{"id":17795,"date":"2026-10-09T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17795"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:14:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:14:58","slug":"agricultural-cooperatives-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/agricultural-cooperatives-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt\u2019s Agricultural Cooperatives: Why Is Reform Failing to Reach Farmers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between an association that distributes farm inputs and a cooperative that owns a business and markets its members\u2019 harvest lies a wide range of services Egyptian farmers are asking for. The debate over agricultural cooperatives shows that changing legislation alone cannot answer the questions of who runs them, who oversees their funds, and how members\u2019 contributions can produce benefits in the field and at the market.<\/p>\n

On 29 July 2026<\/a>, Mohamed Abdel Hafiz, a member of Parliament\u2019s Agriculture and Irrigation Committee, called on the government to accelerate the preparation of amendments to Agricultural Cooperation Law No. 122 of 1980 and send them to Parliament. Officials had announced extensive changes intended to strengthen agricultural associations, he said, but the first parliamentary session had ended without their submission, according to his statement at the time. He regarded that as unjustified delay on an issue closely connected to food security. His demand raises a question beyond the legislative timetable: how can cooperatives regain their role in production, marketing and services for their members?<\/p>\n

Abdel Hafiz argued that continuing to operate under the existing legislation had diminished associations\u2019 ability to support farmers. He identified health and crop insurance, modern machinery, loans and financing, direct marketing without intermediaries, and the provision of production inputs among the services farmers needed.<\/p>\n

He urged the prime minister and relevant ministers to send the amendments to Parliament promptly so they could enter the legislative agenda for its second session, citing their connection to food security.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Agriculture and Land Reclamation Minister Alaa Farouk had also stressed the importance of completing the new draft law after discussing proposed amendments with Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Minister Mahmoud Fawzy. Farouk called for agricultural associations to become the \u201cfarmer\u2019s home\u201d again, supplying inputs and financing services for small and medium-sized projects and helping improve farmers\u2019 living standards and incomes.<\/p>\n

According to ministerial remarks published in February 2025<\/a>, Egypt had 6,911 agricultural cooperatives out of 12,926 cooperatives across different sectors, more than half the total. That figure describes the agricultural cooperative network at that time, rather than a new count conducted in 2026. Through interviews conducted in summer 2026, this report examines calls to reform elections, management, training and marketing, while distinguishing between changes requiring legislation and the implementation of powers that already exist.<\/p>\n

Institutional scale must be distinguished from performance. The existence of thousands of associations does not, on its own, establish how many members actively participate, the value of sales, or the capacity to finance projects. Their number cannot automatically demonstrate either success or failure. It helps show the scope of the reforms discussed by interviewees, while published information on services and results at each level of the cooperative structure remains important.<\/p>\n

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Elections That Could Revive Cooperative Life<\/h2>\n

Hussein Abdel Rahman, head of the Farmers\u2019 Syndicate, said cooperatives should have a much broader role than the functions they currently perform. Their activity had contracted largely to distributing fertilisers and agricultural chemicals, he argued, whereas marketing farmers\u2019 crops should be a central responsibility. Many actors could distribute supplies, he said; a cooperative should lead agricultural development and offer its members more than that single service.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Zawia3, he identified internal elections as a major area requiring reform under Law No. 122 of 1980. The same people had repeatedly stood for election over decades, he said, producing entrenched control over local and central agricultural associations and ideas he regarded as outdated. He called for assessing candidates, bringing in new members and renewing the institutions\u2019 purpose, alongside restoring their earlier role and learning from cooperative systems abroad.<\/p>\n

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Abdel Rahman said cooperatives should not be limited to distributing fertiliser. In the 1990s, he recalled, they played an active role in pest control and in collecting and marketing farmers\u2019 cotton. He attributed their declining role to management that, in his view, lacked the ideas and capacity needed to address farmers\u2019 problems, calling for both new leadership and new thinking.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The syndicate had participated in the community dialogue chaired by the agriculture minister in 2025, he said. Its demands included supplying agricultural inputs, restoring crop marketing, enabling associations to introduce modern mechanised systems, and tackling what he described as administrative corruption within them.<\/p>\n

He said the amendments introduced by Law No. 204 of 2014 had not met farmers\u2019 aspirations or kept pace with the geographical expansion of agricultural land, rising production and growing numbers of farmers. \u201cWe therefore need continuous legislative amendments that keep up with the times,\u201d he said, while arguing that new amendments were not being translated adequately into practice.<\/p>\n

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An Economic Role in Search of Independence<\/h2>\n

Khaled Hammad, a cooperative specialist and board member of the Central Agricultural Cooperative Union, described proposals discussed at meetings attended by Agriculture Minister Alaa Farouk and Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Minister Mahmoud Fawzy. Obstacles in Law No. 122 of 1980, and in its implementation even after the 2014 amendments, limited associations\u2019 ability to fulfil their multiple roles, he told Zawia3.<\/p>\n

Hammad described cooperatives as economic and social units that pool members\u2019 contributions and are managed by them to improve their economic and social circumstances. He opposed requirements he considered excessive state tutelage, arguing instead for state support and intervention to address strategic problems. He referred to Article 37 of the Constitution<\/a>, which protects cooperative ownership and provides for its support and independence. Cooperative ownership is a category the Constitution distinguishes from private and public ownership, even when members supply the funds. Hammad believed cooperatives\u2019 agricultural role had declined and their contribution to national income had become very small, but he supplied no quantitative estimate of that decline. He asked how much responsibility lay with legislation and how much with those implementing it, saying reform should take both into account.<\/p>\n

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Cooperative Principles and the Limits of the Law<\/h2>\n

Hammad said the discussions addressed, among other provisions, Articles 6 and 46. In his view, the legal framework and its practical operation did not sufficiently reflect the International Cooperative Alliance\u2019s principles<\/a>. These encompass open and voluntary membership, democratic member control, economic participation, autonomy, education and training, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for the community. They are reference principles for the cooperative movement, rather than an international law that automatically overrides Egyptian statutory requirements or determines their constitutionality.<\/p>\n

Hammad criticised the military-service requirement as a restriction on participation. A review of Article 46 as amended in 2014<\/a> shows that it applies specifically to board membership and requires either completion of military service or exemption, not completion alone. He also discussed earlier restrictions on the participation of legal entities and private companies in cooperative projects. The provision governing those investments is Article 8, rather than Article 6, which concerns establishing more than one association of the same type within the same area and cooperative structure. Law No. 204 of 2014 amended Law No. 122 of 1980, not the reverse. The revised Article 8 permits legal entities to contribute up to 25% of the capital of projects established by cooperatives to develop agricultural production, with a share of the surplus proportionate to their contribution, without that investment conferring membership of the cooperative\u2019s general assembly or board.<\/p>\n

The same provision permits cooperatives, following approval by their general assemblies and consultation with the relevant general association, to establish joint-stock companies together and undertake investment and commercial projects in the fields specified by the law, subject to the executive regulations. The interviews therefore raise questions not about a complete absence of investment powers, but about their use and the administrative and financial barriers to putting them into practice.<\/p>\n

The distinction between a project\u2019s capital and membership of the association helps explain the debate over private-sector partnerships. Financing an agricultural project does not necessarily give the investor authority to elect the cooperative\u2019s board. Conversely, legal permission to establish a partnership cannot guarantee a successful business. Its viability, management, accountability and distribution of returns still require clear decisions by members and the responsible bodies.<\/p>\n

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Training Members Before Assigning Responsibility<\/h2>\n

Hammad identified the failure to activate members\u2019 training centres as another problem. Education, training and cooperative culture needed to become meaningful parts of the system, he said, helping members understand what agricultural associations were responsible for. \u201cTo reach a better level, there must be a minimum of educational qualifications,\u201d he argued, so those managing the institutions could run them effectively. In his view, that would improve their operation compared with current practice.<\/p>\n

He also questioned the link between membership and holding agricultural land. Landholders benefit directly from the services and state support distributed through agricultural associations, and the nature of those associations links membership to landholding. Hammad nevertheless regarded that link as inconsistent with his understanding of the International Cooperative Alliance\u2019s principle of open membership.<\/p>\n

He explained that the general assembly sets the cooperative\u2019s annual plan. As its highest authority, it brings together those whose money is invested and establishes the programme that the association is expected to carry out during the year. The board manages the association and implements the general assembly\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

General assembly members are the people with a direct interest in the cooperative\u2019s activity, Hammad said. An agricultural landholder who satisfies the membership requirements participates in that assembly, but this does not necessarily mean that the person is a member of the board.<\/p>\n

Distinguishing beneficiaries, ordinary members and board members allows a more precise understanding of demands for wider participation. The general assembly considers members\u2019 interests and the association\u2019s plans, while the board is responsible for implementation and resource management. The manager has a separate professional and administrative function. Confusing these roles could turn a proposal to improve management into a barrier to small farmers joining, or treat ordinary membership as automatic qualification to manage funds.<\/p>\n

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From Distributing Fertiliser to Marketing Crops<\/h2>\n

Hammad said reform of the agricultural cooperation framework<\/a> also required developing practical mechanisms within associations. These included explaining the farmers\u2019 smart card, improving awareness of cooperative activity, and ensuring farmers understood associations\u2019 responsibilities. He discussed five practical areas of service and project development through which an association could establish businesses, put its capital to use, help members obtain financing under the applicable rules, provide production inputs and market members\u2019 products.<\/p>\n

Making these functions effective would, he argued, increase cooperatives\u2019 contribution to the economy and reduce farmers\u2019 difficulties in selling their harvest. Drawing on his observations at the time of the interview, he cited abundant tomato harvests in different villages alongside consumer prices of EGP 15 to EGP 20 per kilogram. He attributed part of the imbalance to associations\u2019 absence from marketing. These were prices the source cited for that period, rather than a survey of tomato prices on the publication date. The interview also did not provide a sequence of farm-gate, wholesale and retail prices sufficient on its own to measure intermediaries\u2019 margins or establish a single cause of the difference.<\/p>\n

Hammad proposed a dedicated stabilisation fund to help address the problem. Relevant bodies could support farmers by taking responsibility for marketing their products in a way that protected their returns, rather than forcing them to lose what they were entitled to receive or allowing crops to be sold at excessive prices. His proposed objective was to sustain farmers\u2019 earnings.<\/p>\n

He advocated mechanisms guaranteeing farmers a suitable minimum return so they would continue producing, alongside processing low-priced crops to add value rather than allowing the harvest to become a loss. Factories and similar projects were among the activities cooperatives could undertake, he said, but the approach was not being explained or implemented adequately in local associations. He reiterated his objections to some Article 46 requirements, believing they restricted participation and voluntary action. The distinction between joining an association and qualifying to manage its funds remains relevant to that argument.<\/p>\n

On literacy, Hammad questioned whether the ability to read and write was sufficient for managing assets that could amount, in his estimation, to millions or billions of pounds. An older provision included an exception connected to the absence of candidates who could read and write. The second paragraph of Article 46 as revised in 2014<\/a> requires literacy without that exception in the amended paragraph. Hammad called for those taking management positions to hold a suitable qualification or complete training at a recognised centre, and to understand cooperatives\u2019 responsibilities before assuming office. He criticised what he saw as some members seeking social prestige without recognising their responsibility for developing projects. Those calls for management training do not mean the Constitution or the Alliance\u2019s principles impose an academic certificate as a general condition for every beneficiary to join a cooperative.<\/p>\n

He cited local associations that had established development projects including beekeeping and honey production, poultry and egg production, and livestock rearing. These examples, he said, demonstrated the range of activities local cooperatives could pursue.<\/p>\n

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Reforming Management and the Cooperative Structure<\/h2>\n

Saad Nassar, a professor of agricultural economics at Cairo University and a former governor of Fayoum, said in his interview for this report that the ministry had finished preparing amendments. At that time, he said, the next expected step was to present the draft to the Cabinet before sending it to Parliament. The text had not reached Parliament when he spoke, and he did not know the reason for the delay. His account describes stages in preparing a bill, not confirmation that amendments had been enacted or entered into force. Cabinet approval and referral are distinct from parliamentary passage and issuance of legislation.<\/p>\n

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Nassar described agricultural cooperatives as independent, democratic, community-based institutions that finance and manage themselves. The government should provide technical support, he said, while supervision should remain within the limits necessary to ensure compliance with the law.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He recommended that an association\u2019s manager hold an appropriate qualification and successfully complete a course in cooperative management, with appointment or secondment undertaken by the board. Qualified and capable agricultural landholders should be encouraged to stand for board membership, he said, whether small farmers holding fewer than ten feddans, larger farmers or other eligible landholders, within the proportions specified by law. He proposed limiting board membership and the chairmanship to two terms to encourage the rotation of management and bring in new people.<\/p>\n

Nassar also proposed that specialised cooperatives focus on groups of strategic crops, to avoid duplication, overlap and conflicts with multipurpose cooperatives operating within the credit, agrarian-reform and land-reclamation structures.<\/p>\n

He argued for a single joint association at district level, a single central association at governorate level, and a single general association nationally. The Central Agricultural Cooperative Union would sit at the top of the structure, bringing together representatives of central, general and specialised associations, along with five experts appointed by the agriculture minister on the union\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

It was also important, he said, to consolidate the Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ministry\u2019s administrative supervision and oversight of agricultural cooperatives within one body in the ministry.<\/p>\n

The interviewees\u2019 proposals converge around three connected needs: management that can renew itself and be held accountable, training that helps members understand their rights and responsibilities, and economic activity extending beyond input distribution into production, processing and marketing. They differ on how much of the problem lies with the law and how much with its implementation, but agree that reform\u2019s value should be judged by the services that reach farmers. The restructuring proposals, term limits and training requirements discussed here remain the sources\u2019 recommendations, rather than rules that take legal effect simply because they have been proposed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of agricultural associations remain caught between distributing fertiliser and marketing harvests. Farmers and specialists examine elections, training, management and the powers the law already provides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[18057,18061,18060,18059,11109,1673,18058],"kateb":[15846],"class_list":["post-17795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics-en","tag-agricultural-cooperatives","tag-agricultural-reform","tag-cooperative-law","tag-crop-marketing","tag-egypt-agriculture","tag-food-security","tag-small-farmers","kateb-marwa-mohey-eldin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/coops-cover-grey-purple.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17796,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17795\/revisions\/17796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17795"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=17795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}