الفهرس 
مقدمة الدراسة والاستعراض المرجعىOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The Economic Evaluation of Some Rural
Development Programs in Egypt
Summary and Recommendations
Rural development is defined as the group of programs and
projects which are executedto attain targeted rural economic and social
changes as a result of the improvementand organization of the rural
society and its available resources depending on the local and
governmental efforts.
The main objectives of rural development are to increase the
agricultural production, improve rural incomes and social benefits, in
addition to realizing social security and improveming the standard of
living.
Many rural developmentprojects are executed,but it is not known
whether they have attaind sucsess or failed to realize their targets
becauseof the absents of evaluation process.
The present study aims at conducting a financial and economic
evaluation to some activities of one of the rural development projects
namely, the Beheira Rural DevelopmentProject which is conducted by
the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. This project was
selected becauseit representsone of the pioneer projects in the field of
rural development,in addition to its inclusion to multiple activities. Four
activities under the project were selected to be evaluated from the
financial and economic points of view. Theseactivities are: egg chicken
herd, raising rabbits in batteries, raising fish in screen cages and
women activities. Different project evaluation criteria were used to find
out whether these activities has attained their ends or not.
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The study includes four chapters. The first chapter deals with the
introduction which covered the problem of the study, its objectives, the
source of data the sample selection and a review of relevant literature.
The selected sample covered five districts in Beheira governorate
namely, Kafr EI Dawar, ltay EI Baroud, Koum Hamada,EI Mahmoudia
and EI Rahmania. The studied society had been divided into two sub
societies. The first is the graduates and the second is the beneficiaries
(the farmers). Ten observations were selected randomly from each sub
society for egg layers herd, rabbits and fish in three different districts
while 15 women were selected from three districts to present women
activities. The total number of observations was 225 person.
The second chapter covered the definition of the rural community.
This community is the part of the general society which had been
determined by the government as a rural area and where its population
has lived and established rural social groups, organizations and
institutions, in addition to having specific rural culture. The chapter
covered also the phases of the evolution of the rural communities and
the characteristics of their population. It was found that the relative
importance of the rural population in Egypt has been declined over the
period 1927-1996.They represented about 73%of the total population in
1927 against 57%in 1996,becauseof the internal and external migration
of the rural population which reached its peak during the period 1970-
1991. The external migration of the agricultural labour was 27%of the
total migrated agricultural labour force in 1970increased to be 68%in
1977, while the internal migration of this labour to the cities represented
73% of the total migrated labor force in 1970decreased to be 32%in
. 1977.
The study of the unemployment rate of the rural labour force
against that of the urban labor force revealed that the rate of the
unomployed rural males and femaleswho are illiterate or can read and
write was less than that of .t.he urban becausethe work opportunities in
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the rural areas do not dictate a specific level of education. On the
contrary of that, the rate of unemploymentamong the graduates from
the middle and high education institutions was higher in the rural areas
than in the urban areas for both the males and the females.
The second chapter covered also the social and psychological
characteristics of the rural population and the problems that face the
rural communities and their bad results. In addition, the ”definitions of
development in general and rural development and integrated rural
development in particular and the realized objectives of rural
development were studied.
The same chapter discussed the economic development, the
difference between the economic development and the economic
growth, the targets of the agricultural development and and its role in
the economic development of the total society. Social development and
the main services supplied by the social development programs such as
education, health care and family planning was also covered.
Chapter three included the historical phases of rural development
efforts. The period 1882and up to the present time was divided into five
phases of rural development efforts. The first phase (1882~1923)was
affected by the British occupation which was looking only to his own
benefits rather than the farmers’ benefits. The second phase covered
the period 1923~1938after independence.Thethird period (1938~1952)
witnessed a strong popular opinion about the needfor improving the
conditions of the rural population which obliged some minisbies to offer
some services to the rural population. During the fourth phase (1952~
1960) the law of land reform was declared putting a ceiling to land
ownership, and in 1956the unified cooperation law was published to
push the cooperative movement toward development.The fifth period
from 1960 and up to the present time witnessed the central planning
where the agricultural sector was responsible about financing the
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development of the other sectors of the economy. In the year 1973the
authority of Reconstruction and development of the villages was
established to prepare the executive plans and the general policy of
villages’ development.
The third chapter included too, a presentation of some
agricultural development programs and differentiated between
agricultural vertical and horizontal developmentprograms
Agricultural vertical developmentprograms aim at increasing the
efficiency of the agricultural resourcesto increasethe production from
the same amount of resources, or to produce the same amount of
production from less resources. The agricultural investments on the
vertical development programs led to the increase in the cropping area
and the increase in the averageyields of the different agricultural plant
and animal products. Consequently, the total value of agricultural
production has increased continuously, especially over the last decade,
and the rate of self sufficiency has increasedtoo.
The agricultural horizontal developmentprograms aim at adding
new land resources to the cultivated area via the execution of land
reclamation programs. Theadditional reclaimedland amountedto 189.8
thousand feddans during the first five years plan (1982183-1986187),
850.4 thousand feddans during the second five years plan (1987188-
1991192)and about 139.4 thousand feddans during the third five years
plan (1992193-1996197).
The third chapter covered also some social development
programs including youth development programs, health and family
planning programs, rural women programsand education programs.
The fourth chapter delt with the financial and economic evaluation
of Beheira Rural DevelopmentProject.The project started its efforts in
1986. It includes five components namely, soil improvement,
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agricultural intensification, livestock development, agricultural
extension and infrastructure.
Four criteria which are used in project evaluation and how to
measure them were presented.Theyare Net PresentWorth (NPW),Net
Returns on Investment ,Benefit I Cost Ratio (B/C) and the Internal Rate
of Return{IRR).
It was found that one of the project activities was to offer medium
loans to the graduatesand beneficiaries(farmers)via the Principle Bank
for Developmentand Agricultural Credit to executesmall scale projects
to increase their averageincome.Thestudy selected three productive
activities namely, raising egg layers herd, raising rabbits in batteries,
raising fish in screen cages to be evaluated financially and
economically, in addition to a fourth activity dealing with women
(sewing activity). The four activities were evaluated within five years
because the life span of their assets is five years except the sewing
machinewhich has a ten years life span.
The results of the financial analysis indicated that the four
activities were financialy feasible and realized positive net returns at
different levels. Rankingthe three productive activities according to the
value of their four evaluation criteria, raising fish in screen cagescame
first, raising egg layers herd came second and raising rabbits in
batteriescamethird and last
Sensetivity analysis indicated that both raising fish in screen
cages and raising egg chicken herd can resist to the fluctuations in
products and inputs prices and still realizeprofits while raising rabbits
in batterieswas very sensitive to that and realizedlosses.
Economic evaluation indicated that the three activities were
economically feasible and had the same rank as in the financial
analysis.
Women activity in sewing to the others was also feasible from the
financial point of view and the activity realized positive net return.
It can be concluded that the four studied activities had positive
effect on the incomes of the beneficiaries in particular and the national
income in general, acceleratethe rural developmentin the areas of the
project, in addition they help in narrowing the gap in animal protein and
substitute imports especially in fish.
According to the previousely mentioned results, the study
recommendsthe following:
1.Increasing and sustaining literacy programs in rural areas.
2. Raising the efficiency of health programs and increasing the number
of health units, especially in the areaswithout health services.
3.Sustaining the efforts of executing integrated rural development
programs.
4.Regarding Beheirarural developmentproject, the study recommends
the following:
• Encouraging more graduates and farmers to participate in the
activities of the project , especially raising fish in screen cages
becauseof its high net returns.
• Reconsider the costs and returns of the activity of raising rabbits in
batteries to find out the reason behind its sensitivity to price
fluctuation and how to avoid that.
• Encouraging more women to get loans for sewing machines to
emphsize the role of women in increasing their family income and
sharing in rural development.