Egypt launches initiative to keep farmers from bailing on their land

The Egyptian government has launched a new initiative aimed at preventing farmers from abandoning a practice that was revered by their Pharaonic ancestors: agriculture. 

The initiative, called “Do not sell your land,” was launched by the Union of Producers and Exporters of Horticultural Crops (UPEHC) this year to convince farmers not to sell their plots of land and quit agriculture by providing them with adequate financial and technical support.

According to UPEHC head Hussein el-Hennawy, the initiative is part of the Support to Rural Development Program (SRDP) launched by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with the UPEHC in 2006. The SRDP has been developing over the past years and includes several initiatives and activities.

The project, which is funded by the European Union at a total cost of 10 billion euros ($11 billion), is carried out in three locations in the governorates of Fayoum and Minya. These two governorates were chosen as they are characterized by a high density of farming population, severe poverty and a long history of agriculture, according to a report published by the UPEHC.

Read the full article by Menna A. Farouk via Al-Monitor.

[Photo by andreas wheeler | Flickr]