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In November 2022, AFC, together with its consortium partner North South Consultants Exchange (NSCE) from Egypt, have been commissioned by the German International Cooperation (GIZ) for consulting services in irrigated agriculture for the GIZ-Nile Delta Water Management Programme (GIZ-NDWM).
The consultancy service, which includes four work packages, focuses on four selected governorates in the Nile Delta, with the aim to contribute to more efficient use of water resources at the farm level. The target groups are representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) as well as farmer cooperatives, in which predominantly younger males and female farmers are organised.
After a joint planning and inception workshop on March 21st with all project partners, including representatives from the central level of MALR and the four governorates, the project started implementing the first activities.
In this context we would like to highlight our support to the Agricultural Extension Service in implementing extension activities and rolling out to more farmers, using different formats to disseminate good agricultural practices and efficient water use messages. In a first step, 40 educational (demonstration) fields were established at selected Farmer Field Schools (FFS). As kick-off activity, planting days for four selected summer crops (tomato, soybean, maize and cotton) were organized in all FFS in cooperation with the farmers, the staff of the Agriculture Departments of the respective governorates, with GIZ-NDWM staff and the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the MALR.
Subsequently, various extension activities were implemented in 20 districts of the four governorates such as awareness-raising sessions. These events included:
- demonstrations of specific farming methods and equipment
- the presentation of research methods aimed at improving resource use efficiency and
- introducing new water conservation measures
- the procurement of production inputs and materials
In July, a five-day training on the principles of monitoring and evaluation was organised, attended by 25 participants from the MALR monitoring teams of four governorates and the PMU. The objective of the training was to increase participants' knowledge on aspects such as data collection, economic analysis, and impact evaluation of the project activities. As a result of the training, a planning document was developed that will guide further coaching of the monitoring teams in the governorates during the regular monitoring of FFS impacts and measuring adoption.
We are pleased that some of our activities have received wide coverage and attention through various local networks (e.g. pages of the Directorate of Agriculture of each governorate as well as newspapers).
Below are some selected articles about our activities in Arabic, language can be adapted to English:
- FFS:
https://www.gomhuriaonline.com/Gomhuria/1276359.html
- M&E training
https://www.elmydannews.com/210496
For more details about the project, please contact AFC project manager: Peter Hofmann (Peter.Hofmann [at] afci.de)
Alternatively, contact AFC-Team leader in Egypt: Frank Giesel (frank.giesel [at] afci.de)