UNDP Drylands Development Centre

1
UNDP Drylands Development Centre Stakeholder
Workshop on Equitable Access to Land and Water
Resources, Beirut, November 28th 30th
EGYPT CASE STUDY Presented by Dr.
Mostafa K. Madbouly
2
Land Tenure in Egypt Historical Background

• The record of first land tenure system returns
  back to Ancient Egypt boundaries in land were
  marked and recorded centrally and was the basis
  of annual taxes collected by local government.
• Ottoman law 1858 defined most cultivated land as
  state owned land with 5 types of tenure.
• 19th century, Radical reform Mohamed Ali
  abolished tax system of rural administration and
  established a direct and centralized system of
  assessment and collection of land tax.
• Muhammad Ali used a cadastral survey and the
  inspection of deeds to reassert central control
  of the land and its product. Facilitating private
  ownership through granting land to his
  supporters.
• Land tenure situation till 1952 94.2 of the
  total land owners held 35.5 of the land while
  only 5.8 of owners held the remaining 64.5.

3
Land reforms, land redistribution and major
policy changes

• In 1952, A radical land reform (widely considered
  as one of the world's most successful reforms
  that inspired other Arab countries to follow the
  same model).
• The Reform has given the state the power to seize
  an individuals privately held land that exceeded
  200 feddan, a ceiling reduced to 100 feddan in
  1961.
• Seized land was redistributed to agricultural
  laborers and tenant farmers with holdings of less
  than 5 feddan.
• The recipients on average received 2.4 feddan and
  paid for the land in installments over a 40-year
  period. Almost 2 million beneficiaries of the
  reforms
• The rural poor benefited from extensive
  government food and agricultural input subsidies,
  improved health and education provision.
• Government emphasized the establishment of
  agricultural co-operative organizations.
• Regulation of the landlord-tenant relationship
  through fixing the land lease to 7 times the land
  taxes

4
Land reforms, land redistribution and major
policy changes

• Although, this reform contributed to reduce
  poverty, it failed to increase productivity and
  growth of the agricultural sector. (annual growth
  rate is less than 2 in front of 3 natural
  population growth).
• Other policies (price and marketing controls,
  state ownership of major agricultural industries
  and an overvalued exchange rate) have contributed
  to the agricultural crisis.
• New Reform since 1980s to adopt another policy
  reform towards land tenure and productivity in
  rural Egypt and promote the withdrawal of the
  state from economic activity through
• liberalizing markets and input provision.
• promoting the production for export of
  high-value, low-nutrition foodstuffs and cut
  flowers for Europe.
• The new reform reached its peak momentum with the
  issuance of law 96 in 1992. It revoked the
  former Agrarian Reform of 1952 that had given
  tenants security of tenure and legalized the
  right to inherit tenancy agreements.

5
Land reforms, land redistribution and major
policy changes

• The new law fully enacted in October 1997 after a
  five-year transition period.
• Contracts during the transition remained valid so
  rights to inherit land tenancy but the rent after
  1992 was increased from 7 to at least 22 times
  the land tax.
• After the enactment of the new law, all
  landowners could take back their land and charge
  tenants market-based rent, which in some cases
  increased to 300400 per cent.
• Tenancies became annual contracts renewed at the
  landowners discretion and landowners can dispose
  their land without notifying tenants.
• Despite contract renewal, they remain vulnerable
  and insecure because of threats of eviction from
  landlords.
• Although this reform was meant to improve the
  land market, the land market has not developed as
  expected due to the problem of land registration
  or titling which characterizes both rural and
  urban land markets in Egypt.

6
Land reforms, land redistribution and major
policy changes

• The national program reclamation of state owned
  desert land.
• Starting from 1960s, the government adopted a new
  program for reclaiming desert land through public
  owned and managed projects in the desert.
• A major shift has taken place in the 1980s, when
  The Graduates Project has started.
• The program aimed to offer small parcel of
  reclaimed land in the desert (5-10 acres) to
  young graduates to generate new employment and
  substitute for the land lost from tenants in old
  Valley and Delta due to new land reforms 1992.
• The land price is set to cover the cost of
  infrastructure provision (water supply for
  irrigation). Land is given through long term
  lease with annual installation.
• At the end land ownership is transferred to
  beneficiary.
• Small villages were constructed by the State in
  form of clusters of housing units with limited
  number of community services.

7
Land Tenure Systems today

• Private Ownership or Freehold
• Land is registered with the local office of the
  land registration division (Ministry of Justice)
  and owned by private persons or companies.
• The vast majority of land in old rural areas in
  Egypt follows this type of ownership.
• There are some particular modes of ownership in
  Egypt
• Customary land ownership Bedouins in north
  western coast
• The Right of Preemption (Shufa)
• Inheritance Regulations fragmentation of land
  holding often results.

• Public Ownership
• It includes governorate Amlak land, land reform,
  antiquity and military properties. It comes under
  two main types
• State Domain desert, uncultivated or unclaimed
  land which could be transferred to any body . It
  is administered by governorate or sectoral
  central agencies. This land could be disposed
  through lease, Waqf, Encroachment.
• Public Domain serves as public utility, such as,
  rivers and streams, roads, military installations
  .

8
Institutional Mechanism governing land tenure in
Egypt

• Land tenure is managed and controlled through
  different institutions under two main
  classifications
• Land within the zimam (along with two kilometers
  beyond the zimam)
• Desert lands outside zimam.
• Zimam refers to the limits of the perimeter that
  comprises urban lands within village cordons, as
  well as cultivated and uncultivated agricultural
  lands that have been surveyed by the Egyptian
  Survey Authority (ESA) and included in the
  register of agricultural lands and real estate
  maintained by the Real Estate Tax Department
  (RETD).

9
Institutional Mechanism governing land tenure in
Egypt

• Lands within the Zimam and two kilometers
  outside
• The vast majority of Agricultural land is
  privately owned with 95 of ownership less than 5
  acres
• public land inside Zimam owned by Governorate,
  which also control public land 2 km outside Zimam
  unless this land is earmarked to other sectoral
  central agencies
• Two registration systems co-exist in Egypt
• Title registration system (called sejel ainee
  and regulated through Law No. 142 of 1964) that
  is applied in rural areas. Its application
  started only 1976. First registration fee was
  very high and has been reduced by 50. It is
  poorly updated
• Deed recordation system (called sejel shakhsee
  and regulated through Law No. 114 of 1946), which
  historically covered the whole country and
  currently remains in force in urban areas only.
• Both deed and title registrations are voluntary
  !!.
• (ESA) estimate 70-80 of agricultural lands are
  covered under the title registration system
  (using a cadastral file with a unique parcel
  identifier for each property unit), the remaining
  20-30 are still covered under the deed
  recordation system (using the transaction
  parties information as identifiers).

10
Institutional Mechanism governing land tenure in
Egypt

• Desert Lands outside Zimam
• Land is controlled by sectoral ministries and
  their affiliated agencies according to Egypt
  Development Map of 2017.
• GARPAR is the main governmental body for
  managing, developing and disposing land for
  agricultural and reclamation purposes whether
  through direct selling or leasing for individual
  beneficiaries, investors and cooperatives.

11
Land rights and water rights in Egypt

• The land and water tenure in Egypt can not be
  separated specially in old rural areas. According
  to Islamic regulation, water cannot be sold.
• Nile's water and public canals are owned by all
  Egyptians but managed by the State (Ministry of
  Public Works and Water Resources),
• The planning of water resources started around
  1850 with the erection of water control
  structures such as barrages, canals, weirs.
• Excessive irrigation and poorly maintained
  drainage systems resulted in a high water table
  causing (water-logging) in lower areas in Delta
  and Fayoum. This reduced land fertility and
  caused several environmental and health problems.
• The issue of not paying for water use has
  encouraged overuse and distorted any incentives
  of users to preserve the resource or to use it in
  a cost-effective way.

12
Land rights and water rights in Egypt

• Water is becoming scarce. Based on the current
  policy of rationalizing the use of water for
  agriculture (85 of the annual size of water
  usage), savings of water have been emphasized
  through water management and improvement of the
  conveyance system.
• water is distributed according to a defined time
  schedule among different land parcels within
  certain location according to conveying system
  depends on the location of the land and its
  proximity from main source of water.
• The implementation of this system since 1990 has
  resulted in several unrest occasions among
  peasants who were fighting upon who should get
  access to water prior to the rest.
• The poor specially women have been the most
  vulnerable group in this action
• water-user associations (WUAs) aim to enhance
  local decision-making structures, started at the
  mid-1990s,
• WUAs were formed to improve water delivery into
  mesqas (small irrigation canals), and to operate
  and maintain improved mesqas and improve on-farm
  water-user efficiency. By 1999 there were about
  2,900 registered WUAs.

13
Land and Gender

• The gender issue in rural Egypt has been always
  obscured within all formal reports or studies
  analyzing the land and water tenure.
• women have been on the top of the list of those
  groups who suffered from the land reform 1992.
• Women headed households have been affected by a
  decline in their livelihoods.
• Several women, who worked tenancies registered in
  their late husbands name, were expelled from the
  land in October 1997. Either because they could
  not afford paying the new rent or landlord did
  not like the idea of renting land for women.
• WUAs are totally dominated by men. No single
  female member at any WUA board.

14
Problems and Challenges, and Entry Points for
Intervention

• Land tenure for tenants, specially the poor due
  to recent land reform 1992, has become unsecured.
  The need to supporting program for poor.
• Difficulties of proofing land ownership and weak
  and out-dated land registration system. This area
  need urgent intervention and support.
• High cost of land transaction discouraging
  registration
• Withdrawal of government has not been compensated
  with activation of NGOs or CDAs roles. The need
  to promote that role through donors
• Lack of infrastructure in rural areas causing
  sever environmental degradation. The need to
  adopt new environment-friendly techniques
• The need to revisit the water tenure and charging
  for water usage.
• Restriction on changing land uses in rural areas
  caused informal development. The need to revise
  laws and regulation and simplifying procedures.
• Gender issue remains a major bottleneck. Need for
  urgent support.

15
Farafrah Land Reclamation Scheme through
self-initiatives

• The Farafrah Oasis is considered to be the
  eastern gate.
• 550 km from Cairo
• 13,000 inhabitants (only 4,000 before the
  project)
• Rich underground water
• Land reclamation is main economic activity with
  agro-industry, and services.
• Tourism (Natural preserved areas)

16
Farafrah Land Reclamation Scheme through
self-initiatives

• Tenure prior to the change
• Reclamation land have been disposed by GARPAR to
  two main beneficiary groups
• 3 Cooperatives (5,100 acres)
• 6 Graduate Projects (13,000 acres)
• Huge parcels of lands suitable for reclamation
  outside these projects were available and not
  earmarked to any body or listed in any intended
  development projects with available water
  resources.
• In 1995, Workers in the mentioned projects
  discovered this potential and started to reclaim
  by their own and inviting their relatives from
  different Egyptian governorates to join them
• Some land brokers encroached on parts of these
  land and sold it to new comers illigally
• Being aware of this manipulation, the new comers
  insisted to keep these lands especially with the
  absence of any governmental respond.

17
Farafrah Land Reclamation Scheme through
self-initiatives

• New comers, squatted on nearby land and built
  temporary shelter with no infrastructure and
  services
• With the increasing number of new comers,
  families started to share one room together.
• Those families have managed to achieve
  substantial results in reclaiming indisposed land
  without any support from the government.
• They transferred their long experiences in
  agriculture and social useful habits (weekly open
  market to sell products) to the original
  residents.
• In less than 2 years, 2000 families (8,000
  persons) have settled and managed to reclaim
  12,000 acres with new crops (wheat, sunflowers,
• GARPAR started to claim the right of land
  ownership and officially asked those families to
  pay a concession fee of LE.100 per feddan on
  annual basis.
• In addition, because of the increased area of
  reclaimed lands, the problem of water
  availability for irrigation started to emerge.
• Based on these problems, new comers began to
  worry about their legal position regarding land
  tenure,

18
Farafrah Land Reclamation Scheme through
self-initiatives

• Tenure problem to be solved
• The new comers addressed both local elected and
  Executive councils since 1999, nothing has been
  done till 2001when those residents have organized
  themselves during a site visit of the Governor
  and managed to present their fair requests.
• Governor addressed both Minister of Agriculture
  (MALR) and Minister of water resources requesting
  their support those families given the facts
• The current situation has turned to be a de-facto
  situation
• The interest of governorate to avoid reverse
  migration from those new comers who increased the
  residential occupancy and improved economic
  situation in the city
• Introduction of new agricultural crops such
  characterized with high economic return.
• A special committee from the two ministries and
  governorate has been formulated to regularize
  land tenure and solve the need for water
  resources.

19
Farafrah Land Reclamation Scheme through
self-initiatives

• Results Achieved
• The Minister of agriculture has issue a formal
  decree of allocating the lands as lands for
  reclamation purpose to be disposed to those
  beneficiaries through a formal concession
  contract,
• The Ministry of Water Resources has set a plan
  for digging new 58 wells for these lands to be
  implemented on ten phases. The first two phases
  consisting of 28 wells have been dogged in from
  2002 till 2004.
• The governorate together with the Ministry of
  Local Development have initiated several local
  development programs through which new housing
  units have been constructed.
• The new housing schemes have been planned and
  provided with water supply, electricity and
  internal network of sewage,
• Through the support of agricultural cooperatives,
  the new comers managed to export their products
  to several countries in Europe
• The rise of some natural leaders among those
  people who managed to organize the residents and
  voice their requests to governors and other
  concerned agencies.

20
Farafrah Land Reclamation Scheme through
self-initiatives

• Lessons learned, policy implications, elements of
  key importance.
• The role of central and local government from
  providers of lands and services to enablers for
  local initiatives together with the provision of
  basic services
• The need to build the capacity of local
  communities in self-organization and reaching
  decision makers to fulfill their requests
• Land price and conditions for land disposition
  should be simplified and comply with the
  affordability of target groups.
• Thanks !!!!