. programs. Funds from these sources could be put into a "special," nongovernmental foundation annually for several years through which an endowment could build up sufficiently to help assure that the progress made through current U.S. assistance could be sustained. The foundation into which such funds would be placed could be governed by a joint Egyptian-U.S. board, if desirable.
The U.S. government provides at least $815 million annually to Government of Egypt in economic support funding as the result of a program that grew out of the Camp David Accord in the late 1970s. It was primarily these funds that were used to support the research programs discussed in this report. The continuing question is "how can these funds be used most effectively?"
A very strong case can be developed for putting significant amounts of these funds into the agricultural sector. Agriculture continues to be one of the three most important segments of the economy. Over half the Egyptian people are engaged in farming or agriculturally related business/industry. Moreover, the agriculture sector has already enacted more reforms and has moved farther toward privatization than any other sector and is therefore better positioned to use U.S. assistance more productively than any other sector.
We believe that high priority should be given by the United States to supporting the agricultural sector. We further believe that, at this juncture, support for functions and needs we have addressed herein should receive highest priority in terms of future U.S. support."
The Assessment Team: Donald L. Plucknett. James Ross, Harold Youngberg, and B.T. York. Jr., team leader E.T. York. Jr.(105)
CHAPTER 7
POST NARP PROJECTS
Strengthening agricultural development is a critical element of economic development. USAID’s strategy in Egypt aims at increasing the competitiveness of the agriculture sector by investing in systems that will support the production of goods that contribute to increased market share in both domestic and international markets. USAID/Egypt works with numerous participants in agricultural development in Egypt with the following goals:
· to promote policies that support the ability of farmers and other rural producers to improve their production;
· to provide sound legal framework within which businesses can operate;
· to integrate small and medium farmers into the export sector;
· to enable scientific development of new and more productive varieties;
· to improve agribusiness responsible for processing products and assuring timely flow of agriculture inputs to develop new and profitable markets; and
· to provide schools and universities that prepare students for the skills needed in real life.
One of the recommendations of the NARP review committee was to develop activities in market research and development for both export and domestic markets. In recent years, the demand for processed foods in major markets has increased the demand for convenience foods. Egyptian processed foods have been far from a major beneficiary of this trend; processed foods make up a tiny proportion of Egypt’s exports. ALEB was designed to provide technical assistance and support to Egyptian food processing companies, ancillary service firms, and trade associations. (8,14, 15, 33, 64)
Its objective was to enhance global competitiveness and increase exports of processed foods in the following ways:
· by collecting, analyzing and disseminating market information;
· integrating new food processing technologies;
· improving adherence to international food quality and safety standards;
· enhancing marketing in line with consumer business skills;
· strengthening associations;
· and forming strategic alliances
Industry and manufacturing is one of the key sectors to the Egyptian economy. In the last decade, manufacturing was transformed by the privatization of state-owned enterprises and reforms that encourage the private sector. USAID Egypt worked hand in hand with the Egyptian government to help clusters of specific industries improve their opportunities to compete in global markets. This is conducted through the collaborative efforts of the private sector and policy makers to strengthen the business environment, raise production standards, create buyer-seller market linkages and reduce or remove impediments to investments.
Industry specific assistance was provided for the food processing industry and ancillary industries (e.g., packaging, pest control, etc.) and associations to improve their competitiveness and help achieve sustainable export growth. USAID/Egypt through the Agriculture Led Export Businesses (ALEB) activity worked to help food processors and service firms to improve and optimize their current processing, management, operation, quality, personnel and other systems, with an eye on improving product quality, production efficiency and, hence, exports of processed food products. USAID assistance was focused on five primary target product clusters: dehydrated fruits and vegetables, frozen fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, juices and concentrates and pickled products. Assistance to the processed food industry included services to assist:
· Companies operating in the food processing industry improve their marketing, production, and management systems and to access financial services. These included providing sources of market information, tailored technical assistance in the areas of marketing and production economics, and packaging, labeling, and product development. USAID also sponsored study tours to trade fairs worldwide to introduce Egyptian exporters to new markets and form strategic linkages with importers and suppliers.
· Market Pulse Egypt (MPE), annual Situation and Outlook Reports in five commodity clusters, and Special Opportunity Focus Reports. These sources of market information assisted companies operating in the food processing industry to better orient their planning and marketing strategies to meet the demands of target markets. Technical assistance for the processed food companies was provided in the areas of marketing and production economics. In production economics, for example, USAID/Egypt provided assistance in all issues that influence a company's profitability and ultimate success In the world market place, which includes marketing, food input supply, process operations, quality assurance, organizational structure, management, and business and strategic planning. Among the programs that were offered: ISO 9000, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)(64) and other programs that focus on HACCP prerequisites, such as pest control and sanitation.
· Technical assistance and training were also provided to service companies (pest control, packaging, cold storage, etc.), in order to enhance their ability to serve the processed food Industry, as well as to strengthen cross linkages between food processors and service companies.
· Further support to the processed food industry included developing resources for trade associations, assisting associations with developing strategic alliances, organizing study tours, training in policy advocacy and following up on market linkage and strategic alliance opportunities and helping ALEB’s client companies to pursue these opportunities.
By the year 2004, ALEB had delivered technical assistance to 36 food processor and service firms. Technical assistance has been delivered on a variety of topics, including, new product development, organic certification, cold chain technology, and US food labeling regulations. ALEB have been working with six companies as a "pilot" group to receive technical assistance in implementing a quality program in their plants. As the original six companies complete their plans, emphasis and effort were shifted to other companies. It is worth mentioning that Hazard Analysis and Critical Point Program (HACCP) certification is an integral step to entering European and American markets. From March 2004 -June 30, 2004, ALEB conducted seventeen workshops on various technical subjects such as Internal Auditing and Environmental Regulations for Export. As of end of June 2004, ALEB conducted a study tour, bringing twelve participants to training in quality management, to Italy to give several Egyptian tomato processors the opportunity to see Italian tomato processing facilities, farms and tomato variety trials.
ALEB has also conducted study tour to the post harvest course at the University of California in Davis, field trips to packing houses, cooling and storage facilities, produce distribution centers, modified atmosphere facilities for transit and storage, and transportation terminals in California.
Via ALEB's website, the project also delivered key technical information. This includes a series of "toolboxes" on export standards; on HACCP implementation; on US nutritional labeling which it presented on a workshop on Package Labeling and Design and to the Chamber for Food Industries. ALEB also conducted a workshop at HEIA on Crop Varieties for the Food Processing Industry.
In addition, ALEB assisted four processors to procure commercial quantities of vegetables. The Seeds and Varieties program has brought several new products to the market, and other new products to the stage of advanced development. These include Pickled Gherkins (Hi Tadi company), Frozen Sweet Com (Givrex, Farm Fresh and Farm Frites co.), Baby Artichokes (EgySpan; not new but lower cost of materials since the field yield is about double) and Whole Peeled Tomatoes (Harvest). ALEB has also worked with HEIA, on post-harvest issues. Thus far in 2004, ALEB has worked with ten local short term technical experts in areas such as HACCP, process measurement and personal hygiene for workers.
ALEB attempted to capitalize on Egypt’s unexploited export marketing potential, particularly in the European Union and the Gulf and Middle East. It addressed many of the competitiveness challenges that will affect Egyptian agriculture over the next decade. Moreover, as the skills ALEB helped to develop in processed food exports move backward along the supply chain, they will more easily be transferred to producers who sell only domestically. High quality processed foods manufactured locally will help enable Egyptian processors to meet the growing demand from the domestic market and compete more successfully with imports, which are certain to increase with the advent of the World Trade Organization. Marsh (64) (FAO 33)(FAO 34)
A more complete story on the new Food Export Council can be found in chapter 9, but the following excerpt sets the tone for its efforts:
"The FTC will be run as a demand-driven private business in every sense of the word," Berzi says, "with the overall objective of helping the Egyptian food industry develop into world-class exporters. We will tackle issues like accreditation, hygiene, food safety, technical assistance, testing and professional training."
With the conclusion of NARP, it was clearly recognized that much of what had been done in this program needed to be continued and expanded. Research had to be expanded in the areas of horticulture and field crops. Extension and technology transfer capability was still immature and needed improvement. New varieties were needed with improved resistance to pests; tolerance to environmental stress efficient use of water. Further it was clear that improved and expanded research in the basic sciences of genetics and biotechnology would be essential factors for such accomplishments. The project which was developed with USAID for this mission was Agricultural Technology Utilization and Transfer (ATUT). It was active from 1995 to 2002. (10,14,15, 32, 45, 48, 55, 85, 91, 99)
Specifically, ATUT aimed to: improve agricultural technologies in Egypt by identifying and transferring to the private sector improved horticultural production, post harvest handling and marketing technologies, by developing a carefully focused, improved collaborative strategic research program aimed at resolving the major constraints to increased productivity of selected staple crops such as rice, corn, wheat and fava bean, and by supporting the expansion of research and use of biotechnology.
From the records the authors have found, it appears that improvements in the horticulture area were the main focus, but ATUT was successful in improving yields in the field crop area. Income per feddan at LE 790 for rice, LE 686 for wheat, LE 499 for maize, and LE 1,197 for cotton. The Agricultural Policy Review Program has estimated gross operating margins per kilogram for fine green beans a LE 1.46 (higher than ATUT’s later projection because of a higher farm-gate price) compared with LE 1.12 for cotton; LE 0.94 for fava bean; LE 0.66 for New Land potato; LE 0.40–LE 0.490 for Valley potato, bobby bean, rice, and wheat; and LE 0.24 for maize.
Selected crops which have a competitive advantage in export markets were identified and moved to commercial scale.
A product/market development system that provides a foundation for further growth has been established, but is not yet self-sustaining.
An effective mix of production, post-harvest, transportation, and marketing support were delivered to selected growers/shippers.
A reasonably effective association of growers, exporters, and export support organizations known as the Horticultural Export Improvement Association (HEIA) has been established, but is not yet self-sustaining.
Production and sales results for horticultural crops
Table grape exports grew from 1,200 tons in 1998, to 6,600 tons worth $22.2 million in 2001. Exports for 2002 are projected at 8,200 metric tons;
Fine green bean exports increased from virtually none prior to ATUT to an estimated 19,700 tons valued at more than $23 million in 2001-2002;
strawberry exports increased from a little more than 2,000 tons at $10.6 million in 1998-1999 to 5,600 tons worth $22.7 million in 2001 and to 6,300 metric tons in 2002;
Cut flower exports in 1999, the year ATUT started the cut flower promotion program, were only 4.5 million stems valued at about $500,000. By 2001-2002 the country was exporting 33.2 million stems worth $5.7 million;
Increasing area cultivated for melon export from the trial one-feddan with Africare in Wadi El-Said in Upper Egypt in 1997 to some 250 feddans. Around 70 percent of melons planted for export in 2002 were of the Galia varieties that were introduced by ATUT project. Two additional varieties: Charantais and Italian cantaloupe; Piel de Sapo were also successfully cultivated for export. –
New varieties of mango were introduced in Egypt for export in the European Union (EU) market. These include: Tommy Atkins, Kent, Keitt, Sensation, Van Dike, Austin, Sell and other red blush or red color selections that are well accepted in the EU market.
Total exportable yields of horticultural crops were estimated to be about 50 percent of total yields with some 2,300 jobs created from this increased export production. It is expected that continued technical improvements will raise product quality to EU. standards, and that production of EU and Persian Gulf export quality table grape and strawberry will increase significantly over the next 10 years—to:
· 67,500 metric tons of strawberry,
· 45,600 metric tons of table grape, and
· 960 million stems of cut flower.
However, there is a question about whether the target markets for these products will be of sufficient size to purchase these quantities. Egypt may reach its maximum market share of the identified cut flowers by 2006, of strawberries by 2007, and of table grapes and fine green beans by 2012. Of these, only table grapes appear to have domestic demand of sufficient size to absorb second grade fruit from excess export-grade production. The magnitude of these implications for Egyptian producers is such that the export market projections for Egypt developed using the unmet-demand model should be thoroughly reviewed as soon as possible.
While the production focus was valid and succeeded in significantly increasing exports. It was known that the primary constraint to expanding exports of the key horticultural commodities was their failure to meet export quality standards. The ATUT approach was to focus the project on upgrading production and on export sales, rather than marketing. Hence it became clear that this approach was short sited and did not adequately address the development of systems for gathering and disseminating market intelligence and for strategic market analysis and planning. In addition program coordination was lacking between ATUT and other organizations concerned with exports, such as the relevant units within the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
On the other hand, the project team assisted growers and exporters to identify and negotiate with buyers. These skills have been important in the growth of fresh commodity export sales. Because of the emphasis on sales rather than marketing, however, most of the larger growers and exporters did not have access to an adequate market intelligence system nor have they gained the capability for developing effective medium and long term strategic marketing planning capabilities.
One of the most important deficiencies, however, was the failure to recruit and train local associates for the Ronco technical team. It was reportedly the original intention of the RONCO/ATUT subcomponent to employ local technical assistants to assist and be trained by the Ronco technical experts, in order to leave behind a trained cadre of local horticulture consultants
The intensive, one-on-one service delivery approach pursued by the Ronco consultants has been largely responsible for the excellent progress made by their producer clients. This strategy, however, had the effect of limiting the scope of Ronco direct technical assistance and technology transfer to a very small portion of the total horticulture sector. The Working Groups were able to transfer technology to more industry participants, but their coverage was limited by the relatively small number of people involved in the groups and their part-time participation.
There were no explicit provisions in the project for a human resource development/training subcomponent. While producer responses indicate that the on-farm training approach utilized by the Ronco team and the Working Groups was quite effective, the project, and the industry, would have benefited from the application of a planned and organized human resource development effort.
The improvements in productivity and export capability engendered through project-supported technology transfers have been institutionalized by the project beneficiaries and are thus sustainable. Beyond this aspect, the primary vehicle for the sustainability of project initiatives is represented by HEIA, which has been nurtured and supported by ATUT. The fact that HEIA has progressively improved its industry service capabilities and reduced its dependence on ATUT is an encouraging sign in terms of the continued sustainability of project initiatives. (RONCO-83)
Governments must work with agriculture-based industry to minimize the difficulties of adjusting to increased competition when liberalization occurs. Globalization of the world economy is an established fact. Removal of trade barriers, increased foreign investment, and enhanced competition should be accepted with purpose, care and with ample safeguards, but accepted just the same. Since the 1980’s, the Egyptian government has moved toward trade liberalization and a market economy especially through the agricultural economy. Agricultural reform began in 1986 with the Agricultural Production Credit Project followed by the Agricultural Policy Reform Program in 1996. (1,14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 26, 27, 30, 35, 37, 40, 50, 51, 59, 72, 80, 81, 86, 92)
This study documents the fact that policy reform is more than issuing decrees, passing laws, and promulgating regulations. Appropriate technical content is critical, but the process of change cannot be ignored. In support of the changes in roles and in achieving the benchmarks, APRP has contributed to results in the following ways:
· APRP provided technical expertise in analysis, international best practices, data collection methodologies, and training course design. Particularly important was assistance to the process side of reform in work shop design and facilitation, implementation planning / monitoring, awareness and dissemination.
· APRP served as a neutral broker between the Government and the private sector, and between government agencies. The various sets of actors remained confident that APRP was not taking sides, and thus were willing to listen to and follow APRP experts' recommendations.
· As a policy interlocutor with the Government throughout the elaboration of the benchmarks for the program's tranches, APRP helped to design implementation roadmaps, and facilitated legitimization of the benchmarks as targets.
· APRP's implementation reform support strategy, by working simultaneously at multiple levels (central to local) with many partners (public and private) and by building in some early successes, maneuvered around implementation roadblocks, showed stakeholders that change was possible.
· APRP successfully leveraged its resources and impacts. This contribution is exemplified by the collaboration with the German GTZ's Cotton Sector Promotion Program.
The GOE took several steps towards liberalizing and privatizing the cotton sub sector; however, a more comprehensive approach to 1iberalization is still needed. Despite the government’s efforts to liberalize the cotton sub sector, public sector textile companies are still struggling with high prices for cotton, which is the main input of production, amounting to 60% of the production costs. In addition, public textile companies are bound by the government wage and bonus system that entitles workers to' an annual raise of 15% regardless of the company's sales and revenues. Thus public sector companies are heavily burdened by rising costs and decreasing revenues. It is very difficult to privatize the public textile companies under such operating conditions.
Encouraging imports of cheaper shorter -staple lint is one way to reduce spinners' input costs in Egypt. To this point, public spinning companies have obtained imported lint only through the Holding Company. If the Holding Company is concerned about burgeoning lint stocks and excessive carryover from one year to' the next, it will not import shorter -staple lint even if it is priced far lower than the cheapest Egyptian varieties, Gizas 80/83.
The stagnation in the privatization program in the textile industry is in part due to the over all unfavorable market conditions; however, it is mostly due to the chronic problems that are plaguing the public sector textile companies. These include excess labor, large accumulated losses, large bank debts, and most of all unmarketable output. High prices for Egyptian lint are a major handicap for public sector textile companies in the domestic market. After the devaluation, public sector companies have been able to capture greater domestic market share; however, they are still facing stiff competition in the export market. High raw material costs for Egyptian lint, redundant labor, and poor quality yarn hurt the international competitiveness of domestic spinners, particularly public ones.
Improving the quality of yarn products is key if public sector spinning and textile companies were to succeed in reducing their large inventories and improving their financial situation. Some observers argue that many public sector spinners spin too wide and too low a range yarn counts and should narrow the range and, if possible, increase the average count. Other observer’s feel that most public spinners. should concentrate on spinning low counts of yarn using cheaper, shorter-staple imported lint. Whatever strategy is chosen, it appears unlikely that significant funding will be made available for technical restructuring, particularly upgrading plant and machinery. Without such upgrades, the long-run validity of many public spinners can be called into serious question.
A comprehensive plan is needed to restructure the cotton and textile sub sector. Without dealing with the root of the problem, it will be difficult to privatize public textile companies. Note that CSPP and the High Cotton Council are leading a cotton sub sector strategy exercise that may attempt to define, more accurately, public spinning industry requirements. This strategy exercise is not, however, intended to address privatization issues. Nevertheless, developing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the sub sector’s problems and the underlying issues that hinder privatization would have a positive impact on encouraging private participation in the cotton and textile sub sector, which can boost the privatization program of public textile companies.
To facilitate the sale of ginning capacity, a necessary first step is to deal with the excess capacity in the industry. The GOE should start by implemen1ing the unpublished Holding Company plan to close 13 public gins to reduce capacity to a more optimum level. This would likely allow ginners to charge higher rates, which could make ginning more profitable. Once made more profitable, public ginning companies would become more attractive privatization prospects. Higher returns would also allow ginners to invest more in improved ginning cleaning and baling techniques.
Finally the GOE moved in the right direction when it adopted the new strategy to privatize the loss-making companies. However, more aggressive unbundling of public companies may be required to encourage their sale in the near future until a more comprehensive plan to restructure the sub sector is adopted.
In terms of APRP benchmarks, these results have produced clearly visible benefits regarding: a) state withdrawal from cotton pest management, b) promotion of trade associations, c) effective use of real-time irrigation system information, and d) improvement in agricultural statistics.
Benchmarks where some initial benefits have emerged or where there is high potential for future benefits include: a) reorientation of agricultural research and extension services, b) establishment of the private-sector operated cold storage facility at the Cairo airport, c) promotion of cooperatives, autonomy and functioning (including cotton marketing), and d) promotion of private-sector participation in policymaking.
The overall performance of public sector companies has been deteriorating over time. In addition, the financial performance has been worsening at an increasing rate over the past five years between 1997 and 2001. In 1997 net revenues of the HC were more than LE6.3 million but fell by almost 54% to reach LE 2.9 million in 2001. Earnings before taxes for the profit-making companies declined by 54% as well while loss-making incurred an increase in losses by 30.7% over the same period.
In the annual report presented to the board of the SWRMC-HC at the close of FY 2000/01 the HC identified interest pa and wages for redundant labor to be the main reasons behind the continued poor financial performance. Excluding the non-textile companies, the HC burdened by LE 1 billion of accumulated interest payments in June 2001, up from slightly less than LE 900 million in 2000. In addition, the burden of redundant labor wages was up 4.4% from LE 226 million in 2000 to LE 236 million in 2001, with higher salaries off setting the lower number of workers. It is worth noting, however, that most of the burden and drain on the HCs resources can be attributed to the textile companies and their worsening performance over the past five years.
In an attempt to prepare public companies for privatization, the S\\'RMC -HC sought the expertise of specialized management firms. Through the newly established Egyptian Company for Development of the Textile Industry, the HC is in the process of implementing and monitoring four management contracts in Misr-Helwan S&W, Nasr-Mehalla S&W, Shourbagui, and and Cairo Artificial Silk. Unfortunately, the overall performance of these management contacts has not been satisfactory.
Ginning industry privatization started in 1996/97 with the sale of Arabia Ginning and Nile Ginning. Both were majority privatized through the stock market, through small groups of investors quickly controlled a majority of the shares. The sale of other public ginning companies has stalled due to the high value of the land on 'which the gins are located. In addition, a large excess capacity exists in the industry and, thus, the private sector is reluctant to invest when ginning revenues and net returns remain low. At this point, the prospects of privatizing the remaining public ginning companies seem rather slim.
Both public and privatized ginning companies have implemented ERPs. through which a total of 540 workers were released from the industry at a total cost of LE 12.5 mil1ion and an average cost per worker of LE 23.190.
The privatized companies, particu1ady Arabia Ginning have witnessed considerable technical and managerial improvements after the transfer of ownership to the private sector. Arabia's new management has improved seed-cotton cleaning and introduced full and partial mechanized feeding which resulted in a 35% increase in output per unit of time. In addition. a new quality control department was established to review ginning operations and ensure quality for exports. Arabia has also imported new ginning stands from India and replaced the equipment in a number of its gins. The new stands have the advantage of saving energy, as their power consumption is 15% less than traditional stands and their post-devaluation cost was 66% of that of the traditional English ones, including custom duties. Also, both Arabia and Nile Ginning have introduced new UD bale presses. Exporters can export lint cotton directly from the gins avoiding costly Farfarra (blending) and repressing in Alexandria..
According to the limited data available on the financial performance of privatized companies, Arabia Ginning witnessed a significant improvement in its financial performance with an increase in profits of 25.6% immediately after- privatization. Arabia maintained the same level of profits into 1998/99. Nile Ginning, on the other band, recorded a decline in profits for the year immediately following privatization.
So far the GOE succeeded in privatizing four companies (Unirab, Alexandria Spinning & Weaving, KABO. and Bolivara), in addition to liquidating one company (Cairo Silk). Production units in four other public companies have been 1eased long-tenn (5-10 years) to private operators. Most of the privatization achievements took place between 1996 and 1998, and the progress in privatizing textile companies has been halted since 1999.
The privatization of the rice milling companies was completed in 1998/99, by which time the private sector had already invested heavily in new mills. Therefore, the privatization of public mills was of little interest to the private sector at that point which resulted in selling all 7 rice mills to Employee Shareholder Associations (ESAs). The rice milling companies were majority privatized with the ESAs having 90% of the shares and the HC keeping 9.9% of the shares. The remaining 0.1% was sold to individuals to ensure that the company qualifies as a shareholder's company under the Egyptian Law.
Since privatization, employment in ESA rice milling companies dropped by almost 57% by early 2002. This drastic reduction in labor vas achieved through both early retirement and regular retirement programs. At an average cost of LE 22.592 and a total cost of LE 70 million., the HC released 3.107 workers of the rice milling companies through the early retirement program (ERP).
In a number of areas, reform progress has been steady but is still incomplete. There is a need for more work in cotton, cooperatives, pesticide licensing, registration of dealers, and field supervision and research and extension, There is serious danger of back-sliding on fertilizer use and supply. The wheat sub sector, particularly the milling industry, has significant GOE intervention, a set of policies that seem to work at cross-purposes, and an overcapacity problem that has gotten worse since APRP began. The immediate danger in rice appears to be past but there seems to be no real GOE support for a paddy buying system dominated by the cooperatives or forced through PBDAC sales rings, so little is likely to change in 2002/03. Greater paddy supplies, with a larger crop, should lead to lower paddy prices, easing criticism of private traders.
There are many critical issues associated with the production and marketing of cotton. Private sector market shares in cotton trading, ginning, spinning, and exporting increased during APRP, but future gains will be difficult to realize without a renewed GOE commitment to liberalization and more active efforts to privatize pubic trading, ginning and spinning companies.
There were several comments about building local capacity to do applied policy research and extension. APRP is not generally perceived as having left much capacity in place, though it provided expertise in policy reform design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Such work continues to be heavily dependent upon expatriate-led technical assistance teams. At the height of APRP (mid-1998 through September 2000), there were ten expatriate advisors working in MALR and seven in MWRI.
Despite the acknowledged dependence on expatriate TA, no consensus emerged on how to lessen this dependence and develop sustainable institutional capacity. Different discussants preferred strengthening capacity in different types of institutions: GOE ministries, trade and industry associations, and local universities. Barring any radical departure from past practice, the current technical assistance model, where local consultants are hired from universities, a thin layer of consulting firms, agricultural research institutes, and among a pool of retired civil servants and holding company officials, is likely to prevail.
One way to strengthen the capacity of Egyptian universities would be to award competitive research grants to specific departments, under the leadership of strong individual academics. Rather than merely hiring professors as consultants, USAID and other donors could encourage interested academics to work in teams of professors (senior and junior) and graduate students, developing coherent proposals and work plans for doing a particular contracted piece of research. While this would place more burdens on USAID contractors to select grantees, competition would be introduced into academic consulting. A premium would be placed on the quality, feasibility and cost of particular proposals, rather than on seniority or academic prestige.
Another way to develop capacity to do market research and improve market information is for advocacy organizations to fund or co-fund such work. The stronger industry and trade associations need to develop their own capacity (and use their own funds) to gather, interpret and publish market information. Their willingness to pay competitive salaries (or consulting fees) to qualified professionals who can perform these services remains uncertain, however.
A number of lessons emerge from the study:
· The public and private sectors need to work together as partners to take advantage of each one's distinctive competencies/ capacities.
· Policy projects can serve as an important impetus for initiating change, and their budget support is a motivator for pursuing reform.
· The Government of Egypt's gradualist implementation strategy has led to series of short-run successes, but some interpret it as ambivalence and weak commitment. For long-term benefits, reformers and donors need to "stay the course."
· The demand side of policy reform is critical. Government commitment and ability to supply reform is enhanced by pressure from the private sector and civil society. Private-sector demand making capacity is not always used in support of intended agendas of reforms, but this is not a reason to abandon reform. Some degree of deviation from the ideal is to be expected.
· When using pilots as an implementation strategy, scaling up is critical to generating intended program impacts. Key challenges include:
1. Marshalling the resources to facilitate the expansion
2. Coping with insufficient existing capacity to support scaling up
3. Confronting interest group politics, whose effects can to some extent be mitigated in pilots, which emerge more forcefully with scaling up.
Started in 1996, agribusiness linkages for Egypt (Aglink) was a 7 year initiative which made an impressive contribution to transforming and strenghtening the Egyptian livestock sector. It increased the quality and availibilty of milk and meat for local consumption, created a substantial rural employment base and stimulated trade linkages with the US. Aglink was awarded first place ranking for three consecutive years by Price, Waterhouse Cooper based on the number of recomendations adopted, services delivered and trade linkages facilitated.
Aglink increased the productivity, efficiency and sustainability of large commercial, medium and smallholder clients by providing technical assistance and training in basic technologies such as animal nutrition, health and farm management, trade development, association development and facilitating access to credit. By the end of year one, Aglink had successfully improved the efficiency and productivity of target farms and processors through the application of recommendations of US and local consultants coupled with seminars and training sessions that helped to raise awareness among targeted clientele and key stakeholders about the livestock industry as a whole.
The Egyptian meat and farm technologies association secured a bulk contract with feed supplier ROBY in Egypt for grain which it retailed to its members at reduced prices saving them 38 Egyptian pounds per ton. 2000 metric tonnes were purchased during phase one of the project. The Egyptian milk producers association reduced their feed costs by 15%, increasing the feed conversion rates by 22% and raised the overall firm capacity by 50% as a result of adopting four new practices and three new technologies. By implementing new silage technolgies, the animal health cooperative, a diary produciton cooperative, computerized its record keeping and total mixed ration practices and increased its milk production by 30% from 6 to 7.8 tonnes per day.
Animal husbandry and milk handling practices at the farm level were often inadequate or improper. For example, AgLink found such elementary production-inhibiting practices as feeding berseem before it was sufficiently dry and milking to the very last drop of milk. The project also found sanitation could be improved by raising the roof of animal sheds to permit drying of muck and by eliminating a practice of putting wet muck on the cow’s teats. In addition, feed rations are less than optimal; however, this is probably as much a question of affordability as it is lack of knowledge. This situation provides opportunities for significant low-technology, low-cost technology transfer, such as the AgLink examples. These improvements will improve the quality of milk and red meat production, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Cattle and buffalo milk issues requires an integrated approach to improve the entire sector—animal husbandry, on-farm quality, assembly transportation, and processing.
The livestock and poultry sector is traditionally highly integrated with the crop sub-sector. It was estimated that 40 percent of the total value of farm livestock production, in the form of animal power and manure, is a direct input to crop production and that 22 percent of crop products (mainly winter berseem clover) are direct inputs to livestock production. Therefore, the livestock sub-sector should be a main consideration in cropping decisions, and vice versa.
Not only is the livestock and poultry sector an important source of cash income to family farms, but of equal importance is the fact that the sector offers relatively higher opportunities for family employment. It was estimated, in the only available farm budget survey data, that the livestock sector utilized 40 percent of the total agricultural labor supply and 71 percent of female labor in agriculture (Fitch & Soliman, Livestock Economy in Egypt, 1982). Thirdly, it also benefits crop production by providing manure and draft power.
A commercial livestock and poultry supply industry and a national marketing system are emerging for new products such as cheese, ice cream, processed meat, and packaged eggs. However, this industry is characterized by inefficiencies that are reflected in high product losses in milk, meat, and egg assembly and transportation; hatching chicks; and the handling of live birds. Such losses reduce volumes and lead to a reduction in quality and in producer prices. It is hoped that the Food Export Council of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (chapter 9) will be a help in improving the quality and market acceptance of these products. info@feceg.com
As a result, the Egyptian farmers benefited from:
· Increasing the importation of US Agricultural equipment for a total of $26 million dollars.
· Dramatic increases in sales among Egyptian agribusiness firms resulted in 24.5 million increased revenues and 66.15 million increased revenues among non-core clients.
· Long-term business relationships were established between Egyptian and US agribusiness firms and farmers as well.
Visits that Egyptian business people made to the US agribusiness firms resulted in new contracts signed between US and Egyptian firms valued at an averge of $70,000 dollars for each.
The Egyptian milk producers association EMPA which was formed in 1997 had a mandate defined by the founders and members based on immediate needs particularly related to advocacy, input supply services and technical assistance for the members. In its first year of operation, EMPA succesfully negotatied favorable prices for feed inputs such as cotton seed and molasses and actively lobbied for lower tariffs on grain. Aglink’s association and development activities focused on building capacity through the provision of training for management, the board of directors and general membership.
Beyond the farm gate, there are constraints in assembly, transportation, and processing. The most serious are in milk assembly, where inadequate facilities reduce the incentive for farmers to increase production. This is true not only of GOE assembly facilities but also of private sector facilities. There has been some improvement in private sector facilities serving or operated by modern private sector processors that produce quality products. There are also losses in quality because of lack of refrigerated transportation.
The lack of standards in livestock trading is a disincentive to production of better livestock. Standards pertaining to weight classifications and meat quality and health (as gauged by appearance) would create a direct connection in the farmer’s mind between animal husbandry practices and income received for the farmer.
The slaughtering industry is in need of major improvements. There is major overcapacity, thus increasing per-unit costs of all in processing operations. Few plants employ modern techniques. These deficiencies are directly attributable to GOE investment in slaughterhouse facilities in the past. They overbuilt and do not have the money to modernize. The entire industry, and consumers, would benefit from a rationalization of the industry that would increase capacity utilization, thereby decreasing costs that could result in reduced prices to consumers and facilities modernization (which would also lead to reduced costs).
The GOE used to subsidize feed and feed ingredients and enforce low prices for manufactured feeds. This was accompanied by full governmental control on imports of ingredients and by quotas to feed mills. This promoted an inefficient industry in terms of productivity and profitability. With the removal of subsidies, a more efficient feed industry has emerged. In addition, the feed industry has received technical assistance in producing lower-cost feeds from foreign aid projects.
The E.U.-sponsored the Animal Feed Quality Improvement Project developed the technology for treating straw and crop residues with ammonia and supplementation with molasses to increase feeding value. MALR extension staff disseminated these technologies and established eight centers for ammonia feed distribution in the Delta. The GTZ has supported the Non-Traditional Fodder Project in three villages. Its objective is to integrate crop residues and by-products in animal feeds at the farm level. Accordingly, MALR has implemented some extension packages. USAID’s AgLink, Africare, and CARE projects have provided direct delivery of technical assistance to livestock farmers.
Commercial, industrialized, high-technology poultry systems produced 73 percent of all broilers and table eggs in 2000. The industry suffers from numerous problems, most of which are related to overcapacity in all areas—production, hatcheries, feed milling, and slaughter houses. Production, feed milling, hatching, and veterinary services are largely owned by large commercial operations. Questions were raised regarding the rationalization of the slaughterhouse industry regarding the privatization of GOE-owned slaughterhouses and feed mills.
Livestock technical and veterinary extension services are provided through MALR’s livestock production departments and veterinary departments in the governorates. Critical disease control campaigns are ongoing. However, budgets are insufficient to provide adequate services. The European Union initiated a program in 1994 to support the privatization of veterinary services by strengthening institutions, providing training, pricing of services to farmers, and identifying public roles.
Artificial insemination services are also monopolized by the same MALR departments. These services are very limited. The total number of artificially inseminated cattle cows in 1999 was only 7.9 percent of total elder female cows and just 1.9 percent of total elder female buffaloes with positive results of 65-70 percent. The Canadian Animal Production Technology Project provides technical services in embryo transfer, artificial insemination, and animal health.
The Food Sector Development Program of the European Union has allocated LE 200 million to provide technical services, artificial insemination service, a dairy board, marketing-system development, data collection and market information, dairy quality improvement, and a credit line of LE 150 million for dairy farmers as a revolving fund to develop modernize and expand their operations. Another LE 50 million has been allocated for training purposes on all levels. The program is limited in scope—20 villages in each of five targeted areas have been selected to date to receive these services. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada has initiated a pilot project for developing a milk-recording system. The project has established a data-processing laboratory within the College of Agriculture at Cairo University that can handle data of 100,000 lactating cows. The FAO has provided a technical cooperation project for extending this center’s services into a full-scale national dairy herd improvement system, including executing genetic improvement programs, improving management practices of dairy herds, and developing a friendly-farmer-use information system.
Credit for small livestock farmers is offered through PBDAC. However, such credit is not available for those who do not own land or buildings to use as collateral. Loans for establishing commercial farms and importing stocks, equipment, and feedstuffs are also available. Producers are asking PBDAC to accept cattle as collateral and suggesting that this change can be accompanied by a special livestock insurance system to guarantee loans repayment. PBDAC interest rates are 11-15 percent, lower than commercial banks (12.5-14 percent) but higher than E.U. program loans (6.5-8.5 percent) and social fund loans (7-9 percent).
The meat and dairy-processing industries need to be rationalized, closing inefficient plants and encouraging complete privatization of Dairy and slaughterhouses and feed mills for poultry feed and livestock
Smallholders need credit to upgrade herd quality and size and to purchase milk-holding equipment that preserves milk quality. Assembly operations, existing and new, need credit to upgrade/establish their facilities and to acquire refrigerated trucks to transport milk to processing plants. Processors may also wish to use credit to purchase refrigerated trucks. Such a credit program would provide a significant market for sale of U.S. manufactured equipment.
A two-pronged approach is needed here. MALR capabilities should be upgraded and a private sector capability should be fostered. Both would be assisted by changing MALR’s policy of no- or low-cost provision of animal health products and artificial insemination to one of at least covering the full cost of materials used. Industry suppliers and veterinarians should be used to train other veterinarians as industry trainers in disease prevention and treatment. Financial support and commodity credits could be used to fund herd upgrading through artificial insemination and importation of pregnant Holstein cattle and dual-purpose breeding bulls.
The feed industry needs technical assistance to increase operating efficiency and feed quality. Concentrate feed grades and standards should be strengthened and enforced. The feasibility of providing commodity credits for feed ingredient imports from the United States should be explored.
Producer associations, cooperatives, and industry associations have the potential to provide members collective services. Many, however, need assistance in the basics of association management and in coming together as associations to procure products and services, lobby the GOE for needed changes in policies and regulations, and develop new services their members will use.
Deficiencies in the system of collecting and disseminating market information to farmers should be identified and the existing system strengthened using governorate MALR offices, producer associations, cooperatives, and other means to better disseminate information to farmers.
AERI began in the last quarter of 2003. It builds on USAID/Egypt’s previous efforts and focuses on:
· increasing agricultural incomes to stimulate rural off-farm employment, especially in Upper Egypt;
· improving the productivity and competitiveness of smallholders to achieve increased incomes;
· broadening horticultural development efforts to diversify crops and markets,
· enhancing the role of small growers as suppliers to exporters,
· integrating the fresh and processed segments of the industry,
· expanding the use of good agricultural practices in horticulture;
· improving the smallholder livestock sector as a means to increase agricultural incomes, especially for women who dominate this sector; and
· bringing about world class research and training that is more responsive to private sector needs.
As of March 2005, AERI through the small horticultural activity trained about 6,119 small and medium growers, in 88 training events, to increase their capacity to respond to market opportunities. Training and workshops programs included preparing farmers for production, harvest and post-harvest handling of green beans, melons, medicinal and aromatic plants and drying and oil extraction of both essential and aromatic oils. AERI is also working through the small dairy and livestock activity on improving smallholder product quality and volume. Current efforts include providing technical assistance to Small Farmers Groups includes training sessions, seminars, video presentations, direct consultations and business linkages. Training is provided in: (1) animal herd management, (2) animal nutrition, (3) animal health care and (4) dairy processing. (138)
As of March 2005, a total of 4,806 participants attended 191 training-days. Further, AERI through ‘Support to Trade Associations and Smallholder Groups activity’ works to strengthen the capacity of smallholders in Upper Egypt to expand into new markets for horticultural and livestock products through improved linkages with agricultural trade associations, and improved market development support by those associations. Thus, AERI works to provide flexible and appropriate technical assistance and grants to support agriculture trade associations that are of critical importance for expanding volumes of high quality agriculture products (dairy and fresh/ processed horticulture) for export and the domestic market.
As of April 2005, USAID/Egypt evaluated and approved fourteen grant applications for the following:
· two feasibility studies related to grants for the construction of the Luxor post harvest facility and microbiological laboratory;
· grant to HEIA’s Cairo Air Terminal expansion facility;
· technical assistance for implementing a "Total Quality Management" system for the branding of cut flowers;
· feasibility study for re-organizing the HEIA training department; and
· two grants to the Food Processors Export Association.
In addition, AERI through the ‘Institutional Linkages Activities (ILA)’ works with research biotechnology institutions in order to strengthen Egypt’s capacity in biotechnology research and its application. Efforts to promote market relevant research resulted in approving six proposals for applied biotechnology research. The proposals were selected by the Biotechnology Advisory Committee.(138, 139)
The main purpose of Growth through Globalization project (GTG) (1996 - 2004) was to promote the competitive efficiency and exports of the private sector entities working in labor intensive products (US$ 133.5 million).(140))
GTG efforts included strengthening trade linkages between Egyptian and oversees businesses and connecting Egyptian firms with international trading partners. This was achieved through various services such as trade fairs, trade missions, study tours, the marketing correspondents’ network and the business matchmaking service.
Technical assistance to farmers was carried out by implementing a capacity building strategy that focused on building the marketing, technical, and financial capacities of farmer associations within a sustainable farming environment. Office equipment such as computers and fax machines were provided to the farmer nongovernmental organizations (FNGOs) depending on their needs, capacity and level of export activity. Additional support included the provision of packaging materials in order to improve the quality of their products for the export market. The FNGOs utilized this equipment, especially computers and printers, in producing promotional materials – brochures- which included information on their mission, vision, activities, and contact information. In addition, farmer associations learned how to use computer technology to analyze their production and marketing problems. Some of them worked to develop their own websites.
In order to optimize the marketing and technical assistance, USAID/Egypt emphasized the importance of investing in human resources. Training was provided through the ‘Agriculture Reform’ activity for board members of FNGOs’ on conducting Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. Training was also provided for top management of member farms and companies on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) specifications.
There was also an effort to bridge knowledge through adaptive research by collaborative research on four food crops (rice, maize, wheat, and fava beans) among U.S., Egyptian, and international research institutes. That resulted in the introduction of biotechnology techniques in breeding programs, the development of DNA markers for bread wheat and a molecular marker map for durum wheat. (AGERI--7)
AgReform is designed to increase incomes among economically marginal farm households in Upper Egypt by improving their access to new markets and appropriate new agricultural production technologies. AgReform, initiated in the governorates of Fayoum, Sohag and Qena, in March 1996, continues to use the FarmLink Project strategy (1990-95) that directly links community-selected innovative farmers to sources of agricultural information. AgReform is based on the FarmLink experience, and has adopted most of its concepts, terminology, approaches, and data collection instruments. FarmLink successfully pioneered a participatory linking approach to agricultural extension in the horticultural sector.
As of September 30, 2001, AgReform has worked with 6,320 community-selected innovative farmers to create linkages that improve agricultural practices, 7,928 small farmers through the strengthening of 111 local agricultural and marketing groups, and the enhancement of local livestock services for 4,250 small livestock producers. In addition, the project collaborated with local government agencies in each governorate to enhance and strengthen the extension services’ capacity to better meet the small farm household’s needs and to manage and replicate AgReform activities beyond the life of the project. 292 Government Extension Workers have been involved in the project. In 2001, the AgReform grant was amended to add the farmer NGO component. To date, twelve farmer NGOs have been created and training is being provided to strengthen their capacity to coordinate the dissemination of marketing information for exports.
In June 2000, IESC was awarded a three-year USAID grant of $7.7 million to manage the Center for Business Support (CBS) in Egypt. The CBS program works with companies in three sectors: Information Technology, Tourism and Agribusiness. It has been working with companies in the food-processing sector since the program’s inception. Client companies receive subgrants to acquire technical consultants, attend trade shows, participate in trade missions, and develop websites. In the agribusiness sector, it has completed one major food processing trade mission event in cooperation with the USAID-funded Agriculture Led Export Business (ALEB) program. (8, 141)
The EEA, and its operating arm, ExpoLink, is the successor to a long line of private sector general export promotion organizations funded by USAID. In previous incarnations it was known as the US Export Promotion Organization (USEPO) and the Trade Development Center (TDC). It provides services to firms in most of Egypt’s export-oriented sectors including IT, apparel and textile, furniture, fresh and processed foods, footwear and tanned leather, and marble. ExpoLink prepares firms to exhibit at international trade shows, provides technical assistance consultants, dissemina
