The ‘Future of Egypt’ envisages turning tracts of desert into farmland to grow crops for exports. But with sky-high food price inflation and a water deficit, critics doubt it is viable
The Future of Egypt project aims to turn to an area of desert the size of Cyprus into farmland. Yet Egypt is already has an water deficit of 7bn cubic metres a year.The Future of Egypt project aims to turn to an area of desert the size of Cyprus into farmland. Yet Egypt is already has an water deficit of 7bn cubic metres a year.
Slider graphic showing satellite photos of Egyptian desert in 2014 and 2024 to show extent of agricultural development Unlike the rich soils of the Nile valley, watered and fertilised through millennia of floods and irrigation, the sands of the Western desert have long been arid, with few nutrients for crops. They require vast amounts of irrigation to become fertile – water that is impossible to recover.
With just three years to go until 2027, the government has achieved just 20% of its reclamation target: 3,400 sq km, according to recent announcements. “For this reason, the poor and lower-middle class don’t feel that this kind of reclamation projects benefits them,” he says., according to the World Bank. As one of the world’s largest wheat importers, Egypt was severely hit by the supply-chain shocks caused by the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.A Cairene shops at the Sayyida Zeinab food market ahead of Ramadan earlier this year. Egypt has one of the world’s highest rates of food price inflation.5.6m tonnes in 2021 to 6.
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