Politics, power and poverty: Twenty years of agricultural reform and market liberalisation in Egypt

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 28, Issue 8, 2007, Pages 1599-1615

  Bush, Ray ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL PRICE; AGRICULTURAL REFORM; CAPITALISM; LIBERALIZATION; RURAL DEVELOPMENT; RURAL ECONOMY; SMALLHOLDER;

AFRICA; EGYPT; NORTH AFRICA;

EID: 36148971172     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436590701637441     Document Type: Article

References (84)

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2. Beinen & el-Hamalawy, 'Strikes in Egypt spread from center of gravity', 2007, at www.merip.org/mero/mero050907.html.
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4. USAID, 'USAID/Egypt agriculture', 1998
5. USAID, Agriculture: Vision for 2003, MALR/USAID Agricultural Policy Reform Programme, RDI policy brief, no. 1, November, Cairo, 1999.
6. For the sake of simplicity I will refer to these lands as 'new'.
7. Fellahin (plural of fellah) means 'tillers of the soil'. The term is also used to describe a rural as opposed to an urban dweller.
8. KM Cuno, The Pasha's Peasants: Land, Society and Economy in Lower Egypt, 1740-1858, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1992.
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13. S Radwan & E Lee, Agrarian Change in Egypt: Anatomy of Rural Poverty London: Croom Helm, 1986.
14. R Hinnebusch, ''The formation of the contemporary Egyptian state from Nasser and Sadat to Mubarak', in IM Oweiss (ed), The Political Economy of Egypt, Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1990.
15. Ibid, p 190.
16. M Cooper, The Transformation of Egypt, London: Croom Helm, 1982.
17. USAID and Government of Egypt, 'Taking stock: Eight years of Egyptian agricultural policy reforms', paper presented at the Agricultural Policy Conference, Cairo, 26-28 March 1995, p 4.
18. See also R Bush, Economic Crisis and the Politics of Reform in Egypt Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.
19. USAID, 'USAID/Egypt agriculture'
20. USAID, USAID/Egypt economic growth overview', at http://www.info.usaid.gov/eg/econ-ovr.htm, 1998
21. and USAID, 'Egypt: Congressional presentation', at http://usaid.gov/pubs/ cp2000/ane/egypt/html, 2000.
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27. www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/countries/egypt/.
28. www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2007/ane/eg.html.
29. The Bush administration announced a further $13 billion pledge to Egypt for military assistance on 30 July 2007. Dan Glaister 'US accused of fuelling arms race with $20 bn Arab weapons sale', Guardian, 30 July 2007.
30. MA Faris & MH Khan (eds), Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner
31. and LB Fletcher (ed), Egypt's Agriculture in a Reform era, Ames, IO: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
32. T Mitchell, 'The market's place' in N Hopkins & K Westergaard (eds), Directions of Change in Rural Egypt, Cairo: American University Press in Cairo, 1998
33. Bush, Economic Crisis and the Politics of Reform in Egypt
34. and Bush (ed), Counter-Revolution in Egypt's Countryside: Land and Farmers in the Era of Economic Reform, London: Zed Books, 2002.
35. Poor quality data collection also raises questions of the accuracy of the data used by the IFIs.
36. Mitchell, 'The market's place'.
37. Figures for 2005 taken from Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Bulletin of Foreign Trade, Cairo: Government of Egypt, 2005
38. and for 2002 from Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Bulletin of Foreign Trade, Cairo: Government of Egypt, 2003.
39. USAID and Government of Egypt, 'Taking stock'
40. Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Bulletin of Foreign Trade, Cairo: Government of Egypt, 2003.
41. Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Crop Production Tables Cairo: Government of Egypt, 2006.
42. T Mitchell, 'The object of development: America's Egypt', in J Crush (ed), Power of Development, London: Routledge, 1995, p 135.
43. The counter-revolution has also dramatically increased rural poverty and unemployment. See N Fergany, 'Poverty and unemployment in rural Egypt', in Bush, Counter Revolution in the Egyptian Countryside.
44. R Saad, 'State, landlord, parliament and peasant: The story of the 1992 tenancy law in Egypt', in A Bowman & E Rogan (eds), Agriculture in Egypt from Pharaonic to Modern Times, Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol 96, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999
45. and Saad, 'Egyptian politics and the tenancy law', in Bush, Counter Revolution in the Egyptian Countryside.
46. Saad 'Egyptian politics and the tenancy law'.
47. See for instance, USAID and Government of Egypt, A Study on Developing a Revised, Integrated Land and Water Plan, USAID, Agricultural Policy Reform Programme, Reform Design and Implementation Unit, BB Attia et al, December 1997, p 1, Cairo.
48. Awlad al Ard, 'Violence in Egypt's countryside', mimeo, Cairo, 2007
49. and Awlad al Ard,' Report on Dandeet and survey of tenants and near landless', mimeo, Cairo, 2007.
50. Land Center for Human Rights (Markaz el Ard), 'Farmer struggles against Law 96 of 1992', in Bush, Counter Revolution in Egypt's Countryside p 127.
51. Awlad al Ard, 'Violence in Egypt's countryside'.
52. Field visit and interviews with farmers, 23 April 2007.
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54. MH Abdel Aal, 'Agrarian reform and tenancy in Upper Egypt', in Bush, Counter Revolution in Egypt's Countryside.
55. World Bank, Arab Republic of Egypt Toward Agricultural Competitiveness in the 21st Century.
56. See also S El Saharty, G Richardson & S Chase, Egypt and the Millennium Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities, HNP Discussion Paper, Washington, DC: World Bank, February 2005.
57. World Bank, Arab Republic of Egypt Toward Agricultural Competitiveness in the 21st Century, Annex A2.
58. GE El-Din, 'A future for fruits', Al Ahram Weekly, 13-19 January 2000.
59. Government of Egypt, Bulletin of Foreign Trade, Cairo: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, 2005.
60. World Bank, Arab Republic of Egypt Toward Agricultural Competitiveness in the 21st Century, p 31.
61. Ibid.
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63. Government of Egypt, Bulletin of Foreign Trade, 2005.
64. The USA spends at least $4.2 billion supporting its cotton farmers. Egypt'sMinister for Foreign Trade and Industry noted in 2005 that US subsidies meant that American Pima cotton sold at $1.01/libra compared with $1.18/libra for Egyptian-produced Giza 70, $1.12/libra for Giza 88 and $1.09/libra for Giza 86. See Wahish (2006).
65. USAID, Country Program Strategy.
66. World Bank, 'Arab Republic of Egypt'.
67. Another estimate suggests that spending by 2017 for Upper Egypt development of the New Valley oases will be $90 billion. R Noeman, 'Egypt pours money into desert reclamation', at www.planetark.org/ avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9340, 2000, accessed 4 June 2007
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70. R Kaplan, The Ends of the Earth, London: Papermac, 1996
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72. and J Waterbury, Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1979.
73. For a critique see Mitchell, 'The object of development'.
74. This was in fact the revival of a scheme suggested in the 1950s.
75. 'California commodities', Rural Migration News 2002, at www.migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/comments.php?id=607_0_5_0, accessed 4 June 2007.
76. T Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002, p 274.
77. Ibid, p 274.
78. 'Alwaleed backs Toshka', Trade Arabia, 12 March 2007, at www.tradearabia.com/news/newsprint.asp?Article=120294&Sn=AGRI, accessed 4 June 2007.
79. World Bank, Arab Republic of Egypt Toward Agricultural Competitiveness in the 21st Century; 2001a.
80. Dina Essat, 'Not a drop to drink', Al Ahram Weekly, at www.weekly.ahram.org.eg/print/2007/853/eg9.htm, accessed 26 July 2007.
81. R Said, The Future of Egypt: Water, Energy and the Desert, Cairo: Dar el Helal, 2004, p 145.
82. World Bank, Arab Republic of Egypt Toward Agricultural Competitiveness in the 21st Century, p viii.
83. Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Census 2000, Cairo: Ministry of Agriculture, 2000.
84. Ibid.