Profits from the land were more pronounced in Intilaq and, most notably, included buying extra property, cars, and apartments. Direct benefits in Intilaq for GWLs also
included an increased ability to save money and increase the quality of family’s diet from the products of the land, as articulated by Om Fathi, “I worked very hard on the land, but when I saw cheese on my table, milk, eggs, ghee, and sour cream. I was proud. I was happy. My family did not need anything. All was available from the house, from the products of the land. We did not need to buy anything from outside.”
In Sa’yda profits from the land, when present, were modest and included saving up on the price of berseem for fattening animals; saving up on the price of herbs and greens for home consumption; gaining a source of cash money from the sale of berseem; gaining a spacious backyard for raising an increased number of birds for home consumption and sale; and in few cases gaining money to purchase bridalware and/or grow vegetables and fruits. Few WLs in Sa’yda profited from the desert land, many more WLs farmed their lands on a small scale to retain the land for the future of their children and grandchildren and for a source of property, as illustrated by the quotes below.
“Our country has alot of unemployment. Who knows my children or grandchildren might not find jobs, and the land will be here for them to farm it.” (Om Tofayli) “I always tell my children, our country has a lot of unemployment. Tomorrow or after, you will find the land to farm it as a source of livelihood.” (Om Badee’) “My children have nothing from their fathers. This is the land of orphans. I could never sell it.” (Om Hussein)
“I am attached to the land because we have nothing. We have no property. This is why I could never sell the land.” (Om Abdel Aal, a WL in the Samha village) “Women here [in the Samaha village] are proud they have got land. Most had no property before. Even though some of this land is full of boulders and does not work
for farming, you would see them attached to land and unwilling to let it go.” (Ibrahim, the elder son of a WL in the Samha village)
After the incidents of pump theft, in fear of having the land taken away, Om Waleed reported rotating a newly bought diesel pump between her dora’s (her husband’s second
wife) and her land. Om Waleed and her daughters also carried water on their heads to irrigate the palm trees. Om Waleed reported that she and her dora had to work hard for the future of their children.
Many women reported that their neighbor WLs are waiting for their sons to finish from the military service to relocate and farm the land. Many were initially accompanied by their brothers and fathers until their sons grew up to farm the land. A few WLs in Sa’yda, nonetheless, left their lands fallow because of their inability to farm the land also because they were unable to find someone to rent their lands. The further the villages were from town, the more difficult it was to find a renter. Furthermore, women exclusive villages had a hard time finding renters, who are often men. The theft of water pumps led many WLs to flee the Samaha village. Theft of water pumps was disastrous to the crops on the ground which dried out. Not all WLs could afford buying new diesel pumps. The diesel pump is many-fold more costly than an electric pump. While some WLs rented out their lands to generate
revenue for purchasing the pumps and related expenses, others opted for selling half their lands to buy a new diesel pump.
Another reason why the land was retained in Sa’yda was to keep the house. The house, especially in the Iman sub-‘Widow Village’ was very important for women. If land was not planted, it would be taken away. Some women rented their lands for free or planted one tenth of their lands to retain their homes.
“I was desperate. I could not farm the land. It required gasoline and oil [for the water pump]. I found this man. I told him I will rent the land to you for free, just plant it. He planted it and did not tell me the land was producing. He kept saying that the land is not producing, and he did not pay me anything when it really was producing. But, honestly, all I wanted was for the land to be planted.” (Om Mahmoud, a WL in the Iman village)
“I only planted half an acre on my land. Just so I can get some berseem for my goats and could keep the house. We did not benefit anything from the land, only from the house.” (Om Taher, a WL in Iman village)
Some lands were provided without water. As a result, their prices were lower than other lands with water access. The benefits they provided to settlers were also negligible.
“I told you before; we bought the land for acquiring the house so that my brother and his family could live in it. The woman refused to sell us the house without selling us the land as well. The land is just sitting there without water.” (Son of Om Nizam who fattens camels together with his other two brothers)
“Our land has no water in it. The water comes and goes. We tried planting it before. The crops got thirsty and died. The land has no water.” (Om Mortada, the daughter of a WL in the Iman village)
Although many WLs regretted selling their lands, land sales were not necessarily a losing situation. Quite to the contrary, when I asked women in Samaha “who do you think are the most empowered women through land access?” One of the examples that was often repeated was that of Om Shahala.
Om Shahala sold her land and homestead for 90,000 EL (about CAD $16,000 at the time). Now after flooding of the area, land prices had decreased. With the land money, she paid her debts and married her daughters and bought them gold, as well as went on pilgrimage, many reported. Om Shahala has four girls, and she farmed the land very well with her girls. Many in the Samaha village reported that Om Shahala’s land was some of the best, but she had to sell the land because she had no sons. Diabetes also took its toll on her health, and she could no longer farm her land. She was a brave woman: she used to irrigate at night and operate the diesel pump, many reported.
Land sale is also not necessarily a loss because land in the Sa’yda was becoming increasingly waterlogged. One family tried to sell their mother’s land, but one brother
objected. The rest of his family told him, “if we do not sell the land and the land drowns, you will pay us the price of the land.” So he ended up agreeing with them to sell the land. When I came back in 2013, many new parcels of land had drowned. Even the Head of the Sa’yda settlement at that time jokingly said: “We are doing very well in the Sa’yda. Everyone is farming their lands. Much more lands drowned, thank God.” The more lands are irrigated, the higher the water table becomes, and the more lands flood.
Many WLs who sold their lands bought another property with the money, opened a business for a livelihood source, went on pilgrimage, and married off their children. As mentioned in Table 8, these outcomes are exactly what women hope for through their access to land. One WL in Iman, sold her land and bought a house in Edfu town, went on
pilgrimage, and bought an excavator and hired an operator to generate income. The land for her was not generating profit, and her daughter needed to go to school in town after she completed elementary school. Another WL, Om Fahmi, in the Samaha village, sold her land, and bought two houses for her sons, gold for her daughters, and sheep for fattening, for which she bought berseem.
In Intilaq, on the other hand, some GWLs who chose to sell their lands, especially in the beginning of resettlement when lands were not known to be profitable and when there were no shops, transportation, schools, or potable water in the area. These people sold their lands at a loss with prices as low as 30,000 EL for the land and the house. Now the price of the land is 350,000 EL with the house, and the rent per year for a fruit orchard on a five-acre plot is 40,000 EL.
Women landholders who benefitted from the land had to be very patient and
hardworking, were relatively well-off, and/or had access to credit. Many women landholders in both settlements complained about having to wait for a long time for their lands to start producing. Also many complained that they lost money in their farming activities. In Intilaq such was the case during early stages of cultivating the land, i.e., during the land reclamation phase. The land requires about three years to start producing at a profit. During these three years, many farmed at a loss. Money to invest in the land came from multiple sources in Intilaq: micro-credit, parents, sale of inheritance, and savings that came from, for example, the sale of a wife or sister’s gold. In Sa’yda money to invest in the land came from
inheritance, sale of a wife or sister’s gold, and from renting the land out to entrepreneurs. Land reclamation in Sa’yda is much slower. Most WLs reclaimed their lands on a small scale, an acre after an acre (as captured by the quotes below). In Intilaq, on the other hand, many reclaimed their lands all at once. Reclaiming the land requires washing the salts out (which requires oil and diesel for the pumps), digging irrigation furrows, and fertilization. Many WLs could not afford these processes. A few rented out their lands to others to get their lands reclaimed:
“My brother and the Professors who used to come here told me, ‘You reclaim your land one acre at a time. It is better to focus on one acre than on the entire plot.’ My brother told me to rent my land out. He told me ‘you will get your land back cold (reclaimed)’. This is what I did.” (Om Bayoumi, Iman Village)
“I will neither rent nor sell my land. I will plant it each year by an increased area as big as this door. Little by little, I will have planted all of it.” (Om Nazeer, a WL in the Iman village)
In Intilaq, access to micro-credit from IFAD and MALR made it easier for GWLs to invest in their lands. Their lands were of better soil quality and reached marginal productivity (when output becomes more than input) within a few years of reclamation. Access to micro- credit was constant and reliable. After a few years of selling peanuts and cattle (fattened by
berseem) many took a loan to grow fruit trees on their lands. By 2010, most GWLs have had fruit orchards on their lands. When given the correct amount of fertilizer, a five acre orchard could lead to a net annual profit of 60,000 EL. On the other hand, by 2010 in Sa’yda most WLs cultivated at best only three acres of their lands, and some gained an annual net profit of 2,000 EL for renting out two acres of berseem to cattle producers. Note that both settlements started around the same time.
Available markets in Sa’yda mostly comprise government mills and banks that only buy wheat and a local market for the sale of berseem, animals, and vegetables (especially okra). The Intilaq, on the other hand, had an export-oriented production market and a tourist market in nearby towns of Alexandria and Cairo. These markets absorbed farmers’ produce in Intilaq, mainly fruits. All these differences led to a focus on wheat, forage, and animal production in Sa’yda and on many times more profitable fruit production in Intilaq.
The fact that there were no basic services in the New Lands made the time it took to reach production for many women landholders in both settlements more difficult. All settlers reported having to bring everything, including bread, matches, and potable water, from the Old Lands due to the lack of shops in the New Lands. In the Sa’yda there was no electricity in the early stages of settlement, and many used candles and kerosene lamps for light. Many landholders complained that they looked much older than their real age due to their hard work on the land. All women landholders spoke about how the area was all desert when they first got here and how they ‘greened’ it by planting shade and fruit trees in their backyards.
In addition to financial resources and patience, many women landholders in Sa’yda succeeded due to having a reliable network of investors, labourers, and other groups that could provide them with services for their agricultural enterprises, such as the government offices and Land Squatters. One WL visited the Governorate Local Council office in the
Iman village to gain permission to break the asphalt across the road and place her water pump on the main water source, which is usually illegal. Informal settlers who planted sugarcane provided many legal settlers with sugarcane remnants as feed for their animals.
Investors provided the WLs with tree seedlings, cattle for fattening, camels for fattening, and funds for sharecropping. Some WLs, through their sons, accessed loans in the Old Lands for purchasing water pumps or carrying out a certain activity on the land. Labour for the land was mainly provided by two to four sons and, during the high season, by other local settlers and labourers from the Old Lands through the mothers’ social network.
Labourers from the Old Lands are recently being replaced by the local Bedouins who rented out land and housing in the Sa’yda.
Labour in Intilaq, on the other hand, was provided by the women themselves in the early stages of settlement until their sons grew into adults. Sons provide the labour. More recently labour became more accessible from nearby towns and increasingly populated nearby villages. During high season, GWLs often hire these groups. Sometimes due to old age, many GWLs and their husbands need hired labour and cannot depend on themselves anymore to carry out required daily labour on the land, especially when their sons are young or in the military that can last up to three years.
WLs with good relations with the LACs in the Iman village had access to micro- credit on a sporadic basis. Loans involved milking cows and cheese and butter production for women and cattle fattening for men. Some WLs accessed loans for cattle fattening as well. Most WLs were not happy with the repayment period of two years. Many complained that they had to sell their animals before they started to produce profit because of the short loan period. A few WLs complained that they did not like to sponsor another WL’s loan because they felt that they should not be punished for other people’s lack of payment.