Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El Said el-Quseir discussed during a meeting here Wednesday with Regional Director of the World Bank Group (WBG) Sustainable Development for the Middle East and Africa (MNA) Region Ayat Soliman the impact of climate change on the agriculture sector, along with the ministry’s future vision to overcome projected challenges.
The minister said climate changes directly and indirectly reflect on the agriculture sector, highly affecting agricultural seasons, crops productivity rates, as well as the spread of plant pests and diseases that would in turn result in increase of production costs.
Quseir highlighted climate change risks on soil salinity and increase in evaporation rate that led to the excessive need for water due to changes in crops’ structure.
Egypt attaches great importance to climate change issues, as the State has started underlining priorities in this regard including, improving plant species, reducing crops loss, setting up silos and cooling stores, promoting agro-industries, installing modern irrigation methods, together with moving ahead toward automating the agriculture sector, the minister said.
For her part, the WBG official touted Egypt’s achievement in the agriculture domain, voicing the bank’s preparedness to cooperate with the ministry in laying down national schemes that aim at curbing climate change challenges on the agriculture field, saying Egyptian crops enjoy high demand in most world markets.
She pointed out to future talks grouping WB staffers and senior Egyptian officials, with a view to devising an overarching vision on possible adaption with climate changes, thus the vital sector would remain unscathed.
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