Following the fifth workshop in Egypt on agricultural cooperatives and their role as an actor of the rural development, which made it possible to carry out an initial diagnosis of the situation of cooperatives in Egypt and to identify major obstacles to their development, the think tank and the support program team jointly decided to continue working on the topic of agricultural cooperatives by focusing on the elaboration of a strategic vision of the agricultural cooperative system in order to provide a general framework for the reform of cooperatives initiated by a 2014 law.

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In this context, the sixth national workshop entitled "Agricultural cooperatives: policies and strategies" was held on 7 and 8 May 2017 in Cairo. was divided into two parts:

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• The first part was dedicated to the two presentations introducing the different types of cooperatives existing in Europe (proposed activities, governance ...) and their roles along the value chain. These presentations ended with an open discussion between the European expert on cooperatives, Olivier RIVES, and the participants;

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• The second sequence was devoted to reflections and discussions organised in groups, with the help of analytic framework, to elicit ideas and proposals to build a new vision of agricultural cooperatives in Egypt.

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In order to carry out a participatory and inclusive diagnosis of the Egyptian cooperative system and to propose a new, relevant and comprehensive vision of the role that agricultural cooperatives could play, all agricultural stakeholders were asked to participate in these discussions (ENPARD Egypt think tank, Central Directorate of Agricultural Cooperatives in the Ministry of Agriculture, cooperative managers, farmers, representatives of civil society, researchers, etc.). In addition, the coordinator of the FAO project in Egypt on agricultural cooperatives was invited to take part in the discussions. Thus, 35 actors in the agricultural sector participated in this workshop, most of which had already taken part in the previous event on this theme.

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Several remarks, ideas and proposals were raised by the different stakeholders in order to develop a strategic vision for agricultural cooperatives:

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1. The development of the Egyptian cooperative system could help to address several constraints and challenges in Egyptian agriculture: fragmentation of farmland, increasing pressure on water resources, low incomes of many farmers limiting thus their investment potential, growth in international competition (both in terms of exports and in the domestic market) requiring an increase in the competitiveness of the Egyptian offer, an improvement in product quality and compliance with international quality standards;

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2. Cooperatives should be considered as full economic organisations seeking to be economically viable with the administrative, financial and technical capacity to fulfil their role effectively. Profit-seeking is fundamental in order to improve the supply of services provided, to ensure the sustainability of the structure and to consent to new investments;

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3. Beyond the necessary improvement of the services offered and the economic strengthening of Egyptian cooperatives, they must diversify their activities (leasing of agricultural machinery, sorting and storage, processing, marketing...) in order to contribute to a better efficiency of the value chains, to improve coordination between the stakeholders of these chains and to contribute to the improvement of farmers' incomes (reduction of intermediaries, better distribution of added value, upgrading products value, diversification of the offer...);

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4. Cooperatives can play a major role in disseminating and adopting production norms, quality standards and good practices, notably by providing training;

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5. Increase farmers' membership to cooperatives and especially concerning large farms in order to strengthen their bargaining power;

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6. Strengthen cooperation between cooperatives to reach a critical size in order to deal with competition and provide competitive services to farmers;

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7. Strengthen the human, financial and technical capacities of cooperatives and the skills of employees, members and beneficiaries (managerial, accounting, financial and technical skills, training, follow-up ...);

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8. The development and modernisation of the cooperative system must be supported by the growth of the agricultural insurance sector against natural hazards and the increase in bank loans granted to the agricultural sector, for example by creating an independent cooperative bank dedicated to agriculture;

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9.  Enhance the legal framework to enable cooperatives to take initiatives and diversify their economic activities;

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10. Improve cooperation between cooperatives, the research community and training and extension centers.

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For further information on this workshop and the recommendations for a new strategic version of the agricultural cooperative system in Egypt, please download the full report of the event by clicking on the following links (in english/in arabic)