March 31, 2020
Louise Sarant - Independent Food Security Consultant
Photo taken by Watter Al Bahry
Three decades ago, Egypt’s Faba bean domestic production suddenly plummeted. A combination of political decisions and environmental changes shattered Egypt’s self-sufficiency in the crop, resulting in today’s heavy reliance on imports. This blog post explores the systemic factors that have contributed to the demise of Egypt’s most prized legume – and makes a case for reinvigorating Faba production along the Nile.
If Egypt’s food culture were symbolized by a single crop, it might well be the Faba bean. Cultivated on the banks of the Nile for millennia, Faba beans (also known as fava, fūl and broad beans, and Vicia Faba) have been a mainstay of the Egyptian diet since the time of the pharaohs. It’s a staple at breakfast, where the smallish, dark brown protein-packed bean is consumed as a stew (fūl medames). It’s eaten as a fried, falafel-like patty (taameyya), a purée (bessara), or fresh as a snack. Such is the legume’s popularity among Egyptians of all classes that they consume an average of 6.3 kilograms per capita per year (Ouda, 2017), the most in the world.
Until recently, Egyptian farmers cultivated enough Faba to satisfy domestic demand – while also deploying it as an essential cog in their crop rotation systems. Faba beans can fix between 150 and 300 kilograms of atmospheric nitrogen per year into every hectare of soil (Singh and Umrao, 2013), thereby enriching the land with vital nutrients and naturally boosting the following cereal crop’s harvest.
But starting in 1987, things began to change: the economic reform and liberalization of the Egyptian agricultural sector discontinued the mandatory state-controlled crop rotation system, of which Faba bean had been a core component. This, combined with state subsidies on nitrogen fertilizers, considerably reduced the appeal of fūl, prompting many farmers to turn to chemically-enhanced and more commercially viable crops.
Then, between 1991 and 1993, Faba production suffered its biggest blow yet. Over two successive growing seasons, the aphid-transmitted Faba Beans Necrotic Yellows Virus (FBNYV) wiped out 50,000 hectares of Faba beans, about a third of Egypt’s total Faba bean cropped area, and soured many farmers on it once and for all. Many Upper Egyptians farmers were already battling Orobanche infestations, a root parasitic weed that sucks in the host plant’s nutrients, and FBNYV merely confirmed the crop’s riskiness in their eyes. In an agrarian context in which 80% of all farmland is composed of holdings of 3 feddans or less, crop choice can be a matter of survival. Few farmers can absorb and rebound from crop failure. Faba bean acreage has since shrunk from 178,531 hectares in 1991 to 32,532 hectares in 2017 (FAOSTAT).
Evolution of local production and imports of Faba beans, 2005-2017. Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, FAOSTAT (Annex 1)
Since the mid-1990s, Egypt has relied on imports from Australia, Lithuania, Latvia and the UK to ensure a steady supply of the bean. Between 2005 and 2017, Egypt shipped in 328,000 tons of Faba beans a year on average, at an annual cost of roughly USD 200 millions. To this day, Egypt remains the world’s largest importer of Faba bean, devouring over 50% of global exports, which accounts for about 70% of Egypt’s consumption.
Top 10 country importers by import value of Broad Beans, 2017. Source: FAOSTAT
Mindful of the challenges of plant diseases, pest invasions, soaring temperatures, increased salinity, and low crop yields, scientists at Egypt’s Agricultural Research Center (ARC) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) have been working on improved and resistant Faba bean varieties since the mid-1990s. But these varieties haven’t been widely adopted, as most farmers are simply not aware they exist. Dwindling public funds for agricultural R&D over the last decades have resulted in fewer extension services, and in the discontinuation of farmer field days and schools. Those were the two main conduits through which research outcomes were exhibited and brought to farmers.
Reinvigorating Egypt’s Faba production would be no small task. The ARC estimates that in order to become self-sufficient again, Egypt needs to cultivate 320,000 feddans (135,000 hectares) of Faba beans, which would add up to approximately 668,000 tons by 2030, if consumption and population growth forecasts hold (Abdelrahman, 2019).
Here are a few arguments in favor of reintroducing large-scale Faba bean production in Egypt:
- In addition to saving over USD 200 millions on imports every year, the natural nitrogen fixation of Faba beans could reduce the reliance on subsidized nitrogen fertilizers for wheat production, which costs the government EGP 2.5 billions a year (Sweed, 2019).
- There could be a positive tradeoff between the subsidies on Nitrogen fertilizers, which increase greenhouse gas emissions, and subsidies on the Faba bean, which is a climate-smart crop with excellent nutritional outcomes.
- Reintroducing a system of crop rotation, in which legumes play an important part, could be very beneficial for Egypt’s soil, crop yield and farmers’ nutrition. Cooperatives could be well placed to oversee this new crop rotation system and reestablish trust among farming communities.
- Egypt could also consider emulating India, which imposes tariff barriers on legume imports during domestic harvest time to protect local farmers’ production.
- The share of public investment in agriculture, which is currently at 2 percent of the GDP, should increase in order to boost innovation, research and development, technology transfer, and revitalize advisory services for farmers.
Overview of Global Faba bean trade. Source: Tridge, 2019.
References:
Abdelrahman, R., Researcher at ARC’s Field Crops Research Institute, Legume section. She provided this information during a presentation held at ICARDA’s headquarters in September 2019.
Multari S., Stewart D. and Russell W.R. (2015), Potential of fava bean as future protein supply to partially replace meat intake in the human diet, Wiley online library.
Ouda S. et al. (2017), Solution for Faba Bean Production-Consumption Gap, (chapter) Future of Food Gaps in Egypt, Springer International Publishing
Saber K. (2006), Agrarian policy, legislation and violations of Human Rights in Egypt, dph
Singh A.K. and Umrao V.K. (2013), Non monetary way to manage Faba bean diseases-A Review, Meerit, HortFlora Research Spectrum
Sweed A. (2019), Fertilizer’s system in Egypt, Cairo, IFPRI Egypt Seminar
