AUC CONTRIBUTES TO DESERT DEVELOPMENT IN EGYPT
May 2007, University Headlines
For nearly three decades, The American University in Cairo (AUC) has worked with local Egyptian communities and offered solutions to problems of rural unemployment, urban overcrowding, export growth and food security.
Through the university's Desert Development Center (DDC), the university's multidisciplinary perspective and technical expertise foster sustainable development in desert areas.
According to the director of the Desert Development Center, Richard Tutwiler, the center is a non-profit research and training institution that conducts its programs at South Tahrir and Sadat City stations. The two sites encompass 574 and 25 feddans, respectively. The center works to improve the social and economic well-being of residents of desert communities by developing financially and ecologically sustainable rural livelihoods.
Tutwiler pointed out that the center's programs involve three main components: research, training and services. The research programs includes numerous projects such as water management to ensure the sustainability of new desert communities, citrus development, irrigation systems, wood shelter trees, small farm enterprises, tissue culture, animal production systems, and socio-economic research including economic feasibility and farm management.
The DDC researchers have been investigating existing technologies and resources that can be modified to suit desert conditions. Applied research has resulted in new improved desert architectural designs and materials, higher yielding and hardier citrus varieties, and more robust cattle with improved milk production.
"The DDC's latest water management project is in Abu Minqar in Western Desert," said Tutwiler, "The DDC is working with a national NGO and the local community to understand the existing water management system. They will then combine their findings on Abu Minqar's specific hydrological and social circumstances with DDC expertise to devise and implement a locally appropriate and sustainable water management plan."
The center's training activities at the South Tahrir station have provided training to approximately, 6,000 desert residents since 1993. The training covers financially and ecologically sustainable desert farming techniques. The DDC also opens its laboratories in Sadat City to desert residents for soil and water analysis. In addition, it provides land surveys, samples of adapted flora varieties, high-quality seeds, farm planning and technical advice.
As part of DDC's commitment and integration with the Egyptian community, it has partnered with the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation to offer training courses for the Mubarak National Project for Settling and Developing Newly Reclaimed Lands. "We also provide training and field trips to students from Egyptian universities such as Ain Shams, Cairo, Suez Canal, Alexandria and Tanta universities," said Tutwiler, "and have also developed a program with the open education of Cairo University to train 200 students per year in a variety of subjects."
The DDC is a non-profit center and, as is typical of most research projects, it has required a heavy investment by the university and supporting donors. Since 1999, the center's expenditures exceeded income by, on average, $200,000 annually. AUC, in turn, provided the additional resources required by the center to continue to provide its services to the local communities.
In terms of financial sustainability, the DDC covers its expenses through three channels: 40 percent from the AUC budget, 20 percent from grants from international donors and the Egyptian government represented in the ministry of agriculture and ministry of international cooperation, and 40 percent from sales and services provided by the center. Tutwiler noted that "these goods and services are not intended to make any profit for the center, as the DDC is established with the mandate of research and training and not for commercial or profit-making purposes. As financial statistics indicated, since its foundation, the DDC's revenues have been less than its expenses."