Opportunities and challenges of integrating crop and livestock systems in the desert reclaimed lands of Egypt

The Mediterranean agriculture is constrained by high competition for land and water utilization. One of the challenges for farmers is to increase land productivity through a better use of livestock in mixed crop-livestock farming systems. To assess the opportunities and challenges of integrating crop and livestock activities in irrigated areas, a survey was conducted among 175 small-scale farms in the West Delta desert land of Egypt in 2013/2014. Five regions were investigated and comprised the old reclaimed lands where settlers came in the 1960s, the intermediate reclaimed lands where farmers settled down in the 1980s, and the new reclaimed lands that were attributed to new farmers in the 1990s. The study highlighted two types of farmers’ strategies: 1) diversification and specialization with focus on fruit tree plantation by university graduates, who had benefited from the attribution of around two hectares of land in the settlement program since the end of the 1970s; and 2) diversification with emphasis on livestock by common beneficiary settlers from the Nile Valley, who had benefited from the attribution of one hectare of land since the 1990s. Graduates focusing on fruit trees corresponded to a strategy of developing new business activity, whereas common beneficiaries diversifying their farming systems through livestock corresponded to the need to secure a stable source of family income all year round. Whereas diversification appeared to be a driving force for agricultural development in this context, specialization could be a social and economic risk as graduates became more dependent on national and international markets. This was reflected in the perception of farmers who underlined the need to integrate technical, ecological, economic and social constraints in their decisions.