On September 9, 1952, Egypt's ruling "Free Officers" instituted the first of a series of land reforms aimed at redressing what was seen as an imbalance in land ownership (70% of the arable land had been in the hands of 1% of the population; by 1970, land ownership had increased to 10% of the population.)
Landholders after the 1952 reforms were limited to owning 200 feddans (1 feddan = 1.038 acres) and were compensated for lands seized by the government. Further reductions were leveled in 1961 (maximum holdings of 100 feddans) and again in 1969 (limited to 50 feddans). The state redistributed seized lands in small plots to peasants, who in return were compelled to join agricultural cooperatives from which they received credit, seed, fertilizer, and other forms of assistance.
The chief effect of the land reforms was to shift political power from the big landowners to rural notables who came to dominate their villages. However, more than half the rural population continued to work as landless laborers. As the population increased, the proportion of land to farmers actually dropped from 1.3 hectares for a family of five (1947) to 0.8 hectares (1971).
Source: Peter N. Stearns (ed.), The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth Edition New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 2001), 988.