Water Conservation and Farmers Education in Dakhla Oasis

The project addresses top environmental priorities in Egypt’s desert communities, notably water conservation, modern irrigation techniques, and community development. The development objective of the project is to improve the present agricultural productivity, to select suitable cropping patterns, to enable the diversification of the agricultural production while enhancing water use efficiency, to make better use of natural resources and to increase the household income, including the creation of job opportunities for new graduates in the New Valley. Accordingly, the project aims to promote sustainable development practices targeting farmers from 5 villages in the Dakhla oasis. The project specific objectives are to; Provide job opportunities for youth and recent graduates in agriculture, promote sustainable water management through the use of modern irrigation techniques, build the capacity of small farmers and recent graduates in relation to agricultural practices and economic feasibility for high value crop selection. The organization will establish a revolving fund to implement the capacity building activities. Participating farmers and youth from 5 villages will be granted access to credit in order to install modern irrigation systems and increase their water savings. Each farmer receiving a loan from the revolving fund will contribute 25% of the cost of investment for his land. Project activities come in line with program’s cross-cutting theme of environmental sustainability and in line with CIDA sustainable development strategy. The project methodology adopts participatory community based approaches.