USAID provides agriculture assistance to help Egypt improve low rural incomes and underemployment. A major strategy has been to increase value chain productivity. The Agricultural Exports and Rural Incomes-Business Development Services (AERI-BDS) Project implemented by QED supported the Mission’s initiative.

QED enhanced access to affordable credit and investment for horticulture and livestock value chain stakeholders. QED assessed financial services and surveyed credit demand in Upper Egypt, reviewing the financial sector, demand for finance, and supply of financial services; assessing training needs of financial institutions; prioritizing project activities; and outlining five new loan products for horticultural and livestock/dairy smallholders. QED assisted with the design and launch of an agricultural production and animal fattening lending program for smallholder farmers in Upper Egypt. 

QED selected and provided technical assistance to 90 Upper Egypt Business Services Providers to improve their capacity to provide services on commercial terms to horticultural and livestock value chain stakeholders in the region. QED facilitated more than $5 million of commercial transactions between national and local input suppliers in Upper Egypt. Working with two leading Egypt financial institutions, we helped our partners facilitate loans to smallholder producers, input suppliers, veterinarians, and processors in the area. Together, we also developed four new loan producers and provided training and technical assistance to these institutions on rural and agricultural finance. Horticultural production and animal fattening loan products were initiated with more than $1 million in loans disbursed.