Economic conditions: agriculture

02Economic conditions: agriculture

• Attention was turned more strongly to agriculture at the expense of industry, throughout the occupation and until the First World War (1914), to provide the raw material for British factories and to leave room for marketing British manufactured goods in the Egyptian market.

The results of the stress on agriculture

• Improvement of irrigation and drainage and completion of canal digging: the Delta Barrages (Qanatir) were repaired, the Aswan Dam was built, and several barrages were raised on the Nile at Asyut, Esna and Zefta.
• The area of cultivated land grew and agricultural output rose.
• Summer crops, especially cotton, increased at the expense of winter crops, especially grain, so Egypt could no longer cover local food consumption and ran the danger of dependence on a single crop — cotton.
• Relying on agriculture enlarged the role of the landowners as a social force that had entered politics since Isma'il's era.
• Their standing grew under the occupation because of the British authorities' stress on crop specialisation: the mdiriyah councils were formed from them, and they entered the representative councils, gaining the chance to defend their interests through the legislative power.
• The posts of omdeh and sheikh al-balad settled in their hands, when the Omdeh Law (1896) required candidates to own at least ten feddans.