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Economics.
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Land Reformin the United Arab Republic
By KENNETH H. PARSONS*
THE land reform program in the Ministry of Agrarian Reform for that
United Arab Republic has centered region. There are also separate Minis-
upon limiting the land holdings of the tries of Agriculture for each of the two
relatively few persons who wielded great wings, or regions. All four of the
economic and political power in the Ministries are under the joint supervision
old regimes. But this program, especially of a Central Minister of State for Agri-
as it has developed in the Egyptian culture and Agrarian Reform.1
region, includes a reorganization of vil- I
lage agriculture along cooperative lines.
There are essentially two coordinated The basic concepts of the land reform
programs in the Republic: the one in programs have been derived from the
the Egyptian region has been operative experience in the Egyptian region. The
since 1952: the program in the Syrian extension of the program to the Syrian
region is now being initiated. The two region offers therefore a most interesting
programs show the similarities of their example of the adaptation of ideas to
kinship, for the more recent effort in the different conditions and circumstances.
Syrian region is largely an adaptation of Consequently, it is instructive to com-
parts of the program already in effect in pare in some detail the provisions of the
Egyptian territory before the formation laws and the operation of the programs
of the Republic. It is the purpose of this in the two regions.2
comment to sketch out some of the prin- The major item in the land reform
ciples underlying these programs. programs in each region is the acquisi-
The central land reform programs in tion and distribution of lands under
the Egyptian region are those which were cultivation but held in "excess" by large
launched in Egypt after the 1952 Revo- land holders. In Egyptian territory this
lution: (a) the acquisition of cultivated meant irrigated lands exclusively; in the
lands from large holdings for distribution Syrian region both irrigated and non-
to cultivators; and (b) the rent regula- irrigated lands are included-the latter
tion programs for tenanted lands. Simi- called Bali lands.
larly, the central feature of the land In Egypt at the time of the Revolution
reform program in the Syrian region is the Royal family-King Farouk and
that of acquiring and distributing to other descendants of Mohamed Ali-had
cultivators the "excess" areas of the extensive holdings of excellent lands.
large land holdings. In the latter, the These lands were confiscated, amounting
Land Reform Administration is also IThe present incumbent is the Hon. Sayed Marei who
charged with the administration and has been the chief director of the Egyptian land reform
programs since their inception in 1952. The chief adminis-
distribution of the state lands. These trative officer since 1952 also has been Mr. Ezzat, Abd El
are much more extensive and valuable Wahab. These men have gathered around them a small
core of dedicated and talented young men with previous
for agriculture than are the public experience in the government services of Egypt.
domain lands in Egyptian territories. 2The most recent texts available in English are: for the
The land reform program in each Egyptian region, AgrarianReformDecreeLaw .No. 178 of 1952
(with amendments), Cairo, Egypt: Agrarian Reform Organ-
region is under the jurisdiction of the ization, Public Relations Department, 1952; for the Syrian
region, Agrarian Reform Law No. 161, Cairo, Egypt: UAR
* Professor of
Agricultural Economics, University of Agrarian Reform General Organization, Public Relations
Wisconsin. Department, November 1958.
320 LAND ECONOMICS
to some 180,000 acres or about one third bearing three percent interest. Within
of all lands acquired for distribution. the past year approximately, the
All privately-owned lands held by one terms of the bonds in the Egyptian region
individual above 200 acres were subject have been changed to conform with the
to requisition (forced purchase), except provisions of the law for the Syrian
that as much as 100 acres of land above region.3
the 200-acre ceiling might be retained in In the Egyptian region the law stipu-
the family by assigning it to two or more lates that the agricultural land shall be
children. The landowner elected which redistributed or allotted to "small farm-
lands to keep (except that lands could ers, so that each of them shall have a
not be retained in a manner so as to small holding of not less than two feddans
destroy the functioning of irrigation facili- and not more than five feddans, accord-
ties); the requisitioned lands were ac- ing to the quality of the land" (Art. 9).
quired by the government, with payment In the northern region no minimum
principally in bonds, at a rate of 70 times allotment is prescribed, with the lands
the annual tax. being "redistributed among the farmers
In the Syrian region the ceiling on the so that each one of them shall have a
maximum acreage of irrigated lands small holding of not more than eight
which a private owner is permitted to hectares of irrigated land" .... or
retain is virtually identical in area with ... "30 hectares of Bali land."
that in the Egyptian region: 80 hectares The differing size of the individual
of irrigated land. Again the owner may allotments to cultivators in the two
assign approximately 100 acres of irri- regions reflects no doubt differences in
gated land to his children, except that quality and scarcity of land, type of
not more than 25 acres (10 ha.) may be farming, and the density of population.
assigned to each child. Since large The difference in size of the individual
areas of the Syrian region are not irri- allotments of redistributed lands, it is in-
gated, a different basic ceiling is provided teresting to note, does not have a parallel
for Bali land, namely 300 hectares, or in the size of retained holdings permitted;
approximately 750 acres. in both regions the basic ceiling for re-
In the Egyptian region the average tained irrigated lands is 200 acres.
price paid to former private land holders In both regions the requisitioned lands
for the requisitioned lands was approxi- are sold to the cultivators at cost, plus a
mately $500 to $600 per acre (with pay- service charge. In the original Egyp-
ment mostly in bonds). In the Syrian tian law the service charge was fifteen
area, for the relatively small amount of percent; in the more recent law for the
land already requisitioned, the price is Syrian region there is an overall charge
reported to be about $200 per acre for of ten percent "for the costs of requisi-
irrigated lands and about $90 per acre tioning, redistribution and other ex-
for Bali, or non-irrigated land. This 3 The bonds are of limited convertibility. They may be
payment is also in bonds. used by the recipient or his heirs to meet obligations to
government or to purchase "fallow" land for reclamation
Compensation to previous private own- and development. In terms of investment effect the land
ers in both regions is now in bonds reform program was evidently directed primarily to stopping
bearing one-and-one-half percent in-
the flow of funds into the speculative bidding up of already
developed agricultural lands. Since the inauguration of
terest, payable in 40 years. Originally the land reform program there has been a great upsurge in
urban construction. The industrialization program is just
the land purchase bonds of the Egyptian
getting underway in 1959 with a heavy emphasis in this
program were issued as thirty-year bonds, first five-year plan upon industrial expansion.
LAND REFORM IN UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC 321
penses" (Art. 14). In both regions the price. In the Syrian territory the value
cultivator receiving an allotment of land of land is recognized to be ten times the
is now given forty years to pay, with an annual rent-reflecting the rule-of-thumb
annual interest charge of 1.5 percent. method of land valuation prevalent over
There are virtually identical provi- much of this general area. In the
sions in the two laws requiring "that Egyptian territory however the value of
Agricultural Cooperative Societies shall land is arrived at through an assessment
be constituted from among the farmers procedure-historically by first calculat-
who have acquired the requisitioned ing an annual use value with the annual
lands." In the Egyptian region par- land tax now being rated at one seventh
ticipation in such cooperative societies of the annual rental or use value; cur-
has been made a condition precedent to rently the annual tax of good agricultural
the acquisition of land by cultivators. land is around $8 per acre per year; the
II corresponding cash rent would be $56
per acre per year.
The recipient of land in the redistribu- An interesting corollary to this rent
tion programs is required, in both regions regulation program is that, with rents
of the United Arab Republic, to cultivate fixed at seven times the annual tax, any
the land himself. Thus on these lands change in the tax rates is reflected seven-
tenancies are forbidden. However there fold in the rental rates. This ratio can
is considerable difference in the programs of course be changed. But the "parity"
of the two regions regarding rental or issue remains as a part of the system of
tenancy policy for the land outside the administered prices.
requisitioned areas. The regulation of This regulatory effort has evidently
the rent of agricultural land is a major been more effective than the common run
feature of the agrarian reform law in the of rent regulation programs. Approxi-
Egyptian region (Articles 31-37). The mately two-thirds of the land in Egypt
maximum rate of rent for a full season is is now operated by tenants-mostly cash
seven times the basic tax. Where land tenants. To support the maximum rent
is rented for a single crop the maximum
provisions there has been a series of
permitted is some fraction of this total- decrees (which will expire during this
since most of the land in Egypt grows current crop season unless extended)
two or more crops per year.
giving tenants occupancy rights. Thus
There is no parallel provision in the when the tenant cannot be removed he
Agrarian Reform Law for the Syrian has protection from pressure for under-
region, but there is a parallel tenancy the-table supplementary payments which
law or decree, with rent-regulating would raise the rent above the legally
provisions. We have the impressionthat authorized maximum. Since 58 percent
this law is not yet operative. of the cultivated land in Egypt is owned
There is however a basic difference in in holdings of 10 feddans or less4 (with
the land reform laws for the two regions 49.3 percent in holdings of less than 5
regarding the relation of the land rental feddans) it is obvious, with two-thirds of
market to the land reform program. the land rented, that a substantial part
In the Syrian region the market rent of of the tenanted land is rented from small
land is accepted as a basis for the valua- owners. This has undoubtedly con-
tion of requisitioned land; in the Egyptian
Sayed Marei, Agrarian Reform in Egypt (Cairo, Egypt
region the rent of land is an administered 1957), p. 247.
322 LAND ECONOMICS
reform villages. The consolidation of reform areas with the rest of the agricul-
the separate tracts into large fields for tural economy. On the other hand,
single crops was achieved by exchanging there are the major limitations upon high
the use of individual tracts so that no quality farming and productivity in-
one was excluded from cotton growing herent in the thousands of small parcels
for example, by having all of his lands of irrigated land characteristic of Egyp-
outside the areas planted to cotton. The tian villages-as reported from the vil-
pooling and exchanging of land use was age of Gharbia which has been recon-
achieved by the advice and persuasion structed on cooperative lines-particu-
of a man trusted and respected by the larly where cotton and rice are major
villagers, who could also assure them of crops. The key to the effective organiza-
better seeds, cheaper fertilizers, etc., if tion of the land reform villages is the
they joined the cooperative. This ex- control which the Land Reform Organ-
perience has been profitable and gener- ization has retained by having the owner-
ally satisfactory to the individual par- ship of land pass through a public agency.
ticipants. The experiment is considered There is no comparable public control
to demonstrate the basic feasibility of the over the areas outside the land reform
cooperative reorganization of village villages. To achieve such control it
economies. However, it is recognized would be necessary either to acquire
that the cost in terms of educational and the land or by some device reduce the
persuasion efforts is quite high. In ownership of land to a pure investment
short, as a pilot project the experiment function with effective control over land
was immensely successful; how to gen- use passing to some kind of govern-
eralize the experience in a feasible mental agency such as the Land Reform
manner is not at all clear. Organization.
V Underlying this dilemma are: (1) the
stark facts of pressure of population upon
The Egyptian experience with the the land; and (2) the implicit question
cooperative approach to the reorganiza- of whether it is actually feasible to
tion of village economies in the land re- organize such small scale agriculture
form program thus seems to point to a around the market principle-of factor
basic dilemma, illustrated by the differ- and product markets. The alternative to
ences between the operation and manage- individual ownership and independent
ment of the villages within the land planning of farm operations is some kind
reform program and the representative of directed and concerted action such
villages of the other 90 percent of as has been devised in the cooperatives
Egyptian agriculture. On the one hand, of the land reform villages. Under
there is a problem of how and whether Egyptian conditions the necessity for
to release the centralizeddirection, super- survival presses hard upon the range of
vision and servicing of the distributed individual freedom and discretion in
villages-essentially of reuniting the land agriculture.