The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of Egypt is a ministerial body in charge of
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
and
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
.
History
The Ministry of Agriculture was established on 20 November 1913. In 1996, it was renamed Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. One of its goals is to address sustainability in agriculture such as better ways to do agricultural irrigation.
In 2016, an agency from Switzerland was put in charge of inspecting Egypt's imported wheat. Egypt imports the most wheat of any country
and around 40% of the average Egyptians' income is spent on food.
Farmland
As of 2000, small farms (between 5 and 6
feddans
A feddan ( ar, فدّان, faddān) is a unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and the Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the fedda ...
) accounted for most (49.61%) of the agricultural land ownership in Egypt. 34.72% of farm holdings were of 1 feddan or less.
The hope is that with desalination plants, new wells
and better infrastructure farmers will be able to grow more wheat.
In April 2018 Egypt purchased wheat from local farmers but not at a price farmers found sustainable.
Land reclamation
A land reclamation project began in 2015, near the town of
Farafra
The Farafra depression ( ar, واحة الفرافرة, ) is a geological depression, the second biggest by size in Western Egypt and the smallest by population, near latitude 27.06° north and longitude 27.97° east. It is in the large Western ...
.
Large government and private investment and initiatives in farming the
Sahara Desert have sometimes ended with little to show.
In June 2017, it was announced 1.7 million
feddans
A feddan ( ar, فدّان, faddān) is a unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and the Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the fedda ...
had been reclaimed and according to the Egyptian Prime Minister,
Sherif Ismail
Sherif Ismail ( ar, شريف إسماعيل ; born 6 July 1955) is an Egyptian engineer who served as prime minister between 2015 and 2018. He was minister of petroleum and mineral resources from 2013 to 2015.
Career
Ismail studied mechan ...
, this work would continue. It was President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
who, in May 2017, asked for the armed services to begin reclaiming land by demolishing illegally erected structures on land not owned by builders or
squatters
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
.
Ministers
* Ayman Farid Abu-Hadid - from July 2013
* Adel Tawfik al-Sayed al-Beltagy
* Mahmoud Salah Eddin Hilal
* Essam Fayed - from September 2015
* Abdul Moneim El-Banna - from February 2017
*El-Said Marzouq El-Qosair - from December 2019
See also
*
Cabinet of Egypt
The Cabinet of Egypt ( ar, مجلس وزراء مصر) is the chief executive body of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It consists of the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers.
The government has a leading role in shaping the agenda of the houses ...
*
List of Ministers of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of Egypt
*
Egyptian land reform
The post-revolution Egyptian Land Reform was an effort to change land ownership practices in Egypt following the 1952 Revolution launched by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers Movement.
Problems prior to 1952
Prior to the 1952 coup that i ...
*
New Valley Project
{{coord, 22.494795, N, 28.579559, E, display=title
The New Valley Project or Toshka Project consists of building a system of canals to carry water from Lake Nasser to irrigate part of the sandy wastes of the Western Desert of Egypt, which i ...
References
External links
Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Official websiteMinistry of Agricultural Foreign Agricultural Relations
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry AreasMinistry of Agricultural and Land Reclamation on FacebookEgypt's Cabinet Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
1913 establishments in Egypt
Ministries established in 1913
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
Agricultural organisations based in Egypt