Access to agricultural resources and services
Land. In 1989, men comprised about 76% of land owners, while only 24% of land owners were women. Landholding size is overall larger for men than for women. Under the land reclamation scheme, men and women have equal access to land but women comprise only 7.4% of those who have obtained newly reclaimed land. Far fewer women than men have applied, due to the difficult living and farming conditions on newly-reclaimed land.
Livestock. While rural women spend the majority of their working time in agriculture on animal husbandry and can legally own livestock, most decisions are made by men.
Forestry. Egypt does not have forests.
Water. Although 97% of rural areas are supplied with sources of drinking water, the provision of sanitary drainage facilities is still inadequate in 93% of these areas. Because of the unhealthy conditions resulting from the discharge of waste water in the streets, rural women still prefer to wash and do their household cleaning in canals and drains. However, the discharge of domestic and untreated industrial wastes in open water conduits exposes women to disease.
Credit. Under the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC), 88% of short-term production loans and 84% of investments loans were extended to men in 1993, while women received only 12% and 16%, respectively. Loan size for men and women was about the same. Women have greater access to credit through agricultural credit societies than through the Bank.
Extension services and agricultural training. Few village-level agricultural extension workers are women, which explains in part the extremely limited contact women farmers have with agricultural extension services.
Agricultural Extension Staff by Position and Gender, 1993
Source: Central Administration for Extension, MOALR, 1 993
Note: The figures for Central Administration in Governorates and MOALR are limited to agricultural professionals.
The inequality between and women in access to agricultural training is shown by data from MOALR and the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) only 3 out of 6,497 participants in on-farm research between 1987 and 1993 were women; there was only one woman among 745 participants in field days; and no women among the 129 participants in residential training More men than women have benefited from improved animal traction, irrigation tools, post harvest threshing devices, food storage facilities and transport
