Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala El-Said, announced that the government completed 20 agricultural development projects, with a total investment cost of EGP 4.3bn, of which 13 projects were in fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, with a total investment cost of EGP 1.8bn, a growth of 86% on FY 2018/19.
She added that the Sinai Peninsula has the lion’s share of the development projects, with 13 projects, at a total cost of EGP 1.8bn, followed by the Red Sea governorate with 2 projects at a cost of EGP 50.2m, and Matrouh governorate with one project at a cost of EGP 0.8m. There were 4 joint projects between more than one governorate, with a total investment cost of EGP 2.5bn.
The Ministry highlighted the most prominent projects, including the first stage of the farm-level irrigation modernisation project for an area of 250,000 feddan in 10 governorates, 11 integrated agricultural complexes in North Sinai and two more in South Sinai, and the Desert Research Station in Shalateen, the Red Sea.
The Ministry added that the development projects in Sinai benefited 550 Bedouin families. They also included digging 165 subsoil wells and establishing 4,959 greenhouses, in addition to providing water resources for reclamation and cultivation of 5,500 feddan. The completed projects also saved 4.5bn cubic meters of water, as a result of developing irrigation systems, removing weeds, planting water-saving strains, and laser levelling soil for an area of 8.8m feddan.
