CAIRO – 12 August 2024: The Egyptian government is working towards increasing the stockpile of strategic crops in the coming years as part of its national program, which has been presented to and approved by the Parliament.
The government has emphasized that strategic crops, such as wheat, rice, corn, beans, and others, are fundamental to food security. These crops are considered essential food commodities, and therefore, the government has included a program to increase the stockpile of strategic crops within its national agenda.
To achieve this goal, the government has outlined several measures:
Achieving Self-Sufficiency in Wheat:
The government plans to utilize technology to boost agricultural production, reduce wheat wastage by maintaining the silo system, continue building new silos to accommodate increased wheat cultivation, and implement modern policies for irrigation and drainage systems to preserve soil fertility and enhance the productivity of strategic crops.
Providing Additional Incentives for Farmers:
The government will offer extra incentives to farmers to encourage wheat cultivation, ensuring higher wheat supply rates. It will also expand the number of contractual crops and guarantee a price floor in line with global prices before the planting season, involving agricultural cooperatives in pricing.
Furthermore, the government aims to continue the national program for producing vegetable seed varieties to increase Egypt's capacity to supply vegetable seeds domestically instead of importing them. The government will also maximize the benefits of concessional financing provided by Egypt's development partners for projects such as grain storage silos and the provision of strategic commodities like wheat.
Increasing Agricultural Land Area:
The government is committed to expanding agricultural land through horizontal expansion by adding new land based on available resources and vertical expansion by developing high-yield crop varieties, adopting modern agricultural practices, expanding protected agriculture, and implementing national programs for desert reclamation to support food security.
Additionally, the government will continue to develop the agricultural land tenure system by establishing a comprehensive database of landowners nationwide and creating a geographical database for agricultural holdings to regulate cultivated areas and ensure that government support for fertilizers and production inputs reaches those who are eligible.
Promoting Green Communities and Sustainable Agriculture:
The government will continue to monitor the implementation of green communities and integrated sustainable agriculture to make the best use of available resources (water, land, energy) for food production. The government also aims to maximize the use of concessional financing from development partners in the field of desert land reclamation to increase agricultural land area.
Improving the Agricultural Investment Climate:
The Egyptian government has placed great emphasis on improving the agricultural investment climate and supporting investors in the agricultural sector and related activities. This includes increasing the efficiency of unused or underutilized assets, as well as enhancing the services provided to Egyptian farmers at all levels.
Key targeted actions include updating legislation that encourages market mechanisms and the spread of sustainable agricultural practices, simplifying procedures for allocating new land by establishing a unified management system representing all relevant entities, reviewing procedures for allocating and holding new land, and supporting secure land tenure by issuing extended ownership certificates and long-term lease contracts. The government will also review credit and lending policies related to agriculture and its projects.
Enhancing the Quality of Agricultural Products:
It is crucial to keep pace with modern technologies and comply with quality standards to enhance agricultural production and increase agricultural exports. Key targeted actions include meeting quality standards in accordance with the agricultural product specifications, increasing the technical efficiency of laboratories and requiring them to meet accreditation standards, adopting advanced global technologies to support and enhance economic efficiency levels in agricultural production, strengthening the competitiveness of agricultural products in local and international markets, and continuing to implement the 2030 Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy with a focus on applying modern technologies.
Advancing Agricultural Research and Practices:
The government has also prioritized advancing agricultural research and practices, recognizing that applied scientific research is a cornerstone for maximizing the use of land and water resources and increasing productivity to achieve food security.
The government is making concerted efforts to enhance agricultural research and practices by developing research and development in agriculture through accreditation systems, collaborating with other research centers, establishing partnership frameworks between the public and private sectors, non-governmental organizations, and cooperatives to provide advisory services, setting guidelines for offering incentives to encourage the private sector to provide reliable advice to farmers, enhancing agricultural extension services, supporting rural female leaders, and improving the human resource system by developing agricultural technical education and university education, as well as training and capacity-building to support sustainable and organic agricultural practices.
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