Goal of the project
This project aims to:- establish a sustainable business partnership between 3 smallholder cooperatives and 2 domestic companies that trade and process horticulture products in Egypt
- improve incomes of 15,000 smallholder families through productivity rise, new crop (varieties), changes in gender relations, value addition, employment creation and better bargained prices
- a facilitating environment for small-scale farmers by good governance, service delivery and supportive policies
- new local marketing channels for diverse horticulture crops that contribute to food security.
Project number
FDOV14EG42Country
- Egypt
Location
Egypt Governorates of- Minia
- Beni Sueif
- Qualyoubia
Sector
- Agriculture
- Horticulture
- Fertilizer
- Food processing
Project budget
Partners
- Egyptian Farmers
- Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services
- Spice Kingdom
- Ministry of Agriculture
Project description
The local markets in Egypt for agricultural produce are underdeveloped: farmers are not well organized and the sector relies heavily on the use of pesticides and fertilizer and lacks knowledge of more sustainable alternatives.
The project will help to better organize the farmers in 3 Farmers’ Cooperatives (FC). These FCs will grow into strong independent organizations with management capacity and collective bargaining power to make and fulfil contracts with traders and processing industries, especially the companies that are partner in the project (Spice Kingdom and Egyptian Farmers). The two partner companies in the project will invest in infrastructure and processing equipment. Government agencies will work on better service delivery to smallholder farmers. The set-up of farmers markets is foreseen in urban centres of the 3 governorates with a variety of horticultural crops. Thereby, the project enables better delivery of more healthy fresh produce and shorter and more efficient value chains between producers and consumers. The two NGOs are responsible for the training of the farmers (mainly CEOSS) and the management of the project (OXFAM Novib). The training aims to improve farming techniques by promoting the use of composting and manure instead of chemical fertilizers and by introducing new crops and crop rotation.