Cabinet has on Wednesday approved the purchase of wheat from farmers next season for LE74.73 per bushel (or LE420 per ardeb), even if that price exceed global prices.
The decision was taken in order to support farmers and strategic goods.
“We aim to increase wheat cultivation by 200,000 acres to 3.5 million acres,” said Minister of Agriculture Adel al-Beltagy, adding that modern storage silos are being placed to ensure the quality of the grain and reduce wastage, which is up to 15 percent of the total eight million ton production.
He also said there are plans to raise the efficiency of water and land resources in order to get higher returns from agriculture and protect it from global market fluctuations.
“We are increasing the allocation of fields to more than 3,000 to guide and educate farmers on better means of wheat cultivation,” he said, adding that the aim is to increase the productivity of an acre from 101 bushels (18 ardebs) to 112 bushels (20 ardebs).
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
