Within the reality of the Egyptian economy, the link between sustainable agricultural and rural development, enhancing food security, and reducing poverty is a central issue for achieving economic and social development. In Egypt, agriculture is recognized not only as a way of life and as crucial for national socio-economic development, but also as an engine for growth.
More than 45 million Egyptians live in rural areas, where agriculture represents their main source of livelihood. Agriculture in Egypt, however, is faced with several natural, economic, financial, technical, and policy challenges. One of the key obstacles that continued to face Egypt’s development process is the lack of complementarity and integration among the introduced interventions. In this context, the idea of the Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID) project emerged to develop and design effective integrated systems that address these obstacles.
Established in 2012, ENID aims at building replicable development models that create viable and sustainable job opportunities that enhance the economic empowerment of poor households, women, youth and small-scale farmers. ENID’s aim is achieving integrated and sustainable development in Egypt’s second poorest governorate, namely Qena in Upper Egypt. Qena is fully representative of the socio-economic, demographic, and topographic conditions of Upper Egypt. ENID operates as a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project under the umbrella of Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation (MOIC) and several development partners collaborate in supporting ENID, and specifically, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) is the major partner for the Sustainable Agricultural Development Program. The first phase of the project will last till the end of 2016.
The ENID project covers three major components, each of which has the potential to significantly impact poverty reduction, sustainable agricultural rural development, and one or more dimensions of food security. The three components are: (i) Upgrading basic services in rural Upper Egypt; (ii) Promoting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); (iii) Sustainable agricultural development. The focus on women and youth is a cross-cutting theme across all the components. We would like to highlight one of ENID’s three components, the sustainable agricultural development component.
The design of ENID’s sustainable agricultural development program coincides with and supports the national objectives as depicted in Egypt’s strategy for sustainable agricultural development till 2030. It also complements ENID’s efforts in its two other components which provide off farm employment and support basic services in the poorest of villages. The sustainable agricultural development program is being implemented through close cooperation with several committed Community Development Associations (CDAs) and a number of other development partners that represent related government ministries and agencies, universities, research institutes, and civil society organizations.
Through the program, several initial studies have been produced that assess the comparative advantage of crop and livestock products, the optimum cropping pattern and several value chains for promising agricultural products and activities in the governorate of Qena in Upper Egypt. In addition to these initial studies, the sustainable agricultural development program has introduced several models/projects in the governorate of Qena such as integrated fish farm models that have different sizes ranging from 1 to 10 feddans and will follow different managerial systems from CDAs to government partnerships. Each farm will include extensive fish production (cement bonds, etc.), food and fodder production, livestock raising, bio-gas production, and will recycle agricultural residue. The underground water pumping for these fish ponds will depend on solar energy and the construction of the 3 model farms is currently underway.
As mentioned above, the models will include recycling of agricultural residues to produce compost and silage in two districts in Qena. To date, the project has succeeded in training 421 persons, and has hired 131 labourers to recycle 310.9 tons of residues in 2014.
Two milk processing models were introduced to; reduce milk waste, increase value added, generate income for poor families and small livestock holders (mainly women), and enhance food and nutritional security at both, the household and national levels. The first milk processing model has 2 milk processing plants each with a capacity of 250 kg/day/shift in the two Qena districts. The second model includes the establishment and operation of 10 plants with a daily capacity of 100 kg/shift to be distributed across all of Qena’s districts.
Roof gardening is another component of the project and is expected to enhance the income and nutritional status of poor households (with special emphasis on women and children). It is introduced through; CDAs (1 location), youth centers (2 locations) as well as a research center in Qena (1 location). Enhancing the dissemination and adoption of the model is under way through workshops, open days and visits.
Safely raising backyard poultry is another component and is expected to contribute to household and village food and nutritional security as well as to the empowerment of women. Safe backyard poultry raising is currently implemented in 2 villages. The project intends to train and provide the needed facilities for safe poultry raising for 3 more villages in 2015. A collaborative system has been adopted by the CDAs managing the model in order to, ensure the sustainability of the project in the village and to increasing the number of poor household beneficiaries. The total number of eggs produced, since the beginning of the project, in the 2 locations has reached 36,569 eggs with an average egg production of 914 eggs per household over the entire period.
ENID also supports small scale farmers through Farmers Field Schools (FFS) that provide sessions, livestock caravans and specialized training for extension staff focusing on yield enhancement as well as post-harvest loss reduction for priority crops. To date, 366 people - farmers/NGOs and Ministry extension staff - have attended the FFS activities.
The sustainable agricultural development program alone has provided training to 1,245 people (20% of whom were females) and generated employment for almost half of ENID’s total beneficiaries (411 people) for its three components. The numerous interventions across the three programs are simultaneously operational in many of the 35 villages in Qena and showcases the integrated nature of ENID’s activities in promoting holistic development on all fronts.
Photo Credit: UNDP
