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Population and Food Dynamics: A Caloric Measurement in Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Manoucher Parvin  and
Louis Putterman
Manoucher Parvin
Affiliation:
Manoucher Parvin, The University of Akron
Louis Putterman
Affiliation:
Louis Putterman, Brown University
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Extract

Post-World War II studies of Egypt's economy devote considerable attention to her population growth and agricultural development. Such attention is necessary in that Egypt, (though) so limited in its habitable land, has experienced a quadrupling of population during the present century; and, as its most important sector is still agricultural, more than half of that population is concentrated in rural areas. Therefore, studies have focused on the effects of population pressure on the distribution of agricultural income, on the agrarian reforms of 1952 and 1961, and particularly on population growth and policies.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , August 1980 , pp. 81 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Charles, Issawi, Egypt at Mid-Century: An Economic Survey, Oxford University Press, London, 1954,Google Scholar and Egypt in Revolution: An Economic Analysis, Oxford University Press, London, 1963;Google ScholarBent, Hansen and Girgis, A. Marzouk, Development and Economic Policy in UAR, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965;Google ScholarDonald, C. Mead, Growth and Structural Change in the Egyptian Economy, Richard, D. Irwin, Inc., Homewood, Illinois, 1967;Google Scholar and Robert, Mabro, The Egyptian Economy: 1952–1972, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1974.Google Scholar

2 el-Shafie, M., “Population Pressure on Land and the Problem of Capital Accumulation In Egypt,” unpublished University of Wisconsin Ph.D. thesis, 1951.Google Scholar

3 Doreen, Warriner, Agrarian Reform and Community Development in the U.A.R., Dar Al-Taawon Publishing and Printing House, 1961;Google ScholarGabriel, S. Saab, The Egyptian Agrarian Reform:1952–1962, Oxford University Press, London, 1967.Google Scholar

4 William, A. Hance, The Geography of Modern Africa, 2nd Edition Revised, Columbia University Press, New York, 1975.Google Scholar

5 Wittfogel, K., Oriental Despotism, New Haven, Connecticut, 1957.Google Scholar

6 For example, see Robert, J. Braidwood, Prehistoric Men, Scott, Foresman and Company, Illinois, 1964.Google Scholar

7 Issawi, , 1963, op. cit., p. 20.Google Scholar

8 Estimates from the Napoleonic occupation of Egypt, in Hansen, and Marzouk, , op. cit., p. 22,Google Scholar and Issawi, , 1963, op. cit., p. 20. (We have learned that Professor Issawi's new extrapolations indicate that population size at this time must have been at least 3 million.)Google Scholar

9 Gibb and Bowen, for example, estimated the 14th century population at about 4 million. See Issawi, 1963, op, cit., p. 20, footnote.Google Scholar

10 One feddan = 1.038 acres.

11 Mabro, 1974, op. cit., p. 9.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., p. 14.

13 Roger, Revelle, “Population and Food Supplies: The Edge of the Knife,” in Prospects of the World Food Supply, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1966, p. 42.Google Scholar

14 Hance, , op. cit., p. 131.Google Scholar

15 Mabro, , op. cit., p. 9.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., p. 14.

17 Revelle, , op. cit., p. 42.Google Scholar

18 Mabro, , op. cit., p. 101.Google Scholar

19 Issawi, , 1963, op. cit., p. 20.Google Scholar

20 Mabro, , op. cit., p. 9.Google Scholar

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Mead, , op. cit., p. 21.Google Scholar

24 Hance, , op. cit., p. 131.Google Scholar

25 Sources: Index of Agricultural Output, 1913–1955, from National Bank of Egypt, Economic Bulletin, Vol. VII, No. 4, pp. 252–255,Google Scholar reprinted in Mead, , 1967: 320; previously cited sources for population and cropped area figures.Google Scholar

26 See Warriner, op. cit., and Saab, op. cit.

27 See discussion in Mabro, op. cit., Chapter 4.

28 Saab uses an estimate of 8 million in 1951. See Saab, op. cit., p. 13.Google Scholar

29 Assuming total population of 38 million and a non-rural population of 18 million, as estimated in the U.N. Statistical Yearbook, 1972.

30 A 1960 estimate; see Saab, , op. cit., p. 188.Google Scholar

31 Mabro, , op. cit., p. 101.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., p. 100.

33 Both rates exclude stillbirths in this calculation. Sources: Mead, , op. cit., p. 302,Google Scholar and Mabro, , op. cit., p. 29.Google Scholar

34 Concise Report on the World Population Situation in 1970–1975 and Its Long-Range Implications, (Population Studies, No. 56), Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, N.Y., 1974.Google Scholar

35 Taking cultivated, not cropped area, into account.

36 Rural population is defined here as the entire non-urban population, whether engaged in agriculture, in other work, or not employed.

37 Mabro, , op. cit., p. 198.Google Scholar

38 These calculations are based on a total population of 37.6 million, and an urban population of 17.8 million, in 1974.