This study was conducted to revise the taxonomic identity and clarify specific relationships among the studied Triticum species in Egypt. The studied species included; T. dicoccum (Schrank) Schubl.; T. dicoccoides (Koren ex Asch. & Graebn.) Aaron Sohn. T. tugidum L.; T. durum Desf.; T. pyramidale (Delile ex Schult.) Percival and T. aestivum L. Moreover, the wild Emmer Wheat T. dicoccoides (Koren ex Asch. & Graebn.) Aaron Sohn was recently found in Egypt as a new record. The genus Triticum L. includes 14 species, all of them are cultivated for food except the wild Emmer.

The present study was carried out in the desert valley (wadi) Abu Salam (63 Km.) east of Berber city, RiverNileState, and in the nursery of the Faculty of Agriculture, NileValleyUniversity. The autecology and biology of major desert specie, Handal (Citrullus coloynthsis), were studied. The study area (Wadi Abu Salam) was divided into three sections; upper, middle and lower. The soil was classified as sodic soil and contained a high percentage of clay in the upper section, equal percentage of clay and sand in the middle section and high percentage of sand in the lower section. The distribution of Handal plant in the wadi area was investigated. In the first season, it was only detected in the middle section (0.60-0.72 plants/m2). In the second season, the plant was distributed in the three sections of the wadi (1.46-1.66 plants/m2 for the upper section, 0.27-0.49 plants/m2 for the middle section and 0.3-0.4 plants/m2 for the lower sections).The rate of photosynthesis increased during the first stage of growth to reach its maximum (2.2-2.34 gm/day) during the 8th week from the start of germination, then started to decline till it reached its minimum rate (0.10-0.12 gm/day) at the maturity stage in both seasons. Plant roots growth started at a low rate, then, increased with plant development and became equal after 7 weeks from germination. After that, it decreased until it reached its lowest rate at the stage of maturity.

Poverty represents one of the development challenges that faces the developing countries in general and Egypt in particular. Though poverty alleviation came on the top priorities of the third millennium goals, as in 2002 about 20.4% of Egyptian people were suffering from objective (absolute) poverty which means that about 13.7 million people are unable to fulfill their basic needs and about 31.8% suffer from subjective poverty. Poverty risk looks ostensibly equal between men and women, but women in general and female headed households suffer more. Therefore small-scale enterprises are one of the mechanisms that lead to poverty alleviation especially among females. This requires coordination among all relevant stakeholders governmental and non- governmental, besides to reform the financial sector and stimulate it to deal with local and financial needs of small-scale enterprises, and to facilitate poor people’s access to appropriate financial services. In light of the previous review, the current study aims at describing poverty status in Egypt and the system that incubate small-scale enterprises and stakeholders as well as beneficiaries and rural women in particular. The study depended on review of literature and secondary data and case studies that reflects one of the civil society organizations experience working in development through providing small-scale enterprises for poor people in rural areas. The case studies covers three governorates: Fayoum, Beni-suef and Menia with a total number of 20 case studies who received livestock production projects with no interest rate, aiming at identifying the problems and solutions to improve the performance of small-scale enterprise providers as well as beneficiaries. The results revealed that successful stories can be attributed to the strong will of beneficiaries to improve their livelihoods, besides the role of the organization in collaborating with local leaderships within the villages, which helped to identify and monitor those beneficiaries. Based on contracting between the provider and beneficiaries to guarantee rights and obligations of both partners, also providing training and follow-up and evaluation played great role in the success of the projects and its sustainability. As for the failures, it was related to poor capabilities of the beneficiaries (widowers) who were affected by various challenges one of which is socialization, lack of skills and health problems.

The study aims at researching the possibility of vertical expansion of wheat crop by increasing the total production of the crop from the same cultivated area by re-distributing the area of crop in different zones of the Republic according to its productivity and show the importance of feddan productivity in increasing total production of this crop.  The study showed that the increase in feddan productivity has an effect in increasing the total production, but its impact in increasing feddan revenue and the value of crop production was weak. It has been shown there is a possibility to increase the total production of wheat crop   by maximizing the economic efficiency of productive resources used in cultivating the crop about 2.09 % of the increase in the total production. The increase in the production of the crop estimated by 1118 thousand ardabs that valued at 99 million LE and save about 53 million cubic meters of irrigation water despite the stability of the cultivated area of wheat crop all over the Republic.  The study recommends reconsideration of the current area of wheat crop by expanding the areas of wheat crop in the governorates or the regions characterized by high productivity to achieve the economic efficiency in the use of the production agricultural resources dedicated for wheat planting, so that they can provide areas for wheat in low productive regions to other crops of high productivity in these regions and then relatively reduce wheat gap in Egypt.