Workshop participants.

29 November 2017, Luxor, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has concluded the project “Support to Agricultural Cooperatives Reforms in Egypt” by holding the final workshop in which the project’s results, outputs and sustainability were discussed.  

A national plan was developed at the end of the workshop to improve the agricultural cooperatives in Egypt over a period of seven years; which will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and all stockholders.

Dr. Safwat El-Hadad, Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Services and Follow-up affairs, Dr. Hussein Gadain, Representative of FAO in Egypt, and Eng. Ahmed Abdallah, Head of Central Administration of Agricultural Cooperation, participated in the final workshop held in Luxor from 26-28 November 2017.

Officials, technical experts from FAO have also participated in this workshop, in the presence of representatives of Central Cooperative Union, directors of cooperation departments in different governorates, representatives of agricultural cooperatives in Upper and Lower Egypt, as the project was implemented in collaboration between MALR and representatives of the "Union des Producteurs Agricoles" (UPA) in Montreal - Canada.

“The agricultural cooperation, properly understood, is beneficial for the small-scale farmers and the community; many successful examples exist in this regard. FAO's contribution with the project ‘Support to Agricultural Cooperatives Reforms in Egypt’ will lead to a significant development in this sector, enabling the agricultural associations and their members to play their role in promoting the sector,” El Hadad said

“We have started this project together nearly two years ago with the aim of reaching effective and economically efficient agricultural cooperatives. The project “Support to Agricultural Cooperatives Reforms in Egypt” is one of the most important priorities of the Sustainable Agriculture Development Strategy 2030 in Egypt, it was developed in cooperation between FAO and MALR. The project started by conducting a field study on the agricultural cooperatives’ real situation in Egypt as a central pillar of the reform based on accurate reading of the current situation," Gadain stated.

A number of workshops was carried out in which more than 300 members of the cooperative movement were trained on constructive dialogue mechanisms and on negotiations platform to make profit. They were also trained on how to draft an action plan and a future reform program based on the participatory work, experiences and lessons learned from foreign countries like France and Kenya that the participants have visited during the project activities.

Forty employees of the cooperation departments in the governorates were also trained to become professional trainers while transferring their expertise to the members of the cooperative movement at the central level through two training of trainers (TOT) programs on the management of agricultural cooperatives. "

“At the end of the program, we have come to a good and coherent vision for the future program of cooperative development in the upcoming seven years. We will work hard to create the enabling environment for this program to achieve our common vision of having agricultural cooperatives become self-sufficient and capable of establishing economical projects in partnership with the private and public sector and with the other cooperatives. This will be in order to support the overall development of the agricultural production by adopting the modern management and agricultural techniques increasing the local and global competitiveness, with the integration of youth and rural women,” Gadain added.

“The final workshop aims at presenting the results and outputs of the project as well as discussing the post-project phase. This phase includes the sustainability plan and method of implementing the joint action plan to achieve the looked-for situation of the agriculture cooperative sector for the upcoming seven years, in addition to drawing up the strategies and the implementation mechanisms,” said Mohammed Abd-al-Al, project consultant.

It is worth noting that the agricultural cooperative sector in Egypt is the largest globally, with about 7 thousand cooperatives associations and about 18 million members; their competences allow them to contribute various services to the Egyptian economy. Therefore, the Egyptian government sought to support cooperatives by giving them more economic freedom through the modification of law No.124 of year 2014. There were also some amendments done to some articles of law No. 122 of year 1981, including allowing the cooperative to engage in partnership with the private sector for profit.