By: Hania Moheeb
In a landmark achievement, Canal Sugar Company won the first prize in the large-sized projects category of the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects in its second session, organized under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
The prize is awarded to the company adhering most to international standards for smart green projects.
“This high honor reflects our commitment to excellence and innovative, environmentally friendly initiatives,” said Dr. Kamel Al-Abdullah, CEO and Managing Director of the Canal Sugar Company in the ceremony that was witnessed by Prime Minister Dr. Mustafa Madbouly, and the Minister of Planning, Dr. Hala Al-Saeed.
To reach such an achievement, the project has worked on reducing the consumption of irrigation water, which is considered a rare strategic and environmental resource; plants are irrigated according to their needs with no waste going to the land.
This method in its turn reduces the use of electric power, needed to pump groundwater, thus reducing carbon emissions, and reducing the consumption of fossil fuels necessary to operate reclamation equipment using traditional methods, thus reducing the cost as well as the associated carbon emissions.
This strategy contributed to reducing the cost by 350 million pounds for the first phase of the project, at a rate of 32 thousand acres, which made this winning project the jewel of Minya Governorate.
To be able to adhere to its green strategy, Canal Sugar Company project has always focused on employing the right tools to serve it. Such tools include Real Time Kinematics (RTK) which is a satellite data correction system used in agriculture to ensure that land surveys, agricultural inspections, and maps are accurate to real life.
Another tool that the project utilizes in land reclamation is the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA); a powerful technology with numerous applications, including agriculture. SCADA is essential in precision farming, where real-time data monitoring and decision-making are critical to ensuring optimal crop growth and yield.
Applying such up-to-date smart technologies, this project is considered one of the most important climate-smart agricultural projects. Such technologies are used in all processes of reclamation, cultivation and irrigation, which helps to fully achieve the sustainable development goals in terms of increasing the area of reclaimed land, way beyond the traditional methods, and thus increasing productivity to achieve food security.
Attending the ceremony from Canal Sugar Company were Yasser Saeed, Head of the Sustainability, Occupational Safety and Environment Sector, Ola Lotfy, Head of the External Relations and Communications Sector, and Engineer Ahmed Al-Ghitani, Head of the Strategic Planning and Development Sector.
Regarding the Canal Sugar Company, it is an Egyptian-Emirati partnership between Al Ghurair Group and Al-Ahly Capital Holding Company, the economic arm of the National Bank of Egypt.
The company operates a sugar beet farm with an area of 180,000 acres – equivalent to the area of a country like Bahrain for instance – of which 32,000 acres have already been reclaimed.
The project also includes a sugar factory – the largest in the world – in the city of Mallawi, with a production capacity of 900 thousand tons annually.
