915K feddans cultivated as ‘Strip Lynchets’ to boost wheat production

CAIRO - 2 November 2019: In order to boost the production of wheat, which is a strategic crop in Egypt, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation works on promoting the “Strip Lynchet” field system as it experimented with 915,000 feddans last year and succeeded.

Chairman of the Agriculture Research Center Mohamed Soliman tells Egypt Today that such field system uses 25 percent less water, 15 percent less seeds, and a lower amount of the energy used to power agricultural devices. Soliman elaborates that each lynchet has a width of 120 centimeters and contains seven rows. The ministry is also introducing new wheat species that resist climate change, ripen fast, and have high productivity.

Chairman of the Field Crops Research Institute Alaa Khalil states to Egypt Today that the ministry implements awareness campaigns to encourage farmers to cultivate wheat in that system, and trains agricultural advisors for that purpose.

Khalil added that the ministry targets the expansion in the use of ammonia-based fertilizers and laser levelling in order to overcome the shortage in nitrogenous fertilizers and labor, and reduce costs. A report by the ministry showed that it ploughs the soil, improves the condition of agricultural drainage, and adds gypsum in order to treat alkali soil.