Control of the Nile’s Flow: The Introduction of Perennial Irrigation for Modern Agriculture

Abstract

This chapter covers the period from the beginning of 19th century, when Muhammad Ali started his attempts to control the Nile flow, to the middle of 20th century, which was followed by the construction of the Aswan High Dam that fully controls the flow. The traditional irrigation method of basin irrigation under the yearly natural flood was very sustainable, while having a limit of single crop a year in most of the agricultural land in Egypt. Muhammad Ali started construction of barrages in the Nile River to raise the water level during the low-flow period to perform perennial irrigation for the introduction of new crops. This chapter describes how the construction of hydraulic facilities such as barrages and irrigation canals progressed and how the Egyptian agriculture was developed by the perennial irrigation in terms of production system, crops, cropped areas, yields, production and so on, together with some negative impacts by the introduction of the new irrigation system.