Target Group:
24.000 small and medium sized growers
Project Duration: Four years starting September 21st, 2003
Geographic Areas: Eight governorates of Upper Egypt: Aswan, Luxour, Qena, Sohag, Assuit, Minya, Beni Suef & Fayoum, and Southern Giza, divided into three regions for purposes of organizing the field work.
Donors: USAID
Partners:
The horticulture and extension personnel of the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) and ACDI|VOCA, Nile Valley Group (NVG) and Environment Quality International (EQI).
The Ministry of Agriculture And Land Reclamation (MALR), and the Agriculture Research Center (ARC), will also collaborate in the implementation of the project on both the governorates and the national levels.
Final Goal:
The Purpose of EL-SHAMS is to increase on- and off-farm jobs and rural income in Upper Egypt by building the capacity of small and medium sized growers to improve production, processing, and marketing of horticultural products.
Two major objectives will be pursued:
Objective 1: Improved capacity of smallholders to identify and respond
to opportunities in the horticultural markets.
Objective 2: Increased quality and expanded supply of horticultural products for export as well as domestic markets.
NVG's Role:
NVG is a partner in El-shams project and provides the technical advisory through a highly reputable team of consultants in different fields including production, post- harvest, and processing of fruits, vegetables, and aromatic plants.
Project Strategy:
Participatory, farmer-to-farmer approaches will be used to build Organizational capacity, business skills, technical know-how, and marketing intelligence, Farmers will be empowered to inform and organize themselves to meet the demands of high-value domestic and export market niches.
Farmers Associations (FAs) are and will continue to be self-financing business ventures. They will be served by exporters, seed companies, larger trade associations and other service providers, and Regional Agribusiness Enterprises (RAEs) at the Governorate level. These professionally managed, for-profit enterprises will facilitate training, technical assistance, processing facilities, and consolidating and marketing services to FAs and others.
Project Main Activities:
Seven general activities are used to build the organizational, marketing, and technical capabilities of smallholders, and link their market-oriented production efforts to those of agribusiness concerns, trade associations, and investors to produce a sizeable, sustainable increase in horticultural exports, domestic sales, local income, and both agricultural and non-farm jobs.
These are:
Foster Growers' Associations, Grow Regional Enterprises, Build Skills in Business, Marketing, Quality Control, and Learning from Results, Build Technological Capacity, Strengthen MALR Extension Agents, Build in self-replication, and Use market pull to energize.