The Center for Agricultural Economic Studies (CAES) was established at the faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University in July 1991 as an independent research and training unit with financial administrative autonomy. It conducts research and training, enhances policy dialogues through seminars, symposia and workshops and offers other capacity building programs. It also provides technical consultation in the form of feasibility studies and project evaluation.
The Center seeks to fill the already recognised gap in scientific communication and objectives dialogue among partners in agriculture and rural development in Egypt and the Arab World. CAES believes that economic growth should go side by side with the attainment of social justice, and without compromising the environmental integrity and protection. The Center’s activities, therefore, are to target policy markers, academics, producers, consumers, rural women, credit and marketing agencies. The Center also stresses the crucial role of civil society, and in particular that of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the field of agricultural and rural development.
The Center’s activities include policies and mechanisms of achieving sustainable agricultural and rural development, with particular emphasis on managing natural and human resources; Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of economic reform policies on the agricultural sector; Food production, marketing and distribution policies aiming at achieving food security; Human resource development, with particular emphasis on rural women; Developing the capabilities of governmental and non-governmental credit and marketing institutions; Labour and income-generating opportunities in rural areas, with special focus on small and medium-scale rural projects; Role of applied scientific research in agricultural development; Agricultural export promotion strategy; Impact of regional and international factors on food and agriculture.