IMPROVING WATER USE, YIELDS AND LIVELIHOODS OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN EGYPT
A 15 percent average increase in farmer incomes, benefiting
50,752 farming households.
About 57 percent of the population of Egypt live in rural areas, with agriculture in the Nile delta constituting the
The project included the installation, modernization and rehabilitation of water pipelines, pumping stations and
major source for peoples’ livelihoods. Sustain- ing and expanding arable land is only possible through irrigation given the desert conditions of non-irrigated land. The responsible and effi- cient use of scarce water resources is therefore of high importance.
other irrigation infrastructure for about 9,675 farm irrigation ditches in the Lower Nile Delta areas of El-Behira, Kafr El-Sheikh, Dakahlia and Sharkeya. Associated works also included land-levelling, reshaping field drains and soil improvement. Training to farmers was also provided. In total, the project improved 26,338 hectares of smallholder farmland.
In 2012, the OPEC Fund approved a US$35 million loan to the government of Egypt to finance a project aimed at reducing
The development contributed to reducing water use by 20 percent and increasing agricultural production by 13 percent. Along with an 18 percent increase in the economic value of the produced crops this resulted in a 15 percent average increase in farmer incomes at the time of final project evaluation, benefiting 50,752 farming households – almost triple the number of households initially targeted.
rural poverty by improving water use efficiency at farm level and increasing yields, productivity and incomes of 17,500 smallholder farming families. Disbursements started in 2014 and the project was completed in 2019. Beside the OPEC Fund, the International Fund for Agricultural Develop- ment (IFAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) also supported the project.
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