‘Toshka’ to add 1.1 million feddans to agricultural area in Egypt: IDSC

CAIRO – 28 April 2022: Egypt’s Information and Decision Support Center [IDSC] published, Thursday an infographic about the Toshka project, explaining that it contributes to adding an area of up to 1.1 million feddans to the agricultural area in Egypt.

This, according to IDSC comes as part of the efforts exerted by Egypt to increase the agricultural area, provide job opportunities for the people of Upper Egypt, and support Food security.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi made an inspection tour in Toshka agricultural lands in the South Valley of Upper Egypt’s Aswan, on April 21, to witnesses the start of the wheat harvest season.

Sisi then gave the green light for the opening of some wheat silos via video in several governorates and watched a documentary on Egypt’s achievements to secure the wheat needed for local consumption.

Egypt has cultivated 217,700 feddans of agricultural lands as part of the project that produce around 550,000 tons of wheat annually, according to the documentary.

Egypt has also established seven new wheat silos with a total storage capacity of 420,000 tons in Arab Al-Olaikat area in Qalyubia, Bani Salamah in Giza, New Salhia city in Sharqia, and Abu Suwir in Ismailia as well as in the areas of San El-Hagar, El-Hammam, and Kharga.

During the inauguration ceremony, Egypt's Supply Minister Ali Moselhi said Egypt has been able to build resilience to external shocks during the inflation the resulted from the pandemic as well as the Ukrainian-Russian crisis thanks to relevant measures in this regard.

Despite the international shocks, Egypt has strategic wheat reserves that can last until January next year, he said.

Egypt has so far 2.6 million tons of imported wheat and targets to collect 5.5-6 million tons of local wheat and therefore strategic wheat reserves can last for 6-9 months, the minister affirmed.

Thanks to the project of establishing wheat silos since 2014, storage capacity has increased to 3.4 million tons of wheat from 1.2 million tons in 2014, Moselhi said.