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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. 2 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 3 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 4 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, 5 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. |