Description of Project:
Agriculture which produces 13.2% of GDP in 2008 is still one of the important industries in Egypt. It is urgent to improve agriculture productivity and profitability in order to provide food and create job opportunities. MALR formulated “Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy 2030” and made efforts to achieve following strategic goals; (1) Improving the standard of living for rural populations and decreasing the rural poverty rates.
(2)Sustainable usage of natural agricultural resources.
(3) Increasing the agricultural productivity for the land and water.
(4) Accomplishing a high level of food security for strategic food goods.
(5) Supporting the competitive ability of the agricultural products in the international and local markets.
(6) Improving the agricultural investment climate.
In response to this, JICA supported the formulation of a Master Plan (M/P) for rural development in Minia and Assiut Governorates by improving agricultural production, shipment, post-harvest treatment and processing of small-scale farmers based on marketing, through the “Project for the Master Plan Study for Rural Development Through Improving Marketing of Agricultural Produce for Small Scale Farmers in Upper Egypt (IMAP)” from March 2010 to August 2012.
Following the M/P, the GOE submitted a request for the JICA’s technical cooperation project to the Government of Japan in order to promote effective implementation of some of the issues indicated in the M/P.
Outline of the Project
Overall Goal
Agricultural incomes of the small-scale farmers in Minia and Assiut Governorates were increased.
Project Purpose
Agricultural incomes of the target small-scale farmers and surrounding small-scale farmers in the project area were increased.
Outputs
- Market-oriented extension approach was established.
- Agricultural techniques for value-added products were examined and developed.
- Capacities for making and implementing action plans of the agricultural cooperatives were strengthened.
Farming methods based on the market-oriented approach were deployed within the target agriculture cooperatives and in districts.
Description of Actual Services Provided :
- Attended the meetings with the target women in the target villages and gave advice to them on their income generation activities including marketing of their products, business planning, collective work/ group organization, etc.,
- Gave advice to the counterparts (government officers in Cairo and Governorate and extension officers in the District and village levels) from the gender point of view.
- Conducted gender training sessions to the counterparts and other related stakeholders as required.
- Assisted Japanese experts to prepare manuals / guidelines for gender mainstreaming activities, which included general guideline for gender mainstreaming, business planning of small-scale agri-business, etc., and
- Collected lessons learned from the activities and made recommendations for the gender mainstreaming activities to be carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reform.
- Inquired the current institutional set-up of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation for implementing the gender mainstreaming activities and recommended the future institutional set-up of the Ministry to implement the gender mainstreaming activities by the Ministry.
- Prepared reports, presentation materials, guidelines and other documents as required for the field activities.
- Followed the instruction of Japanese experts as required for improving the field activities for gender mainstreaming.