Egyptian Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, at a celebration held on the occasion of World Food Day, announced that his ministry had prepared a new agricultural strategy aimed at reducing crop waste.
An estimated 40 percent of Egypt’s total food crops this year are said to have gone to waste.
“The strategy aims to achieve comprehensive socio-economic development,” Abaza said, adding that his ministry would concentrate on low-income rural areas.
“The government will also pay wheat growers more than usual this season,” he said, stressing that the strategy also aimed at raising Egyptian self-sufficiency in terms of wheat production from 56 percent to 80 percent by 2017.
“We will also grant facilities to Egyptian private-sector companies that wish to invest in agricultural projects abroad,” the minister said, pointing in particular to the one-million-acre Gezira agricultural project in Sudan.
Abaza went on to call for stepped-up cooperation with Nile Basin states with a view towards realizing optimum usage of shared water resources and achieving greater food security in light of soaring global food prices.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
