As the Ministry of Agriculture allocates land to graduate farmers, an official of the Farmers’ Syndicate is appealing to young men to stay in Egypt and work the land
As the Ministry of Agriculture allocates land to graduate farmers, an official of the Farmers’ Syndicate is appealing to young men to stay in Egypt and work the land
“Why do young people in our country seek to go abroad? I am pleading with them to stay in Egypt; we have a job opportunity for every young man here.” The head of the Egyptian Farmers’(Fellahin) Syndicate spoke with forceful confidence at a conference held last month on the problems of illegal emigration, mainly by young men.
I wondered when and how this man, who spoke with such courage, had risen to become head of this syndicate? And was there really a syndicate for fellahin in Egypt? So, on behalf of Watani, I set out to meet him.
Will you tell us about yourself? And when was the syndicate formed?
My name is Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Qader. I come from the district of Beheira, west of the Delta. My father passed away in 1973 when I was only in primary school. His pension was a mere EGP16 a month, and we had to leave the house we lived in since it belonged to the factory where my father had worked and had to be returned to the factory once my father was no longer a worker there.
To afford my school fees and the house rent, I had to work every summer with my uncles on their land at Manyal-Salama in Beheira. While I was at preparatory school I worked at Alexandria Customs to earn EGP5 a day for packing cement. I then obtained a diploma at a technical secondary school in Kafr al-Dawwar, also in the Delta. Then in 1990, after I finished military service, I was granted by the government a five-feddan plot of land through the Graduates Project in Nubariya.
In 1993, as a result of pesticide spray, disease broke out among the young farmers and people working on the land, especially affecting the liver and kidneys. I was one of a delegation of young people who went to meet the then health minister to demand health insurance for those graduates who worked on the land.
This request, the then minister told us, should have been introduced through a body representing farmers, or a syndicate. So we tried to declare ourselves a syndicate at the Labour Ministry, but this was rejected.
In 1996 I married and lived with my wife in Nubariya. I now have two sons, Abdel-Rahman, 16, and Essam, 13.
But after the 25 January Revolution I went to the Ministry of Agriculture with a number of fellahin (farmers) from all over Egypt; each is a representative to his governorate.
“On 11 April 2011, a public syndicate for fellahin was declared through the Labour Force Ministry. It is not affiliated to any political party or stream.
Who acts as financier of your syndicate? And where are its headquarters?
So far, there is no financier. Our syndicate’s head office is in an apartment building near the agricultural hospital in Doqqi, Giza. The rent is paid monthly by Mr Ahmed Abdel-Rahim, the syndicate’s counsel, while the apartment’s furniture and workers’ salaries are afforded by other figures, agricultural engineers and veterinarians who are interested in our syndicate.
What are the conditions of membership of the syndicate? And what are the membership fees?
Whoever has an ID card in which he or she is registered as a farm labourer has the right to be a member. Also, anyone who provides services for farmers, such as agricultural engineers who help them with agricultural instructions and the veterinarians who take care of the animals on the farms.
The syndicate has offices all over Egypt. The annual membership fees are EGP12, and only three pounds for the first registration.
How many members have joined so far? And what is the coming agenda of the syndicate?
So far, the membership has reached more than 900,000, with most having no profession except farming. There are no conditions on age, and a large proportion of members are women since farmers’ wives and children often follow in a family career.
Our goal is to guarantee a full health insurance for every farmer and his family. Egypt’s actual number of fellahin is more than 45 million, but in official papers the number mentioned is only eight million.
We are currently processing a study for the best treatment project for the fellahin and their families until the projected law for healthcare for them is reviewed in parliament. We are also endeavouring to fund a pension for every fellah (farmer) over the age 60, because when he retires he won’t find another source of income.
Among other plans, we are planning to establish an agricultural stock exchange for fellahin, and to establish ‘fellah company’ with the aim of producing safe fertilisers while at the same time enlightening the farmer as to the dangers of pesticides.
And through contact with governors, we are endeavouring to assign land in every governorate to build houses for fellahin at inexpensive rents. Beheira governorate is to allocate 10,000 feddans for a scientific compound containing laboratories for analysing the soil and producing high quality seed. A hotel will be built within this area to host fellahin while they are on study courses to learn about safe and modern farming methods that save water.
Furthermore, an Internet network will be provided to help farmers market their products worldwide.
Which authorities does the syndicate expect to cooperate with in the coming period?
First of all is the Cabinet, which will facilitate all the necessary procedures for healthcare, pensions and recommendations to governors for allocating land for farmers’ services.
Then there is the agricultural research centre to help show farmers how they can keep up to date with every modern farming method. And the farmers’ sons abroad, who number in the thousands, can help with marketing as well as with material and experience support.
We already have contacts with emigrant Egyptians. Some of them wish to remain in touch with their roots and have, jointly with relatives who live in Egypt, set up agricultural projects in new regions such as Nubariya and Khattatba.
Is the Egyptian farmer innocent of charges of building on or otherwise violating agricultural land for the sake of money?
Any violation of agricultural lands is a crime, and unfortunately, Egypt is the victim. I agree that the farmers may not be innocent of this crime. But no one attempted to know about their problems, or to learn why they violated the land which is their livelihood.
Part of this problem lies with the officials’ intransigence about giving the farmers a licence to build their own houses. They have to build on land nearby, otherwise where will their sons live when they get married?
Should graduates and young farmers be granted land as they were in 1990? Was the experiment successful?
We are already attempting to do so again; this would be a solution to the issue of unemployment in Egypt. But we should avoid the errors of the first time. Even though I am a farmer, I have had to leave my land in Nubariya because I had so many problems.
Watani recently learned that the Ministry of Agriculture has issued a decree allocating land to young farmers, with the first phase starting in ten governorates.
WATANI International
26 February 2012