As part of the IFPRI Egypt Seminar in partnership with the World Bank, IFPRI Egyprt seminar “Innovations for Agricultural Development in Egypt”.

1. BUILDING THE CASE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE USE OF DIGITAL
TECHNOLOGY FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN EGYPT
FATMA EL ZAHRAA AGLAN, AGRICULTURAL SPECIALIST
THE WORLD BANK

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Sectoral Context: Presenting the key facts
2. Vision 2030: Highlighting the evolution of the food system and the importance of digital
transformation
3. Digital Technologies for Agricultural Development: Increasing competitiveness, efficiency and
sustainability through digital technologies
4. DigitalAG4Egypt: A Case Study – fostering digital entrepreneurship

3. SECTORAL CONTEXT
Agriculture and agribusiness
combined contribute to about 35
percent of GDP, and provide jobs
to a quarter (25.6%) of the
population
Tremendous market potential
(i) untapped export potential is
around US$16 billion, this is three
times the current export levels.
(ii) domestic food market could
reach US$90 billion by 2030
The governorate level share of
poverty is positively correlated
with the share of employment in
primary agriculture. For example,
Upper Egypt has more than 30%
employed in agricultural
production
Although only 10% of agricultural
products are currently processed,
they account for approximately
50% of exports. This indicates
significant opportunities to
increase processing and move
towards higher-value processed
foods.
Egypt has a negative agricultural
trade balance, estimated at US$ 11
billion in 2014. About 40 percent
of total (ag and non-ag) export
revenue is spent on ag imports
The share of public investment in
the sector has decreased from
about six percent in 2004 to less
than four percent in 2014

4. KEY CHALLENGES
Inefficiencies Along Key Agricultural
Value Chains
• The losses along key value chains
range between 10 percent and 50
percent, averaging around 30
percent. About half of the losses
result from poor, or lack of, access to
logistics and marketing
infrastructure.
• Poor skills and poor access to new
technologies affect sector
development. There is a need to
upgrade the formal education, as
well as skilling in the sector, as the
current level and sophistication of
skills do not meet requirements of
modern agriculture and agribusiness
sectors.
• Lack of extension services, prevent
farmers from receiving advice on
good practices and suitable
technologies, which would help
Jobs and Incomes
• Most of the jobs in
agriculture are seasonal,
irregular and informal
• Jobs shrinking in
agriculture as they shift
to manufacturing and
services as a result of
structural changes.
•A high share of jobs in
the agriculture sector
require little or no
technical or business
skills discouraging
education/skill upgrading
and resulting in low pay.
Water Scarcity
• Low water use efficiency,
exacerbated by population
growth and climate change
effects, intensifying the water
scarcity issue.
•
• 2. Over 86 percent of Egypts’
water is used for agriculture.
Irrigation on the “old lands” is
mostly inefficient flood irrigation,
with water use efficiency of
around 30 percent.
• 3. Agriculture in the desert,
drawing non-renewable water
resources (e.g. the Nubian
Sandstone Aquifer), carries
additional market risks related to
natural resource sustainability,
additionally consumers in the
developed countries increasingly
demand more sustainable
products.
Sector Fragmentation
• 80% of farming units in the country
are under three Feddans
(predominantly along the Nile River
valley). Such high fragmentation of
land deters competitiveness and
does not allow for use of machinery
in land cultivation (which would
increase production efficiency), and
it also limits access to markets for
the smallholder farmers due the
small volumes produced by the
highly fragmented farming units.
• Farmer cooperation is
underdeveloped as the existing
cooperative system does not work
well.
• Aggregation is difficult due to lack
of infrastructure, resulting in
fragmented value chains and lesser
interest of Egypt’s agricultural
products to the global markets.

5. VISION 2030: DOING MORE WITH LESS
Wealthier
urbanized
population
and
diversified
diets
Structural Transformation
More
competitive,
efficient and
resilient
Digital Transformation
Shift towards
value
addition, agro
processing
and food
services.
More jobs moving up the
value chain
 Increasing Agricultural Market Efficiency: With current
population at 97 million, growing at 2.56% annually,
Egypt needs to be able to achieve food security and
nutrition, and produce high quality and safe food products
and decrease its food loss and waste (averaging at 30%).
 Job Creation. According to CAPMAS, the agricultural
sector is the highest single contributor to employment
(20.5%). By enabling inclusive job growth through the
diversification towards high-value crops, decreased
value chain inefficiencies, and wider access to
markets, the agricultural sector can further contribute to
Egypt's sustainable growth.
 Inclusion of Women and Youth. 75% of the unemployed
in Egypt are between 15 and 29 years old. Promoting
growth of agricultural and rural SMEs, the digital
solutions may encourage youth to remain in commercial
in high-tech, sustainable agriculture.

6. ICT IN AGRICULTURE
Continuum of Digital Technology Opportunities
Source: Future of Food Harnessing Digital Technologies to Improve Food System Outcomes

7. INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS, EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY
THROUGH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
Digital technologies are tools that collect, store, analyze, and share information digitally, including mobile phones and the
Internet
• Digital technologies have tremendous potential for improving the efficiency, equity and sustainability of food systems. By leveraging
the use of ICT in agriculture, we can raise productivity and incomes, reduce information asymmetries, and allow for increased
competitiveness and market access.
• These digital technologies in the food system range from simple off-line farmer advisory digital videos to complex systems
requiring higher levels of mobile phone and Internet connectivity, such as distributed ledger technologies for value chain traceability
and some forms of precision agriculture.
• Increasing adoption of digital technologies in the food system will require addressing supply-side factors—such as rural network
coverage and availability of digital applications—and demand-side factors, including skills and knowledge, trust, affordability, and
complementary investments.
• While digital technologies have significant potential they also pose several risks, such an overconcentration of service provider
market power; lack of data privacy; exclusion and potential job losses. Addressing these risks calls for public policy to ensure good
data governance and foster inclusion through targeted support to smallholder farmers, youth, women, and other vulnerable groups;
and support skills development.

8. EXAMPLES OF VALUE CHAIN BENEFITS
•Reduce costs and risks (e.g.
reduce counterfeits)
•Provide timely, convenientand
secure ways to purchaseinputs
Pre Production
•Support farmers throughthe
provision of extension services
•Increase precision and
adaptability of farming
intervention(cropping choices)
Production
•Manage storage, and reduce
post harvest losses
•Track the supply chain and
reduce transport costs
Processing
•Increase ability of smallholder
farmers to sell to larger markets
•Warehouse managementand
product transfer tracking
Distribution
•Enable traceability and ensure
food safety
•Better planning, which can
decreasefood loss and waste
Retail

9. A CASE STUDY: DIGITALAG4EGYPT
DigitalAG4Egypt: Crowdsourcing innovative ICT solutions
aimed at raising agricultural efficiency in Egypt.
The World Bank team partnered with Yomken.com, NilePreneurs
and TIEC to implement this competition in order to:
 Raise awareness regarding the challenges facing the
agriculture and agribusiness sectors in Egypt;
 Promote innovation, entrepreneurship and youth inclusion
for sectoral development
 Source integrated ICT solutions addressing issues related to
access to markets, access to finance and resource
management.
Building on the success of this competition, the World Bank Team
are in the process of scaling this initiative up and replicating it as
DigitalAG4MENA
Results: Received more than 100 quality submissions. 70% of the solutions
were incubation-ready, and were offered by newly formed teams, and we
were able to attract applicants from 21 out of 27 Governorates in Egypt
Examples of Winning Solutions
VerumCode: developed a unique branding and traceability system for food
quality and safety. They have created unique QR codes that can identify
fraudulent products, and provide real-time tracking.
Freshsource: An online platform which sources quality produce directly
from small scale farmers. It handles the logistics and distributes the
products to local retailers and vendors
Innovation Inc: created a functional prototype of a large scale fish feeding
machine which operates automatically and remotely (via smartphone).
This is to control feeding quantities and distribution of feed

10. PUBLIC POLICY ACTIONS THAT CAN FACILITATE BROADER
ADOPTION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FOOD SYSTEM
Supply-side factors Demand-side factors
Expand rural network coverage
(Expand digital infrastructure)
Develop relevant digital applications
(Foster digital entrepreneurship)
Facilitate demand for digital technologies in the
food system (particularly smallholder farmers)
• Adopt a spectrum policy that
boosts connectivity
• Lower infrastructure taxes/duties
• Allow infrastructure
• Sharing
• Ensure consistency/ streamline
local level regulations
• Reduce policy/regulatory
uncertainty
• Improve the enabling environment
for business development
• Design digital regulations around
functionality
• Clarify data ownership
• Develop governance arrangements
for open data
• Invest in open data that have public
good Characteristics
• Improve farmers’ incentives to invest
• Develop data governance arrangements that
build users’ confidence and trust in digital
technologies
Source: Future of Food Harnessing Digital Technologies to Improve Food System Outcomes
There is also a significant need to crowding private investment, for example: (i) supporting skills development; (ii) improving access to
finance for startups and vulnerable groups; (iii) invest in complimentary infrastructure