Irrigation development is essential for reducing vulnerability to water resource scarcity, food insecurity, and climate change impacts in Egypt. The centralized irrigation development must, however, overcome the challenges of the diversity of smallholders and the pre-existing, individualistic irrigation management. The purpose of this paper is to examine the farmers' characteristics that influence the design and success of irrigation improvement programmes in the Old Lands of Egypt. The paper investigates this issue from the perspectives of farmers by analysing farm features, agricultural practices, irrigation practices, and satisfaction with water services. The clustering method is applied to create farmer groups within the geographical area of the programme and seek consistent differences that affect the outcome of irrigation improvement. The results show that farmers are less diverse in their agrotechnology and more heterogenous in terms of capacities, livelihood sources, and land tenure structures. The article argues that grouping methods to deploy improved irrigation infrastructure should give more consideration to the farmers' individual features. Programmes intended to replicate such irrigation development or leverage the existing results should address these particularities to create a socially adaptive environment for future irrigation investment in Egypt.

中文翻译：

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小农拼图的碎片：农民特征在埃及旧地灌溉改善项目中的附加作用

灌溉开发对于降低埃及对水资源短缺、粮食不安全和气候变化影响的脆弱性至关重要。然而，集中灌溉的发展必须克服小农的多样性和预先存在的、个体化的灌溉管理的挑战。本文的目的是研究影响埃及旧地灌溉改善计划设计和成功的农民特征。本文通过分析农场特征、农业实践、灌溉实践和对供水服务的满意度，从农民的角度探讨了这一问题。聚类方法用于在计划的地理区域内创建农民群体，并寻求影响灌溉改善结果的一致差异。结果表明，农民的农业技术差异较小，而在能力、生计来源和土地使用权结构方面则更加异质。文章认为，部署改进灌溉基础设施的分组方法应该更多地考虑农民的个体特征。旨在复制此类灌溉开发或利用现有成果的计划应解决这些特殊性，为埃及未来的灌溉投资创造一个具有社会适应性的环境。