8 Million Acres in 8 Years
This is the current plan for cultivation. There is pressing need to accelerate this project to reach 8 million Feddans in eight years.
This requires the following:
1. Publishing all lands in each province for agriculture. This will also include the
1) Exact location (coordinates)
2) lot sizes
3) price
4) land types
5) water source
6) best use of the land (crops, wheat, fruits etc.)
7) suppliers of agriculture supplies and equipment.
8) Financing sources - Must be interest free for a number of years.
The publication of this material will at all government outlets in each province.
Land acquisitions will also be published to the public to avoid fraud.
Public owned organizations:
We propose to have public owned companies to purchase and manage a large percengate of reclamable lands. Especially lands that are costly to plant and requires large funds to operate. They will be stock owned companies under the auspices or partnership with the ministry of agriculture. Profits will be devided/returned to stock holders either quartely or yearly basis or depending on harvest timelines. It is imperative to have organizations in the field to lead this initiative to reach the 8x8 goals. It is important that land prices remain the same/constant thoughout the whole eight year duration. As progress is made, we envision individuals will step forward to participate in the project.
If the Ministry of agriculture establishes a number of new companies for land reclamation many Egyptians will participate especially Egyptians that have a limited amount of money and do not have adequate time and expertise to enter a business.
Based on Egypt's need to be self sufficient in wheat, it needs to plant 5 million acres or it will import 7 million tons.
1 Ton if purchased locally will cost 393USD. which means approx. 2.8 Billion USD (17Billion LE) will remain in Egypt's economy. If the farmers and companies take on the responsibility, this money will be enjoyed by stock holders and land owners. simplifying the numbers further, if there are 1 Million share holders, that would put a gross return of 17,000LE per shareholder.
Background Information:
Egyptian officials say the Jan. 25 Revolution brought a new political will that would make it easier for the country to develop local solutions for food crises while resisting outside pressures to buy foreign food imports.
"We could easily end dependence on foreign imports of wheat that make the ‘baladi’ bread," said Abdelsalam Gomaa, an advisor to the government. "The problem will remain the extra wheat flour needed for other products such as pasta and sweets. We’ll continue to import 6 to 7 million tonnes if we do not grow more land with wheat."
Egypt - whose population grows at an average of 1.3 million people per year - needs to grow 5 million acres to reach full wheat self-sufficiency, Gomaa told IPS.
Egypt has now become the world’s largest wheat importer, and U.S. wheat’s biggest market. France is the second biggest exporter to Egypt.
The country’s move to grow what it needs locally could ease pressure on the domestic budget, create a surplus in the international market, and reduce food prices for other more impoverished global consumers, agriculture experts here say.
The new strategy is centred on offering prices competitive with international rates to lure Egyptian farmers to shift back to growing more wheat, which is essential for making bread, a staple for most people here.
The government said it is buying wheat for 350 Egyptian pounds (59 dollars) per erdab (150 kilogrammes), up from only 270 pounds (47 dollars) last year - a rate so low that farmers had complained that they could not afford new seeds or spend on technologies to compete in the market. Wheat acreage dropped by 5 percent.
According to the ministry of agriculture, under the new pricing system wheat acreage will jump to 3.6 million acres from 2.9 million last year.
Egypt also plans to offer growers disease-resistant, high-yield seed varieties, more regular farming counselling, along with government subsidies for scientific research.
The government promised to remove red tape that discouraged the creation of new agricultural companies that grow grains, especially wheat.
Immediately after that announcement, a group of Egyptian expatriates in the Gulf, Europe and the U.S. announced that they would start a new company that would offer shares directly to the public to raise 3 billion Egyptian pounds. The money will be used to grow 500,000 acres of wheat next year.
Egypt has turned to the neighbouring African nation of Sudan for extra arable land, and Sudan has offered one million acres for wheat growing by Egyptian farmers and companies.
For the first time, Egyptian farmers said Tuesday that they have organised to create their own unions, a step they say will help them communicate better with the local authorities rather than leaving the government susceptible to foreign pressures.
The head of the new union Abderhaman Mohamed Shokry told reporters here that his union has plans to help the country reach wheat self-sufficiency by lobbying to change policies of the previous regime that benefited international companies at the expense of local farmers.
But despite the new atmosphere and the road to greater wheat production is likely filled with many obstacles, experts say.
Bakery owners complain that even if Egypt reaches self-sufficiency in wheat production, there will be other problems with delivery, market mechanisms, and lack of government oversight.
A 50-kilogramme sack of subsidised flour bought for 10 pounds is re-sold to confectionery bakeries in upscale areas for 140 pounds. Confectionery and sweets shops sell to the middle classes and the rich, Mahmoud told IPS.
Foreign exporters who fear they may lose one of their biggest and most profitable markets will present other obstacles to Egypt’s march toward wheat independence.
Egypt grew more dependent on wheat imports under agricultural programmes encouraged by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and industry lobbies of U.S. exporters.
U.S. Wheat Associates, a U.S. lobbying group, often holds marketing conferences in luxury sea resorts frequented by rich Western tourists. Poorly paid officials from the Government Authority for Supply of Commodity here - the official wheat buyer in Egypt - are almost permanent fixtures of these events.
USAID has often submitted research that promotes the idea of freeing up wheat land for cash crops. Washington also deploys important promotional tools such as export credit guarantees that facilitate U.S. wheat sales to Egypt. The result has been that Egypt imports at least 10 million tonnes of wheat every year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that Egypt imported 3.7 million tonnes from the U.S. alone in 2010/2011. That figure is expected to rise in the short-term even with Egypt’s attempts to free itself from foreign wheat. (END)
This requires the following:
1. Publishing all lands in each province for agriculture. This will also include the
1) Exact location (coordinates)
2) lot sizes
3) price
4) land types
5) water source
6) best use of the land (crops, wheat, fruits etc.)
7) suppliers of agriculture supplies and equipment.
8) Financing sources - Must be interest free for a number of years.
The publication of this material will at all government outlets in each province.
Land acquisitions will also be published to the public to avoid fraud.
Public owned organizations:
We propose to have public owned companies to purchase and manage a large percengate of reclamable lands. Especially lands that are costly to plant and requires large funds to operate. They will be stock owned companies under the auspices or partnership with the ministry of agriculture. Profits will be devided/returned to stock holders either quartely or yearly basis or depending on harvest timelines. It is imperative to have organizations in the field to lead this initiative to reach the 8x8 goals. It is important that land prices remain the same/constant thoughout the whole eight year duration. As progress is made, we envision individuals will step forward to participate in the project.
If the Ministry of agriculture establishes a number of new companies for land reclamation many Egyptians will participate especially Egyptians that have a limited amount of money and do not have adequate time and expertise to enter a business.
Based on Egypt's need to be self sufficient in wheat, it needs to plant 5 million acres or it will import 7 million tons.
1 Ton if purchased locally will cost 393USD. which means approx. 2.8 Billion USD (17Billion LE) will remain in Egypt's economy. If the farmers and companies take on the responsibility, this money will be enjoyed by stock holders and land owners. simplifying the numbers further, if there are 1 Million share holders, that would put a gross return of 17,000LE per shareholder.
Background Information:
Egyptian officials say the Jan. 25 Revolution brought a new political will that would make it easier for the country to develop local solutions for food crises while resisting outside pressures to buy foreign food imports.
"We could easily end dependence on foreign imports of wheat that make the ‘baladi’ bread," said Abdelsalam Gomaa, an advisor to the government. "The problem will remain the extra wheat flour needed for other products such as pasta and sweets. We’ll continue to import 6 to 7 million tonnes if we do not grow more land with wheat."
Egypt - whose population grows at an average of 1.3 million people per year - needs to grow 5 million acres to reach full wheat self-sufficiency, Gomaa told IPS.
Egypt has now become the world’s largest wheat importer, and U.S. wheat’s biggest market. France is the second biggest exporter to Egypt.
The country’s move to grow what it needs locally could ease pressure on the domestic budget, create a surplus in the international market, and reduce food prices for other more impoverished global consumers, agriculture experts here say.
The new strategy is centred on offering prices competitive with international rates to lure Egyptian farmers to shift back to growing more wheat, which is essential for making bread, a staple for most people here.
The government said it is buying wheat for 350 Egyptian pounds (59 dollars) per erdab (150 kilogrammes), up from only 270 pounds (47 dollars) last year - a rate so low that farmers had complained that they could not afford new seeds or spend on technologies to compete in the market. Wheat acreage dropped by 5 percent.
According to the ministry of agriculture, under the new pricing system wheat acreage will jump to 3.6 million acres from 2.9 million last year.
Egypt also plans to offer growers disease-resistant, high-yield seed varieties, more regular farming counselling, along with government subsidies for scientific research.
The government promised to remove red tape that discouraged the creation of new agricultural companies that grow grains, especially wheat.
Immediately after that announcement, a group of Egyptian expatriates in the Gulf, Europe and the U.S. announced that they would start a new company that would offer shares directly to the public to raise 3 billion Egyptian pounds. The money will be used to grow 500,000 acres of wheat next year.
Egypt has turned to the neighbouring African nation of Sudan for extra arable land, and Sudan has offered one million acres for wheat growing by Egyptian farmers and companies.
For the first time, Egyptian farmers said Tuesday that they have organised to create their own unions, a step they say will help them communicate better with the local authorities rather than leaving the government susceptible to foreign pressures.
The head of the new union Abderhaman Mohamed Shokry told reporters here that his union has plans to help the country reach wheat self-sufficiency by lobbying to change policies of the previous regime that benefited international companies at the expense of local farmers.
But despite the new atmosphere and the road to greater wheat production is likely filled with many obstacles, experts say.
Bakery owners complain that even if Egypt reaches self-sufficiency in wheat production, there will be other problems with delivery, market mechanisms, and lack of government oversight.
A 50-kilogramme sack of subsidised flour bought for 10 pounds is re-sold to confectionery bakeries in upscale areas for 140 pounds. Confectionery and sweets shops sell to the middle classes and the rich, Mahmoud told IPS.
Foreign exporters who fear they may lose one of their biggest and most profitable markets will present other obstacles to Egypt’s march toward wheat independence.
Egypt grew more dependent on wheat imports under agricultural programmes encouraged by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and industry lobbies of U.S. exporters.
U.S. Wheat Associates, a U.S. lobbying group, often holds marketing conferences in luxury sea resorts frequented by rich Western tourists. Poorly paid officials from the Government Authority for Supply of Commodity here - the official wheat buyer in Egypt - are almost permanent fixtures of these events.
USAID has often submitted research that promotes the idea of freeing up wheat land for cash crops. Washington also deploys important promotional tools such as export credit guarantees that facilitate U.S. wheat sales to Egypt. The result has been that Egypt imports at least 10 million tonnes of wheat every year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that Egypt imported 3.7 million tonnes from the U.S. alone in 2010/2011. That figure is expected to rise in the short-term even with Egypt’s attempts to free itself from foreign wheat. (END)
