Increasing agricultural productivity through   improved drainage : Egypt's national drainage   projects I and II

Holzmann, Robert; Paul, Richard Hinz; Dorfman, Mark

Increasing agricultural productivity through improved drainage : Egypt's national drainage projects I and II

Holzmann, Robert | Paul, Richard Hinz | Dorfman, Mark

Egypt's agriculture sector provides more than a third of national employment. Almost two-thirds of the poor live in rural areas and are primarily dependent on agriculture and related industries for survival. Arable land resources are extremely limited, consisting of a narrow strip along the Nile River amounting to less than 5 percent of the country's total land area. Agriculture, except for the Mediterranean littoral and desert oases, is almost totally dependent on the Nile and the irrigation and drainage it provides. Water availability is limited, and a major planning goal is to maximize the returns from this resource in an environmentally sustainable manner. The project also focused on creating institutional and community mechanisms for the development and maintenance of the systems, and for cost recovery. This included organizing farmers into drainage associations, known as collector user associations.

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