Liberalisierung und Privatisierung der ägyptischen Landwirtschaft

Abstract

Within the general framework of liberalization and privatization of the Egyptian economy, agriculture has clearly been at the fore front of other sectors in initiating reforms since the 1980s. As a result of liberalizing input and output prices, eliminating crop area controls, and raising land rents, the cropping pattern and the socio-economic situation of the rural population has changed considerably. Tenants and agricultural labourers, in particular, are the main losers of the liberalization policy. The privatization of state farms in the newly reclaimed lands has also made enormous progress. Based on an extensive survey in the new lands along the north-west Delta, the author analyses the different types of farms which have developed as a result of the recent changes in the agricultural policy. Whereas the distribution of new lands to tens of thousands of graduates from schools and universities is at least partially to be regarded as a failure, highly productive farms have been established both by former agricultural labourers applying traditional methods of cultivation as well as by private investors using the latest irrigation techniques and producing mainly for export.