Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Tuesday asserted that modern agriculture methods maximise the land production and farmers’ income, pointing out that the world is witnessing rapid changes that need more serious and sustained work.
Commenting on the agriculture minister’s word during the inauguration of Kima factory after its rehabilitation, Sisi underlined the necessity of increasing farmers’ awareness about the benefits of using modern techniques in irrigation and farming, citing an example of the yield of one feddan of sugar cane whose production amounts to 40 to 45 tons in the traditional farming method, while its yield from farming with the modern ways amounts to 50 to 55 tonnes, a matter which could bring about more benefits to farmers.
He reiterated that exerting more efforts would guarantee better results and success and achieve more financial revenues amid a rapidly changing world.
The president pointed that such opportunities, where new inaugurations are made, should be seized to give citizens more information, urging the media to release more data reports about any raised issue.
President Sisi underlined, during his inauguration of expansion and rehabilitation of the urea and ammonium nitrate plant in Kima Aswan, the importance of adopting the “vertical agriculture” policy which contributes to increasing the production rates per feddan.
Sisi gave an example of the productivity of 300,000 feddans of sugar cane which could be upped from 1.2 million tons annually to 1.8 tons annually without opting for increasing water quotas or the agricultural lots.
The president also reiterated the necessity of applying the drip irrigation system to save wasted amounts of water, increase productivity, decrease the use of fertilizers and pollution rates.
He asserted that the state was keen on encouraging youths to set up green house projects, noting that the state is ready to pay the price of 100 mn seedlings so as to be able to change the traditional method of irrigation 300,000 feddans of sugar cane to be irrigated with the drip method.
Sisi also highlighted the importance of fish farming projects to compensate the reduction in fish from Lake Nasser from 80,000 to 40,000 tons, along with a less production from Bardaweil and El Manzala lakes as a result of the growing number of population and increasing demands.
He pressed the need to work harder to shoulder the responsibility of 100 million people, asserting the necessity of integration among the sectors of industry and agriculture in order to achieve more growth for other state sectors.
He pointed out to the possibility of establishing fish farms in Toshka with an expected high production within a period of one to two years. However, he said, there is the problem of transporting the fish production for long distances of more than 700-800 kilometers.
Sisi urged citizens to seek jobs of any kind for a living, noting that the state exerts all possible efforts to provide more opportunities for all people.
He called on officials to follow up the project of preparing 50,000 feddans of seedlings, asserting that such experiment would have a great international impact.
Sisi said he was keen to increase the citizen’s income through increasing the feddan productivity rate from 40 tons annually to reach up to 70-80 tons annually, and therefore more benefits would be gained without increasing the prices of sugar cane supply.
