Agrarian Transformation in Egypt by Nicholas S. Hopkins

Author:Nicholas S. Hopkins [Hopkins, Nicholas S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Agriculture & Food, Middle Eastern, Social Science, Political Science, World, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429712623
Google: a96iDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-04-08T06:16:52+00:00

Tractor Owners

The evidence suggests that most tractor owners find it a profitable business. For instance, many tractor owners eventually purchase a second tractor, or an owner may start with a second-hand tractor and then in a few years move up to a new one. However, I did run across a few men who were former tractor owners. Their problems illustrate the process. One middle school teacher had bought a 65 hp Romanian tractor second-hand from a dealer in Mansoura, but sold it again after a year. He complained that repairs cost too much, but added that it did not pay to have a tractor if you did not have a big area of land of your own to work. They only have three feddans, and counted on working for their neighbors, but had a hard time collecting their money. Another man worked as a guard in an irrigation pump. He once bought a second-hand tractor for LE700, and then sold it again for the same price after several years. But he did not have enough land to qualify for a loan from the agricultural bank to buy a new tractor. A fairly large landowner had two first-generation Deering tractors, but he gave them up around 1974 and now hires a tractor whenever he needs one. He claimed that the price was too high, and then quoted unrealistically high prices. Other observers suggested that there may have been a dispute over an inheritance. These three examples suggest some of the problems of village social organization and of government regulations that create difficulties for would-be tractor owners and help to limit the number of people who can successfully own one.

On the other hand, there are many successful tractor owners in Musha. Here are four case studies exemplifying different kinds of tractor owners to illustrate the kind of people who own tractors and what they are able to do with them.

1. Abdeljalil Ahmed. This young man, aged 30, works as an agricultural engineer in the Musha cooperative on the strength of his diploma from the agricultural secondary school in Asyut. His father owns five feddans of land, and he himself rents in another five. His two older brothers live and work outside Musha, one sister is a teacher in Musha, and a younger brother is still at home. His father is a member of the cooperative board. His grandfather had 40 feddans, but also 15 heirs.

Abdeljalil initially bought a tractor as a partner with one of Musha's biggest farmers, Abdelhadi. This was a Yugoslav IMT-558. This arrangement lasted about three years. Then he sold his share in the IMT-558 to his partner, and bought a Massey-Ferguson 62 hp tractor on credit through the Agricultural Credit Bank in Asyut. (Shortly afterwards, Abdelhadi also bought a new Romanian 65 hp tractor from the bank, and henceforth had two tractors.) The total cost to Abdeljalil was around LE6,250, of which he paid LE2,000 down, LEI, 135 as the first year's installment, and then four more annual installments of about LE850 each.

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