Egypt : the Egyptian American rural improvement service, a Point Four project, 1952-63

Alignment with Egypt's top political and developmental goals enabled EARIS to successfully reclaim 37,000 acres of lake bottom and desert land at three sites, build 13 complete and 64 satellite villages, and resettle 7,500 landless families. A semi-autonomous structure facilitated implementation but hindered transfer of responsibility to Egypt's line ministries, while infrastructure building was unrealistic and lacked long-term planning for upkeep and recurrent costs. The project's main accomplishment was to put needed inputs - land, water, credit - into the hands of small farmers. Political shifts and the move to large state farms on reclaimed land prevented its replication. The 30,000 acre site at Abis was EARIS's most successful, thanks in part to the marketing, economic, and service opportunities offered by nearby Alexandria. Today, farm income in Abis has risen dramatically, average large animal holdings have increased from 1 to 4 per household, and land values have soared; prosperity is evident. Individual and cooperative investments have allowed farmers to intensify land use, control marketing, and process their milk and cheese. About 25% of cropland is devoted to high-value vegetable production, and cereal crop production equals or exceeds that of the Old Lands. The two desert reclamation sites, Qoota and Kom Osheim, totaling 7,000 acres, have not fared as well. Only a fraction of the lands' productive potential is now being used due to the large-scale withdrawal - legal and illegal - of irrigation water by spontaneous land reclamation upstream. Some of the 1,600 settler families have abandoned their farms and many who remain depend on semi-skilled work in Cairo. The project taught that small farms on reclaimed land are financially viable and highly productive if irrigation water is assured and well-managed and farmer choice permitted and that population increases result in land fragmentation, indicating the need for a diversified economic base. U.S. support for the project made a difference that is still felt.