Egyptian government targets to expand horticultural land to 18M feddans by mid-2024

CAIRO - 25 July 2023: The Economic and Social Development Document prepared by the Ministry of Planning indicates that the government's target for FY2023/2024 to raise the surface area of horticultural land to 18 million feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) up from the 17.5 million feddans recorded in 2022.

The government also plans to increase the surface area of reclaimed lands, within the One Million and Half A Million Feddans Project, to 810,000 feddans up from the 537,100 feddans hit in FY2021/2022.

The share of agriculture in the GDP is 15 percent, and 18 percent in commodity exports. The sector also employs 25 percent of the Egyptian labor force.

A July report by the Land Reclamation Department at the Ministry of Agriculture showed significant advances in the One Million and Half A Million Feddans Project.

The report indicated that the total area of reclaimed land achieved in 2021/2022 is 163,200 feddans, compared to 87,100 feddans in 2020/2021, with an increase of 87.3%. This is owed to the increase in the area of land reclaimed by the private sector.

The land area belonging to the private sector reached 133,000 (81.4%), followed by land reclaimed by associations at 25,400 feddans, (15.5%). The General Authority for Agricultural Reconstruction and Development reclaimed an area of 5,000 feddans (3.1%) of the total area of reclaimed land in 2021/2022.

The cultivated area of the One Million and Half A Million Feddans Project amounted to 136,500 feddans in 2021/2022, compared to 140,000 feddans in 2020/2021, with a decrease of 2.2% from the previous year.

The reclaimed area reached 537,100 feddans in FY2021/2022, where Matrouh Governorate ranked first with 198,100 feddans at a rate of 36.9%. 

It is followed by Minya Governorate with an area of 175,600 feddans at a rate of 32.7%, then the New Valley Governorate with an area of 17,600 feddans at a rate of 3.3%. Aswan ranks fourth with an area of 55,000 feddans at a rate of 10.2%.

The area on which livestock projects (dairy production, fattening, and sheep breeding) are built on reclaimed lands reached 154 feddans in 2021/2022, compared to 136 acres in 2020/2021, with an increase of 13.2%.