Surface area of cultivated lands in Egypt's Sinai rises by 118%: researcher

CAIRO – 21 November 2021: Economic Researcher Mohamed Negm noted in a TV interview Saturday evening that the surface area of cultivated lands in Sinai rose by 118 percent over the past six years.

Negm attributed this to expanding the treatment of wastewater, and directing it to land reclamation on the peninsula. He added that the increase in cultivated lands in Sinai would not just contribute to food security but also create jobs in the sectors of food industries, transportation, and logistics.

The economic researcher pointed out that the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) had funded 36,000 businesses in various fields, and that the government has pledged LE700 billion to the development of Sinai.

According to Al Mal newspaper, cultivated lands recorded 105,763 feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) in 2015.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi inaugurated in September via video-conference Bahr Al Baqar Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is the world's largest, while attending a ceremony held on that occasion in Port Said, a Suez Canal governorate.

Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Al Sayed Al Qusair stated in the same event that Mahsama and Bahr Al Baqar wastewater treatment plants serve the cultivation of 600,000 feddans in North and Middle Sinai. Of those, more than 400,000 have already been reclaimed through Mahsama.

"Adding other cultivated lands located dispersedly in the peninsula, Sinai is estimated to house 675,000 feddans of agricultural lands," the minister underscored.

President Sisi commented saying, “the reclamation of 500,000 feddans in Sinai has cost LE150-160 billion acquired through loans...That’s why it’s crucial to maintain existing” canals and Nile mainstream.

"The cost of reclaiming 100,000 in Sinai is around LE2 billion because of digging irrigation and wastewater canals, extending them beneath the Suez Canal, and introducing necessary infrastructure," the president stated.