Category: News

Not only do lining canals help use water efficiently, but also they increase agricultural yields. However, canal lining has not been popular in Egypt until recently. Water leakage, higher costs of fuel and canals purification are the main problems with mud-made canals. Hamzawy Ibrahim, a farmer in Nazza Karar village, Assiut governorate says: “We used to purify canals 4 times per season with a cost of 100EGP/ feddan each time in addition to fuel and labor”. New canals occupy 1.20 square meters only instead of 5-meter mud canals. The space left after building the new canals is cultivated. Snakes, rats, mosquitos and all sorts of insects living in mud canals used to damage a valuable portion of the crop yield. Lining canals reduces time and fuel consumed on water uplifting engines. “It takes two hours to irrigate the land, half the time spent before”, Zakaria Gaber, farmer at Nazza Karar underlines. Less fuel and time means more yield and profits for farmers. Despite of scarcity of water resources, most farmers still follow the same old irrigation techniques. Out of the belief in the importance of developing the agriculture sector as a gateway to achieving socio-economic development in Upper Egypt, CARE, through Hayat Kareema project, introduces innovative irrigation systems to improve the efficiency of irrigation and agricultural systems in Upper Egypt. The EU- funded project offered sub-grants to cooperatives and local civil society associations to construct new-concreted irrigation canals. Marwa Hussein, the Agriculture and Natural Resources Program Director at CARE Egypt says:
“lining canals helps thousands of farmers reduce costs of production and increase their yields, thus improve their profitability for years to come”.Hamzawy and his neighbors set an example for more farmers to follow. “Other farmers see how beneficial the new canals are and decided to build their own canals”, he says. Farmers have also enhanced the system by adding a metal door to block and/or unblock the water flow in the canal. As a result of these interventions, more farmers now are interested in this model. CARE has provided one kilometer of concreted canals in the village. “We still need 5 kilometers here in the village while other farmers in surrounding villages still do not have any concreted canals”, Hamzawy highlights. After the project completion, farmers who own large pieces of land already built canals on their own expenses; however, small farmers cannot afford the expenses. “In order for this system to be 100% efficient, we need everyone to be onboard”, Hamzawy adds. “We thank CARE and the European Union for helping us and wish to see more canals in the village soon”, Zakaria says.

Filtering and packaging is another example of introducing machinery in agriculture sector. Beni Suef governorate produces vegetables and fruits allocated for exportation. However, filtering and packaging process took place outside of the governorate which previously led to yield losses. Launching a filtering and packaging unit in Ezzbet Hussein Namek has created new job opportunities for many women in the village. The majority of women used to work in yield collection. Work conditions were harsh and remuneration was not good enough. “I used to go to the field at 5.00 am and turn back home after 7.00 pm. Farms are always far away from the village. Even in case of emergency, I could not go back home. No toilettes, no break area to rest, nothing! We work for uninterrupted hours”, Madiha Geneidi, one of the women workers in crop collection then filtering and packaging explains. “I have a four years old son. I have to leave him with one of the neighbors to go out to work. What if he gets sick?! I cannot come back home until all women finish the work and get into the car”, she adds. Women are paid 50 cents/ kilogram for both collection and filtering and packaging. For them, working next door in flexible working hours is better than the work in the crop field. “Any worker who wants to be excused for an emergency can leave and come back later to pursue the work”, Eid Imam, CDA chairman at Ezzbet Hussein Namek highlights. “I get paid the same amount of money but I get to work in a clean shadowed space with toilettes”, Noha Mahmoud working at the filtering unit explains. Norms prevent women from leaving their houses for long hours and go to long distanced places. “My husband would not let me work if I go to farms far away from the house. Filtering vegetables next door is a suitable job for me”, Noha says.
To ensure the sustainability of the unit, the CDA relies on training workers on delivering high-quality produces to exporters. It also plays the role of middleman between the producer and exporter through initiating contractual agriculture agreements.“We deliver training to workers about the required specifications of the end product to avoid any dismissals while delivering”, Eid explains. “We opt to keep this unit running for helping over 100 workers/day to improve their livelihoods”, he adds.

Today, CARE is turning 72 years of it’s global operations and work globally “Defending Dignity, Fighting Poverty”.
while CARE International in Egypt turned 63 today as we have proudly been in Egypt since 1954.