Towards People-Centred Climate-Resilient Food Security Systems

1. Egypt in Transition!
Towards People-Centred
Climate-Resilient Food
Security Systems
Workshop on Building Resilience:
bridging food security and climate
change adaptation
Othman Elshaikh
Project manager
Building Resilient Food Security
Systems
to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region
Cairo , 1 December , 2014

2. Setting the Agenda
•Food security and climate change context in Egypt
•Situation in Southern Egypt
•Project rationale
•Project Description and key features
•Impact on livelihoods and climate resilience
•Challenges

3. Food Security and Climate Change
Food and nutrition security worsening
over time
Sea level rise to inundate 315,000
acres by 2050
Crop
Change percent
2oC temp.
Increase
4oc temp
increase
Wheat - 14 - 36
Rice - 11
Maize - 19 - 20
Soybeans - 28
Barley - 20
Cotton + 17 + 31
20-30% decrease in crop production
due to temperature rise

4. Southern Egypt Worse Off
Southern Egypt

5. Southern Egypt Worse Off

6. Project Aims
• Pilot to demonstrate
people-centered
climate friendly
interventions in upper
Egypt 14 villages
distributed in 5
governorates
• Support to the
Government for scaling
up at the level of
Southern Egypt region.

7. Project interventions
Communities mobilization

8. Early warning system

9. Use of water saving techniques

10. Integration of climate adaptation solutions into the
curriculum of the universities and technical schools

11. Resilience built in agricultural
production

12. Land holdings in upper Egypt
Over 60 percent of land holders in the Egyptian villages
own/ rent less than one acre, while 90% own less than 3
acres. This land fragmentation is one of the main drivers of
poverty in rural Egypt as it negatively affects the feasibility of
farming in several ways.

13. Small Land holdings consolidation
• the barriers between
smallholder land plots were
estimated to cover 20-30% of the
agricultural areas, representing a
major cause of land loss.
• These barriers also unduly
reduce irrigation efficiency by
10-20%.
• Fragmented lands hinder the use
of productivity enhancing
interventions and machinery.

14. The initiative aimed to
improve natural resources management, alleviate
poverty and enhance food security among smallholders
through introducing land holding consolidation as a
means to increase land and water management
efficiency, enhance agricultural productivity, reduce
cultivation costs and increase its revenue. Targeted
villages .

15. Key activities of the initiative included(1):
– Awareness raising campaigns to introduce the
concept, multi-dimensional benefits, steps,
challenges etc of land holding consolidation
– Marking borders of original plots of land
– Conducting soil analysis for informed land
planning and crop selection
– Signing bilateral contracts between the
farmers and the project.

16. Key activities (2)
– Forming a committee to represent the beneficiaries. This committee is
to be authorized to make decisions and negotiate on behalf of the
beneficiaries and its members are to be selected in a transparent and
participatory manner
– Providing technical assistance to the farmers on what to cultivate, what
treatments are to be applied, marketing support,.
– Applying agricultural mechanization, procuring seeds, cultivating the
same cropping pattern throughout the consolidated area and applying
the same treatments.

17. Challenges and obstacles
Due to traditional believes that give land tenure an honor
and pride dimension in rural Egypt, farmers were reluctant to
remove the barriers around their plots and participate in
collective farming. This challenge was gradually overcome by
introducing incentives and piloting the model to demonstrate
its results. More importantly, explaining that participation in
land holding consolidation does not entail surrendering land
ownership was of key importance.

18. lessons learned
• It was learned that demonstrating the positive
results of an intervention is an- if not the
most-effective means to promote its
replication and upscaling.
• The establishment of a committee to
consultatively decide and negotiate on behalf
of the farmers was an efficient means to
manage the consolidated land.

19. • The project revived and fostered a collaboration
spirit within the village. Going beyond land
management, this spirit enabled the villagers to
collaboratively solve a longlasting internal
transportation problem they faced.
• The demonstrated benefits of land holding
consolidation will be used by the government (as
an incentive for the farmers) to revive the crop
pattern policy, which was announced to be a
national priority.

20. How does this project build resilience?
Empowering the People the most effective way to
ensure sustainability
Project Impacts:
 Increased agricultural productivity through loss
minimization
 Increased awareness and ability to manage shocks
 Lake Nasser specific impacts: lands development around
the Lake opens door for a new life for climate affected
households, and new food production opportunities.