In the last five years, USAID cooperation with the Government of Egypt in the area of agricultural assistance has focused on Upper Egypt, home to 50 percent of Egypt’s poor. Programs aimed to improve smallholder productivity and competitiveness. In addition, improved water resource management has benefitted the agriculture sector. USAID is proud to have helped the Government of Egypt achieve the following milestones:

• The creation of more than 100 horticultural producer associations with more than 20,000 producers receiving training in new techniques; average net farmer income among association members has doubled over four years;
• Improved livestock and dairy marketing through the creation of 67 livestock producer associations; net income among participating farmers almost doubled over two years;
• University linkage programs with agriculture faculties and veterinary medicine schools in Upper Egypt to update course curricula in technical subjects, improve classroom equipment, train more than 450 professors, and provide career development assistance to students;
• Development of an Egyptian National Authority for Bio-Safety through which farmers are trained in the safe use and benefits of agricultural biotechnology;
• Integrated water management districts covering 1.2 million feddans – 15 percent of Egypt’s irrigated land – to integrate all water management functions into a single system for better management of scarce water resources;
• Formation of 600 Water Users’ Associations involving 500,000 water users in 27 districts, allowing Egyptian farmers to participate for the first time in the management of irrigation systems, sharing in canal and structure maintenance, conducting public awareness programs, and resolving conflicts.