Developing a guideline to enhance NARS’ R4D impact and strengthen the institutional linkages between NARS actors in Egypt

Abstract

The agriculture sector plays a critical role in the economy of developing countries, where the agricultural sector contributes about 15% of the GDP and employs about 25% of total employment. Agriculture employs almost 45 % of all women in the workforce. Most of the farming activities globally are dominated by small scale farmers. The small-scale family farming represents about 25million people working in the agriculture sector represents about 60% of the rural population. Nonetheless, the agricultural sector faces many challenges in achieving food security due to population growth, climate change and land fragmentation. In Egypt, land fragmentation has resulted in yield reduction of wheat by 12%, vegetables by 28%, corn by 47%, and rice by 26 % (Abd EL Mawla, et. al, 2020); This leads to a decrease in farm productivity and incomes subsequently leads to a decline in agricultural sector contribution to the GDP. National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) including universities, public and private research organizations play a very important role in advancing research on agricultural productivity. Though NARS have a deeper understanding of the challenges both at the farm and system level, they need the technical and financial support to increase their efficiency to sustainably enhance the impacts of research for development projects (R4D) and achieve national food and nutrition security. Technical support, in the form of national guidelines, can provide NARS with essential tools to streamline their efforts, increase their efficiency, and achieve better outcomes and impacts.