NEXUS FARMING TRIALS AND CAPACITY SHARING
GEBAL has developed and tested integrated farming systems in different parts of Egypt. These solar-powered greenhouses integrate fish farming with crop / vegetable farming and are designed to make the most out of every drop of water, while benefiting from natural nutrients as fertilizer. These nexus greenhouses are successfully operating in the Western Desert, Sinai, and Upper Egypt.
In June 2022, GEBAL embarked on a project funded by the Nexus Regional Dialogues Programme (NRD) – implemented by GIZ (co-financed by the EU and the German Government), titled “Water-Energy-Food-Nexus Farming: Upscaling Solutions for Small and Medium-Scale Farms”.
This project seeks to study what farmers with small to medium-sized farms in Egypt need in order to invest in nexus-based and climate-smart protected agriculture. This means transforming local growing techniques, which are heavily based on flood irrigated, open field cultivation, to more climate-smart, nexus-based farming solutions.
The project brings together a multitude of stakeholders, including farmers, NGOs, government representatives, extension agents, universities and educational institutions, as well as investors and representatives from financing institutions to develop policy recommendations for up-scaling nexus farming across Egypt. Through research, business models, training, and workshops in El Heiz (Western Desert), Dandara and Esna (Upper Egypt), the project explores what policies, incentives, loan programs, grants or tax mechanisms, skills, training programs or business models may enable a wide-scale implementation of nexus-based farming solutions.
The project kicked off with a participatory workshop at the South Valley University in Dandara on June 16th, 2021. A total of 68 participants contributed to the lively discussions at the workshop and provided interesting insights from a range of perspectives.
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