Modern farmers needed

There are role models for youth to follow says Samir Raafat*

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All it takes is one look to realize urbane Kassem Mourad, 35, does not represent the typical fellah. First impression says his natural habitat tilts more towards a bank or advertising job in a Cairo, Dubai or London rather than in a clover field next to a water buffalo.

Quoting Mourad's own words, "Farming in the Egyptian countryside is certainly not paved with roses." But then not everyone wants to spend his entire life pushing paper behind a desk in closed offices in polluted cities. But how many are like Mourad ready to forego a secure monthly paycheck for the risks of nature and the whims of world commodity exchange prices?

Unwittingly Mourad's journey against the tide brings us to our food security problem, which alas is making dismal headlines again. Food self sufficiency lies to a great extent in our ability to develop our agriculture sector and meet the double challenge of land and water scarcity compounded by the negative implications of rapid climate change. And yes, there is also that ever growing population snag.Yet we can achieve food security if we get more of our graduates interested in this vital domain. This is not an easy task as most of our youth do not find in professions such as agriculture the required career prospects that could help them meet their aspirations.

Some of the first questions that come to mind when attempting to address this issue are: Is toiling the land outmoded? Are we doing enough to build the necessary human resources and facilities to sustain and further develop this key sector for Egypt and Egyptians?

Since time immemorial, Egyptians were described as an agrarian society mastering the father of all rivers managing its floods and droughts, tilling one of the world's best soils. In fact Egypt was regarded as the world's breadbasket during antiquity and in modern times that same valley produced the world's best cotton a.k.a. white gold. This was a traditional rural society where a family plot of land, whether owned or leased, was considered sacred. Now, we see more and more rural youth moving away from their villages lured by the false promise of a better life in the overcrowded cities and metropolises of Egypt. And for those who stay behind they tend to look down at farming as a dead end job without prestige--a pastime for the illiterate and the unskilled.

The sustaining crops are gone. Worse still, the soil that produced surplus cereal and high-demand white gold is ailing so that Egypt can no longer feed itself relying mainly on costly imports. But soil fertility is not responsible alone for this catastrophe. Land encroachment, poor asset management, a failed government land policy and gross misdirection by our archaic educational system are but some of the reasons why our fertile land eroded to an extent where the old slogan of "Awwad ba'e ardoh, ya welad, shoufou touloh we ardoh, ya welad" which made a calamitous mockery of anyone selling his land is no longer heard.

Egypt now more than ever is in dire need of reviving interest in its agriculture sector. The challenge remains: can farming offer a lucrative prospect for youth who legitimately long for a comfortable family life, a decent income and integration in the modern world?

One hopes there are others out there like Mourad who not only love nature and what it offers, but are also ready to take the risk once given the proper tools and education so that farming becomes a 'calculated' risk not unlike that taken in other vocations. Hence the state and its different institutions have to rethink their economic, environmental, educational, research and development policies determining Egypt's priorities for the next 100 years especially in terms of climate change, scarcity of water and many other ecological considerations.

Policymakers should realize our traditional farming habits, passed on from one generation to the other, is a thing of the past and if not modernized will not remain viable for long.

Agriculture has moved from a traditional occupation to a complicated one, not only requiring generational skills, but versatility, innovation and creativity. The old misconception of farming being a job only good for peasants and school dropouts must be reversed.

Enter modern science and technique which helped Mourad overcome the many challenges he faced in what was at first a hostile environment--unreceptive to change and innovation.Yet had he not found the results rewarding would Mourad have continued to work the farm for the past 5 years? Would he not have taken on a glossy marketing job instead of leaving his Cairo apartment at dawn during el moussem-- harvest season, driving his truck for two hours or more (depending on traffic), returning to his wife and children after sunset?

"Beside's being one's own boss the reward is to live with nature and watch vital crops grow and fruit orchards maturing. And of-course eventually cashing in!" exclaims Mourad who is now contemplating on how to expand his landholding in Belbeis, Sharkiya.

Yet according to our enterprising agricultural entrepreneur there is a long journey ahead before farming can become attractive to his contemporaries. There are countless issues requiring action by the government and its defunct agricultural cooperatives. The banking sector also has an important role to play in this sector. But most importantly it is the ministry of education that has to change the perception of farming. And as Mourad says, "peasants and peasantry should be relics of the past; farmers and growers a reality of the future."

The last decades saw exaggerated emphasis on white collar trades at the expense of agriculture so that today Egypt is paying an untold price for its skewed policy. And unless this situation is immediately addressed today's bread riots will look like a Friday picnic in the years to come."

* The writer is a journalist and author of "Cairo, the Glory Years", 2003.