Egypt's graduates sent to turn the desert green

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By Steve Bradshaw
Editor, Life on the Edge

Egypt has, for the last two decades, been encouraging university graduates to leave the city and grow food on dry, uncultivated land.

When Hassan Abdul Rahman took his wife to see their new place in the country, she had this to say: "Hassan, I can only see the desert connected to the sky!"

But Hassan had already decided to come and live here, out in the desert, 200km from Cairo.

Hassan is trying to farm the desert. After many years, he's still learning some basic things, including how not to pour valuable water into the sand.

"I've been flooding the whole field," he says, after listening to an instructor explain how to take into account the size of the plants and the precise area of cultivation.

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Some of these skills he then passes on to the few locals, whose families have lived here for centuries.

Hassan still doesn't think of himself as a farmer. "Farmers have experience I just don't have," he says. But he's no amateur - no city boy turned weekend landowner. He's totally committed to making his farm in the desert work. His fairytale story may show how the world can meet at least two of the Millennium Development Goals - cutting hunger (by increasing farming output) and ensuring "decent and productive work for youth".

But does it?

It all began, 20 years ago, in Egypt's capital, Cairo.

"A national newspaper," Hassan recalls, "announced that the government was trying to solve the unemployment problem for young graduates - and there were several options. One was to take out a government loan and start a business, another was to get a car. But I didn't like the loan or the car. I preferred the third option… to buy some cheap farmland that you repaid over 30 years."

Hassan says he had a good salary and a comfortable job, but a few years later he took the plunge.

Over-population

The fact that there may not be decent work for all the graduates the world's now producing has been one of globalisation's secrets. Politicians who rightly want to encourage a better educated workforce don't much like talking about it.

But as the Egyptian government long ago recognised, it can be disturbingly true.

More than 700,000 jobs have to be created every year... it's a tremendous burden for a government. So you find that youth are perceived as more of a liability Dina El Mofty, INJAZ

Whether globalisation, technology or the digital economy are to blame, graduates across the world know a good degree is no guarantee of a job. Two in three people in the Middle East are under 25. And more and more are going to university.

"Hundreds of thousands are graduating every year from (our) system of vocational schools," says Dina El Mofty, of Egypt's INJAZ education organisation, an Arabic version of the US Junior Achievement programme started during the Depression as a means of inspiring young entrepreneurs and rebuilding the country's economy.

"More than 700,000 jobs have to be created every year to meet the intake of these graduates," Dina says. "It's a tremendous challenge, it's a tremendous burden for a government. So you find that youth are perceived as more of a liability."

For the government, there was another motive in tempting the graduates - many with no agricultural degrees or experience - out into the desert.

Mohamed Gomaa, Head of Land Reclamation at the Ministry of Agriculture, says, the country is aiming to reclaim about 150,000 acres of land each year.

"It's something we have to do. We have no choice because of over-population," he says. "We also have to have a secure source of food to feed the population and in order to secure food you have to secure jobs - so it's all linked."

And so - over two decades - some 40,000 graduates have moved out to the desert.

Hassan recalls: "We had no idea what we were doing. Any little problem became a puzzle for us. The land was sandy. The first crops we planted just dried up."

Chinese exports

Four out of 10 graduates have failed - as Hassan did to begin with. He went back to Cairo for a few years, but held on to the land, and two years ago he became a full-time farmer again.

In future, graduates will only get support if they've studied agriculture

"When China started to export things to Egypt, our industry became less competitive and my income started to decrease once again. So I began to think maybe agriculture (really) was a better option for me than business," he says.

Hassan lives in Al Yashaa - apparently a normal village. But take a closer look: these are not quite the farmers they appear to be. Eight out of 10 of the men and many of the women are graduates. And it's not just here. Throughout the desert, east and west of Cairo, dozens of villages are made up of thousands of graduates who've taken the chance to come to farm.

Despite some stumbles, they've reclaimed about a million acres of land, and passed on newfound technical skills to the locals who already eked a living in this harsh terrain. With help from the government and abroad, they've started schools, clinics and water reclamation plants.

Despite their successes, the government has now decided not to renew its experiment in helping willing graduates back to the land, unless they have agriculture degrees and are willing to join forces with larger investors.

Living in this village is special... the graduates who stayed faced the same problems and when they had difficulties, they supported each other Hassan Abdul Rahman

"What we found was that out of all those graduates who were lucky enough to get the land, those who had an agriculture background were more successful as farmers than the others." says Mohamed Gomaa. "What we plan in the future is to make sure that all graduates who take part have a background in agriculture."

But for Hassan and the graduates, there is a happy ending. They've made money on their investment - somehow city boys always seem to win out, one way or another - and they've helped others too.

"Living in this village with the graduates is special," Hassan says. "We were almost all the same age when we received the land. The graduates who stayed faced the same problems and when they had difficulties, they supported each other. So now it's like a big family here."

As for millions of other graduates across the world, who can't yet find decent work in the global economy, unless other countries follow Egypt's example, they may have to wait for their own fairytale to begin.

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