An Overview of the Agricultural Extension System in Egypt: The History, Structure, Modes of Operation and the Future Directions

The main purpose of the current manuscript is to review the agricultural extension system in Egypt. The information gleaned in this article could be useful for policymakers, extension administrators, and extension researchers to identify ways for improving educational services of devising training programs for audience and agents, approaches of farmers' participation, and schemes of policy development. More specifically the objectives of this study are to review the Egyptian agricultural extension system in terms of the: 1) the history of the Egyptian agricultural extension system, 2) the organizational structure of the Egyptian extension system, 3) types of agricultural extension and program delivery mechanisms in Egypt, 4) current situation of the Egyptian agricultural extension system, and 5) the possible future direction for the Egyptian agricultural extension system. A comprehensive review of gray literature was conducted to identify characteristics of the agricultural extension system in Egypt, relevant documents used including, foundation legislation, review and analysis of literature of international organizations as well as peer reviewed journal articles. The extension history, structure, and modes of operation were discussed, and the future directions were concluded.


Introduction and Objectives
The use of the word "extension" derived from the educational development in England during the second half of the nineteenth century. Around 1850, discussions began in the two ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge about how they could serve the educational needs of the rapidly growing populations in the industrial, and urban area near their homes. Just before 867 that a first practical attempt was made in what was designated as "university extension" but the activity developed quickly to become a well-established movement before the end of the century (Swanson, et al., 1997).

The Period from 1964-1968
The "General Directorate of Agricultural Extension-GDAE" was established and the training functions were included under the newly established GDAE.

The Period from 1968-1976
A new ministisial decree was issued to establish undersecretary of Ministry for Agricultural Extension Affairs, the General Directorate of Agricultural Extension became annex directly to the -newly founded-undersecretary.
3.1.5 The Period from [1976][1977][1978][1979] This period didn"t witness any organizational changes at the central level, nonetheless, significant changes took place at all subordinate levels, governorate, district, and village levels, and so agricultural extension agent were installed in each village of rural Egypt.
3.1.6 The Period from [1979][1980][1981][1982][1983] The agricultural extension service was rearranged by the Ministerial Resolution No. 151/1979, which defined the main function of GDAE developing plans to maximiz the agricultural production through the educational efforts that guide farmers and their families to solve their problems and encourage them to adopt recommendations of agricultural research. From that time and so forth, the agricultural extension organization became administratively linked to the research under the umbrella of the Agricultural Research Center (ARC).

In the Year 1988
The organizational structure of agricultural extension had changed from the GDAE to the Central Administration for Agricultural Extension and Environment (CAAEE), which refers to recognition and a higeir position of Agricultural Extension in the structure of MALR.

In 1993
Specialized extension services were adopted to provide the services (by the Subject Matter Specialist "SMS", he/she is an expert in particular crop, assumed to receive well, focused, and continous training under the technical supervision of the CAAEE) according to the crop rotation and under the technical supervision of the CAAEE.

In the Year 2000
The Ministerial Decree No. 1833 was issued, by which seven guiding regional administrations were initiated: (North Delta, West Delta, North-Central Delta, East Delta, South-Central Delta, Upper Egypt, North Coast) each administration is linked with the ARC research station of the same region and provides services to the governorates located in that region.

Current Organizational Structure of the Agricultural Extension System in Egypt
MALR function was reformed to get rid of commercial activities and limit its function to cover only 7 sectors. One of these sectors is the Agricultural Extension Sector (AES). The AES was established and comprised of four central administrations namely: 1) The Central Administration for Horticulture and Field Crops, 2) The Central Administration for Afforestation, Nurseries, and Environment, 3) The Central Administration for Soils and water, and 4) The CAAEE. Nonetheless, not all these administrations provide extension-based services.
More importantly, CAAEE structure was inconsistent as a result of the trajectory administrative shift during the 1990s when a ministerial decree was issued by which CAAEE moved to be affiliated "technically" to the ARC, to support the Research/Extension linkage. At the same time, CAAEE remained "administratively" affiliated to AES. This situation created double lines of command. Figure 1 presents the four administrations consisting the structure of AES.  The current structure of the extension organization is replicated at all administrative levels, starting from the CAAEE at the central level, and then at Directorates of Agriculture at the Governorate level and it's affiliating District levels down to the village level (See Figure 2).
The extension service at the governorate level is supervised by the Directorate of Agriculture. Governorate administration includes technical and administrative staff and supervise the extension workers at both district and village levels whereas Village Extension Workers (VEWs) interact with farmers and farming families on almost daily basis. (Abdelhakam, 2005).

Types of Agricultural Extension and Program Delivery Mechanism
The mechanism of delivery of the services of the public extension system is characterized as being a central "top-down" approach. These services are directed mainly to smallholders. However, an observer can notice more efforts to induce more participatory "bottom-up" mechanisms aiming to design extension programs which are more responsive to farmers" actual needs. Examples of this trend are the extension activities that are based on "Farmers Field Schools (FFSs)", or Farmer to Farmer (FTF). In addition to the public extension service there is also an active private sector extension services provided by companies of inputs and other services suppliers, crop-based extension, these private sector extension services are manly targeting big commercial farmers and agricultural export corporation (CAAEE, 2018a).

Regional Research and Extension Councils (RRECs)
To develop more responsive, accessible, and local-based extension programs, MALR established (9) nine RREC covering the -previously mentioned-seven geographical regions of Egypt. The main function of each RREC is to make research efforts and provide extension services fit for farmers" needs and the prevailing production patterns (CAAEE, 2018a).
Effective implementation of Extension programs is chiefly based on good communication between researchers, extension agents and farmers. To accomplish this goal, CAAEE utilizes variety of extension teaching methods to accelerate the transfer of new agricultural technologies to different categories of farmers including, but not limited to: On-farm demonstrations, Technical consultation, Field days, Meetings, Home and Farm Visits, Publications, Media, Extension training, Exhibition, and National campaigns (Abdel-Hamid, 1998).

Development Support and Communication Centers (DSCCs)
To support extension communication and media production, MALR established four DSCCs. These DSCCs have distributed to serve the main agriculture regions (Ismailia North-East of Delta), (Dikirnis, Middle of Delta), (Maryout, East of Delta), and (Malawi, middle-Upper Egypt). The DSCCs had been established over a period of several years with focus on producing extension teaching and training material and organize extension events inside DSCC facilitates or in the villages in the surrounding governorates. Each of the DSCCs is equipped with audio-video studio, a printing house, and an auditorium and training halls. Some of the centers can provide full board accommodation to the trainees, visitors, and the staff participating in extension campaigns, and rural development programs

Agricultural Extension Centers (AECs)
The MALR decided in 1995 to spread the AECs at village level to work as a basic unit of EAES (Shaker et al., 2003). About 210 AECs were established in villages to support and develop the infrastructure of extension work in Egypt, provide extension services at village level, to be a focal point of extension specialists and to improve extension services in general. Each AEC has a director with a group of extension specialists in various fields of agricultural activities, Each center is equipped with furnished training hall for extension meetings, also, facilities of audio-video aids, computers, and a library of pamphlets, magazines, books, videos, and CDs are available too (CAAE, 2019).
AEC plays several roles including planning, supporting, coordination, and education. The Planning Role: is to identify the local community resources and priorities and to plan for the agricultural extension programs.
2) The Supporting Role: is to contribute to solve the agriculture problems and discover rural leaders, 3) The Coordinating Role: is to coordinate among rural organizations inside the local community, and 4) the Educational Role: is to supply farmers with agricultural information and involving them in rural extension programs (Zahran, 1998).

Rural Development Centers (RDCs)
Equally important CAAEE established 60 RDCs distributed in the main (mother) villages in 16 governorates. The RDCs are equipped with machinery for dairy production, bakery and agro-processing facilities and for manufacturing of handcraft, with the aim of promoting integrated sustainable development efforts at local levels (CAAEE, 2018a).

Agricultural publications
Regarding agricultural publications, there are four periodical agricultural magazines i.e. the Agricultural Extension Magazine, which have been publishied monthly for 64 year and the Agricultural Extension in New Lands Magazine, which have been published for 22 years by the CAAEE. In addition to the Agricultural Newspaper Magazine, which have been published monthly for 73 years and the Agricultural Thought Magazine, which have been published quarterly for 15 years by the General Administration of Agrarian Culture (GAAC) .

Electronic Extension Initiatives
As a result of cooperation between MALR and the FAO (2000FAO ( -2002, the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Expert Systems (CLAES) has developed the Virtual Extension and Research Network (VERCON). VERCON connect research and extension institutions and provide extension staff who works in remote areas with access to a vast repository of agricultural information and extension material, beside online support.
By 2004-2006, the National Agriculture Research Information Management System (NARIMS) was established as an integrated, bilingual (Arabic/English) web-based platform aimed at capturing and disseminating information about research institutes, researchers, publications, projects, and the national plan of agricultural and veterinary research in Egypt. Such platform has been developed as a result of collaboration between FAO and ARC and building on the existing FAO tools and methodologies (Anon, 2008).
During the period (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), the Rural and Agricultural Development Communication Network (RADCON) project has taken the VERCON experience to a broader scale, expanding the network with diversified content and a wider range of stakeholders, including farmers" organizations, youth centers, universities, NGOs, and the private sector (Anon, 2008;Qamar, 2005).

Mobile Extension Initiative
The Extension Service in Egypt entered the "digital age" through a pioneering initiative for using mobile phones in the Egyptian agricultural extension service. In June 2011 a joint protocol was signed between three entities: MALR, Vodafone Egypt and Quick Serve Company. The project aimed to supply farmers with agricultural news, information and recommendations through mobile SMS. The project also designed to establish a call center at the ARC to provide farmers with access to specialized extension advices. However, Abdel-Ghany (2014 & 2015); Diab & Abdel-Rahman (2016) reported that the initiative didn"t arrived in real actions since it was announced.

HORTISUN Initiative
In 2013-2015, the HORTISUN initiative was launched to strengthen the capacity of MALR in establishing an effective and efficient horticulture sector information support network/system. HORTISUN support small-scale producers and market service providers contributing to rural development (FAO, 2017).

Agricultural Satellite Channel
Egyptian agricultural channel [in Arabic pronounced Misr Al-Zeraiya Channel "MAC"] was established and broadcasted on Nilesat: 11227 V, with the main objective of providing farmers with agricultural recommendations, news, and information. Officials in the MALR, assume that having such satellite agricultural channel would compensate the fatal shortages in numbers of VEWs (http://misr.alzeraya.tv/). Additionally, during the recent decades The Egyptian TV has produced popular episodes entitled "The Secret of the Land", these episodes were widely viewed by people in the rural communities.

Situation of the Egyptian Agricultural Extension System
The public extension of Egypt is widely criticized for having ineffective and irrelevant activities and programs. Moreover, VEWs, being the frontline of the system are suffering several problems manifested in low socio-economic status, low salaries, lack of incentives and promotion opportunities, lack of sufficient educational qualifications and training, insufficient transportation facilities (El-Shafie, 2009;Abdel-Ghany & Diab, 2013).
These negative images on agricultural extension and much more were eloquently detailed in the Egyptian Strategy for Agricultural Development 2030". The strategy has confirmed that existing extension organization needs reform and development policies for several reasons, including: (a) Ineffective performance of extension personnel, associated with limited resources and ever-decreasing numbers of extension workers, (b) Lack of trust of agricultural producers in extension agents, especially farmers producing highly specialized crops or engaged in sophisticated farming activities, (c) Lack of mutual relationships between research and extension workers in addition to lack of involvement of university staff and technicians in extension work, (d) unfair salaries of extension workers, especially VEWs (MALR, 2009). There is a clear gap between views of extension workers and farmers about service quality provided by extension personnel (Abdel-Ghany and Diab, 2015). Still, the Egyptian extension system is potintial for reform and possible restructuring (Abdel-Ghany & Diab, 2013).
The majority of the extension workers are about to reach the retirement age. With a scare hiring of fresh graduate extension staff. This situation resulted in inverted pyramid nature of the extension manpower. And so, there is a risk of lack of continuity and inadequate knowledge and experience transfer from one generation to another. Indeed, the total number of agricultural extension staff in Egypt by 2007 was 9658 decreased to 2503 by 2018 indicating that the extension system lost about 74.1 per cent of its manpower within only 10 years (CAAEE, 2018b).
To assess current situation of agricultural extension in Egypt, SWOT analysis was used. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of the organization. The function of SWOT is to study the internal and external environments of a agricultural extension, through the identification and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and the opportunities and threats to which it is exposed. Findings of SOWT analysis were rechecked by the participants of the paneland crutinized and edited by one of the authors.

The Possible Future Direction for the Egyptian Agricultural Extension System
Based on the previous literature, improving the quality of extension organization, management, and services is crucial for achieving growth in the agricultural sector and for integrating small farmers into the supply and exports chains (Abdou, et al., ND;Diab 2018a;2018b).
Agricultural extension continues to be in transition worldwide. Governments and international agencies are advancing structural, financial and managerial to improve extension services. Decentralization, pluralism, cost-sharing, cost recovery, participation of stakeholders in development initiatives and the decisions and resources that affect themthese are some of the elements in extension's current transition (Rivera and Qamar, 2003).
Encouraging Civil Society Organizations CSOs, farmers" associations and producers" NGOs, is crucial. However, the state should stand at an equal distance from these entities and just play the role of arbitrator in case disputes or conflicts arise among these parties. These arrangements demand to review and readjust the current cooperation law or to issue a Prime-Ministerial decree, in coordination with the MALR and other relevant institutions (such as the syndicate of agriculture, the Ministry Local Development, etc…). The role of agricultural cooperatives in the provision of extension services to its members must be enhanced and encouraged, to relief the financial and administrative burden of running this gigantic system of extension. The current conditions are also convenient for trying new mechanisms of contractual extension, through NGOs and farmers" associations, in which farmers will be willing and capable for paying some, or all, of the costs of extension services (El-Shafie, 2009). Again, according to Abdel-Aal (2008) focusing on the important role of agricultural cooperatives in knowledge dissemination will encourage farmers to express their needs.
The investments should be shifted towards a more pluralistic approach with greater inclusion of diversified actors, funding modalities, and creative programs including more focus on business development, knowledge and market information systems, and policy, regulations and legal reforms. The planning and implementation of ICT infrastructure for rural areas must also be an integral part of the National strategy for infrastructure (El-Shafie, et al., 2011).
In order to drow the future directions of EAES, Logical Framework Analysis "LFA" was used. The LFA is a management tool for effective planning and implementation of developmental projects. It provides clear, concise and systematic information on reforming of extension system in Egypt. Information in Table 2 shows the main challenges/issues that are facing the EAES. The analysis came about 16 relevant issues as follows: 1) Renewal and replacement of village field staff, 2) Conduct strategic planning for the extension sector, 3) Improve/reform training at all level of extension work, 4) Upgrade the process of planning and evaluating extension programs, 5) Enhancing participation in the national campaigns of main crops, 6) Technical and administrative independence of the CAAEE, 7) Development of financial resources of CAAEE, 8) The linkage between independent extension and research systems, 9) Creation of M&E unit in CAEEE, 10) Improve irrigation extension, 11) Improve extension for rural women, 12) Activate the roles of DSCCs, 13) Activate the roles of the extension centers, 14) Maximize utilization of Egypt agriculture channel for communicating extension messages, 15) Modernize extension methods and re-emphasize demonstration fields, and 16) Forming the higher council of agricultural extension