Download or read book An agricultural policy review of Egypt First steps towards a new strategy written by Kassim, Yumna and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The latest population census in Egypt shows that there are more people now living along the narrow strip of land by the Nile than ever before, 95 million (CAPMAS 2017). The country’s rapidly growing population, its limited water resources, and its dependence on food imports all reinforce the importance of an integral agricultural policy. With the recent series of economic reforms that saw the flotation of the Egyptian pound, the imposition of a value-added tax, and decreases in energy subsidies, Egypt has a unique opportunity to focus on sector-level policies, including those within agriculture. This paper reviews agricultural and other related policies and their impact on the overall economic performance of the agricultural sector in Egypt. This stocktaking of policies is to serve as the basis for developing a more comprehensive agricultural strategy and policy framework that aligns sectoral policy objectives with policy measures in an effective and consistent manner. The paper is intended to serve as a reference for policymakers, researchers, and institutions. It highlights agriculture’s place in the Egyptian economy and examines water and irrigation policy and the provision and distribution of agricultural inputs, research, and extension, and reviews the price and procurement policies for key crops. Other public policies and their impact on agriculture are also evaluated via a look at the food subsidy system, land rent and tenure, land reclamation, and trade policies. The concluding section of the paper presents a summary of key messages and proposed questions for further research.

Download or read book Country gender assessment of the agriculture and rural sector Egypt written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-12-29 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This country gender assessment responds to the requirements of the FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020–2030. By providing information and analysis on the gender dimensions of the agriculture and rural sector, it aims to support the formulation and implementation of gender-responsive policies, strategies, and projects at country level, in line with national development priorities and FAO’s mandate.

Download or read book Climate resilience policies and investments for Egypt s agriculture sector Sustaining productivity and food security written by Perez, Nicostrato D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-09-24 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of a resilient agriculture sector in providing food security, livelihoods, and household income was highlighted in many countries by the recent pandemic, as was the capacity of the sector to cushion the negative impacts of the subsequent economic slowdown. This has been the case in Egypt, where agriculture has been resilient to the health crisis in comparison with the service and industry sectors (Breisinger et al. 2020). However, the sector’s resiliency is gradually being corroded by climate change, with lasting, harmful effects for agriculture and food systems.

Download or read book Land scarcity impedes sustainable input intensification in smallholder irrigated agriculture Evidence from Egypt written by Abay, Kibrom A. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-02-01 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing population pressure and population density in many African countries are inducing land scarcity and land constraints. These increasing land constraints are expected to trigger various responses and adaptation strategies, including agricultural intensification induced by land scarcity, as postulated by the Boserup hypothesis. However, most empirical evaluations of the Boserup hypothesis come from rainfed agriculture and mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where application of improved agricultural inputs remains historically low. Agricultural intensification practices as well as the relevance of the Boserup hypothesis in irrigated agriculture and in contexts where application of improved inputs is high remains unexplored. Furthermore, while much of the debate on the topic in Africa has focused on how to boost agricultural intensification, there is scant evidence on whether evolving agricultural intensification practices in some parts of Africa are sustainable, yield-enhancing, and optimal. In this paper we investigate the implication of land scarcity on agricultural intensification and the relevance of the Boserup hypothesis in the context of Egypt, where agriculture is dominated by irrigation and input application rates are much higher than SSA. We also examine whether evolving agricultural intensification practices induced by land scarcity are agronomically appropriate and yield-enhancing. We find that land scarcity induces higher application of agricultural inputs, mainly nitrogen fertilizers, sometimes beyond the level that is agronomically recommended. More importantly, land scarcity increases overapplication of nitrogen fertilizer relative to crop-specific agronomic recommendations. This implies that land constraints remain as important challenges for sustainable agricultural intensification. Finally, we find suggestive evidence that such overapplication of nitrogen fertilizers is not yield-enhancing, but, rather, yield-reducing. We also document that land scarcity impedes mechanization of agriculture. Our findings have important implications to inform appropriate farm management and sustainable intensification practices. Furthermore, our results can inform long-term policy responses to land scarcity.

Download or read book Food subsidies and cash transfers in Egypt Evaluating general equilibrium benefits and trade offs written by Breisinger, Clemens and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-06-02 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Egyptians receive food subsidies, which are the cornerstone of the country’s social protection system. The government recently attempted to reduce subsidies, with limited success, and introduced a cash transfer program targeting the poor. We use a dynamic general equilibrium model of the Egyptian economy to evaluate the growth and distributional impacts of subsidy reforms and cash transfers. We find that the welfare of poor households would be enhanced by a smaller, but better targeted food subsidy program, and that, if the cost savings from reforms are channeled into investment, faster economic growth would eventually outweigh any short-term welfare losses. However, most of the gains from subsidy reforms accrue to nonpoor households. Combining subsidy reforms with cash transfers leads to the largest welfare gains for the poor, while leaving the welfare of nonpoor households largely intact. The latter is crucial to maintaining support for ongoing subsidy reform efforts.

Download or read book Food policies and their implications on overweight and obesity trends in selected countries in the Near East and North Africa region written by International Food Policy Research Institute and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2020-12-16 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regional and global trends in body weight show that the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region countries, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, have the highest average body mass index and highest rates of overweight and obesity in the world. There exist several explanations that expound the high rates of overweight and obesity in most NENA countries, including the nutrition transition, urbanization, changes in lifestyle, and consequent reduction of physical activities. This study examines the implication of food policies, mainly trade and government food subsidies, on evolving nutritional transitions and associated body weight outcomes. We examine the evolution of trade (food) policies, food systems, and body weight outcomes across selected countries in the NENA region – Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. In particular, we investigate the implications of important trade (food) policies in shaping diets and food systems as well as their implications on public health outcomes, mainly the rising levels of overweight and obesity in the NENA region. We provide a simple conceptual framework through which trade policies (tariff rates) and domestic government food policies (subsidies) may affect food systems and nutritional outcomes. An important and innovative feature of this study is that it compiles several macro- and micro-level datasets that allow both macro and micro-level analyses of the evolution of trade (food) policies and associated obesity trends. This approach helps to at least partly overcome the data scarcity that complicates rigorous policy research in the NENA region. Overweight and obesity rates have almost doubled between 1975 and 2016, with varying rates and trends across regions. For instance, whereas body weight in the NENA region was comparable with that found in high-income countries in the early years, after the 1990s regional overweight and obesity rates became much higher than those in high-income countries. Specifically, while most high-income countries are experiencing a relative slowing of increases in overweight rates, the trend for the NENA region continues to increase at higher rates. The evolution of overweight rates for the GCC countries are even more concerning. These trends are likely to contribute to the already high burden of non-communicable diseases in the NENA region.

Download or read book Symposium policy note 2 Digitalization of agricultural services and policy analysis in Egypt written by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This policy note is one in a series of four notes that summarize key findings and recommendations from 32 seminars organized by IFPRI between 2016 and 2020 under the Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity Project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and from related research done in collaboration with national and international partners in Egypt. The briefs have been prepared on the basis of a joint symposium and are intended to give policymakers and program designers in the areas of social protection, nutrition, agricultural policy, and the digitalization of agriculture a quick overview of research-based recommendations on key policy issues that will better enable Egypt to achieve several of the goals outlined in the Sustainable Development Strategy 2030. This policy note highlights how digital tools can help improve monitoring, evaluation, and extension services in Egypt’s agriculture sector and how policy analysis can be institutionalized to guide transformation of the food system and rural economies. Four recommendations are discussed: Building on ongoing efforts, continue to digitize agricultural information systems, build and link agricultural databases, and exploit new sources of data. Build on ongoing projects that develop mobile telephone applications for farmers and learn from international experiences to revitalize and digitalize agricultural extension in Egypt. Build the capacity of agricultural policy analysts within the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and universities, using both conventional and new digital tools to provide high-quality, research-based policy advice. Promote further digitalization to improve the resilience of food systems in view of shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download or read book Too much of a good thing Evidence that fertilizer subsidies lead to overapplication in Egypt written by Kurdi, Sikandra and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As part of a national policy to ensure a certain level of food self-sufficiency in strategic crops, the government of Egypt subsidizes nitrogen fertilizer directly by distributing quotas of subsidized fertilizers to farmers and indirectly by subsidizing natural gas used by local fertilizer factories. The implication of this subsidy on farmers’ fertilizer demand and productivity remains unknown. Using a detailed agricultural survey collected from smallholder farmers in Upper Egypt, we show that nitrogen fertilizer application rates are substantially in excess of crop-specific agronomic recommendations. We exploit eligibility criteria and other sources of variation to show that farm plots with easier access to the subsidy tend to use more subsidized nitrogen fertilizer and less phosphate fertilizer. Easier access to the subsidy increases use of total nitrogen fertilizer per unit of land, mainly because of the increase in subsidized nitrogen fertilizer. In particular, the fertilizer subsidy program in Egypt is associated with significant overapplication of nitrogen fertilizer. Such overapplication of fertilizer is expected to adversely affect soil, water, and environmental health. Our findings have important policy implications for Egypt and other African countries known for input subsidy programs. As Egypt is currently moving on from the successful implementation of a comprehensive macroeconomic reform program towards sector-level reforms, our results suggest that eliminating fertilizer subsidies is a good place to start.

Download or read book The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intensifying water constraints threaten food security and nutrition. Thus, urgent action is needed to make water use in agriculture more sustainable and equitable. Irrigated agriculture remains by far the largest user of freshwater, but scarcity of freshwater is a growing problem owing to increasing demand and competition for freshwater resources. At the same time, rainfed agriculture is facing increasing precipitation variability driven by climate change. These trends will exacerbate disputes among water users and inequality in access to water, especially for small-scale farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable populations. The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 presents new estimates on the pervasiveness of water scarcity in irrigated agriculture and of water shortages in rainfed agriculture, as well as on the number of people affected. It finds major differences across countries, and also substantial spatial variation within countries. This evidence informs a discussion of how countries may determine appropriate policies and interventions, depending on the nature and magnitude of the problem, but also on other factors such as the type of agricultural production system and countries’ level of development and their political structures. Based on this, the publication provides guidance on how countries can prioritize policies and interventions to overcome water constraints in agriculture, while ensuring efficient, sustainable and equitable access to water.

Download or read book Agriculture and economic transformation in the Middle East and North Africa A review of the past with lessons for the future written by Nin-Pratt, Alejandro and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2017-12-31 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The agriculture sector is key for economic and social development, but the sector’s potential has not received enough attention from policy makers and stakeholders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Political transitions, instability, and the resulting refugee crisis have shifted focus away from other pressing development challenges, including slow progress in economic diversification, high unemployment, and persistent high food insecurity and rural poverty. Despite its small contribution to GDP, agriculture is strategic for sustainable development in the MENA countries. Agriculture, for example, is central to achieve food and water security in a region characterized as one of the most food insecure and water scarce in the world. The sector’s role in employment is also central, given the region’s high structural unemployment. However, it will not be possible for MENA countries to develop agriculture without a pathway to structural economic transformation. The region has already started the process of transformation but longstanding challenges remain. This report aims to examine the drivers, constraints, and social implications of agricultural development in MENA and to explore possible cornerstones for new and sustainable development strategies in the context of economic transformation. More specifically, the report provides answers to the following questions: • What development strategies and policies did governments in MENA put in place over the past three decades and how did they affect the performance of agriculture? • How did the structural characteristics of the MENA countries affect agricultural development and the economic transformation process in the region? • What did we learn from the past performance of agriculture? What should be the central elements guiding future agricultural policies? • What are elements of a new and sustainable development strategy in MENA countries? • What is the role of agriculture and agro-industries for development in MENA?

Download or read book Prioritizing development policy research in Egypt written by Abdelaziz, Fatma and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents an innovative approach to prioritizing development policy research in Egypt with the specific objective of informing the research agenda of the Egypt Strategy Support Program of the International Food Policy Research Institute. The key steps in this process were: 1) a review of relevant priority setting methods and existing government strategies, 2) pre-selection of research themes, 3) selection of national and international experts, 4) design and conduct priority setting workshop; and 5) priority matrix construction and paper writing.

Download or read book Leveraging food systems to reduce poverty and malnutrition written by Raza, A and Soares, F. and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2020-12-18 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even though substantial progress has been achieved worldwide in reducing both poverty and malnutrition, much is yet to be done. There are signs that the progress made in both dimensions has stalled in recent years. Poor-quality diets have become a major driver for overweight and obesity and associated non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and some types of cancers. Conflict and climate vulnerability have been identified as major obstacles to reaching Sustainable Development Goal targets related to malnutrition by 2030. In 2019, economic downturns and slowdowns hindered efforts even further. More recently, the COVID-19 crisis has imposed even harsher conditions to countries.Poverty and malnutrition are inevitably linked, and therefore addressing one can help address the other. Given that most of the world’s extremely poor people and stunted children live primarily in rural areas and rely mostly on agriculture, the agriculture and food systems approach can offer an opportunity to reduce both poverty and malnutrition. The food systems approach places equal emphasis on both the supply and demand dimensions that are critical for ensuring healthier diets and better nutrition for poor and vulnerable groups.This special issue of Policy in Focus is dedicated to answering a crucial question: How can a food systems approach be used to design and implement policies and investments that reach those most vulnerable to poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and suboptimal diets? We hope that the contributions contained in this volume, by leading academics and development practitioners, exploring the linkages between nutrition, food systems, and poverty, can help stakeholders and policymakers make inroads towards the promotion of food and nutrition security and the reduction of rural poverty.

Download or read book Agricultural Policy Analysis in Egypt written by F. K. Bishay and published by Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). This book was released on 1994 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Architecture and Urbanism A Smart Outlook written by Shaimaa Kamel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-02 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This proceedings addresses the challenges of urbanization that gravely affect the world’s ecosystems. To become efficiently sustainable and regenerative, buildings and cities need to adopt smart solutions. This book discusses innovations of the built environment while depicting how such practices can transform future buildings and urban areas into places of higher value and quality. The book aims to examine the interrelationship between people, nature and technology, which is essential in pursuing smart environments that optimize human wellbeing, motivation and vitality, as well as promoting cohesive and inclusive societies: Urban Sociology - Community Involvement - Place-making and Cultural Continuity – Environmental Psychology - Smart living - Just City. The book presents exemplary practical experiences that reflect smart strategies, technologies and innovations, by established and emerging professionals, provides a forum of real-life discourse. The primary audience for the work will be from the fields of architecture, urban planning and built-environment systems, including multi-disciplinary academics as well as professionals.

Download or read book New Opportunities for U S Universities in Development Assistance Agriculture Natural Resources and Environment written by United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1991 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book New Opportunities for U S Universities in Development Assistance written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report focuses on university/U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) interactions in activities directly related to agriculture, natural resources, and the environment in developing nations. It is noted that U.S. university participation in AID development assistance ventures has declined since passage of the Title XII program of the Foreign Assistance Act in 1975. New opportunities for U.S. university involvement in foreign development assistance, however, are arising from new initiatives in AID, and in other development assistance organizations. In addition, AID is focusing on its affiliations with development assistance organizations, including U.S. universities, to encourage multi-institutional collaborative relationships. The report covers the following topics: how AID has utilized university resources; recent trends in AID/university collaboration; trends in AID policies, programs, and funding; perceived conflicts in the AID/university relationship, both historical and recurrent; and opportunities for U.S. university participation in development assistance. Also discussed are new directions for university participation in development assistance. Appendices include a list of programs supporting research and technology generation, AID Regional Bureau strategies, and AID actions in developing countries. Contains 120 references. (GLR)

Download or read book An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development How much can Africa learn from Asia written by Diao, Xinshen, ed. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.