
Touch the Soil News #2060 (photo – Farming in Egypt – CCA SA 4.0 International, Hesham Farouk Ragab)
Farmlandgrab brings a story of a public/private partnership in Egypt to reclaim 1.5 million acres of farmland to increase the nation’s agricultural productivity. It is being accomplished in land that has limited water. Part of the larger “Future of Egypt Project,” this agricultural project is equivalent to a farm 23.4 miles wide and 100 miles long. The larger Future of Egypt Project looks to reclaim 4.5 million acres.
The significance of this project is that Egypt imports 50 percent of the food it needs. Economically, the more food a nation can produce for its consumption, the more the value of its currency. It is the volume of goods and services a nation produces that gives its currency something to buy. This is also why nations with the ability to export can build their foreign exchange reserves to buy what their nation might be short on.
The economic message in what Egypt is doing has relevance to the United States. One of the largest water aquifers in the central part of the nation, the Ogallala aquifer, from which 27 percent of the irrigated land in America. Measurements have shown water levels dropping by 5 feet a year.
The Egyptian plan that employs a public/private partnership, sets the stage for other nation’s experiencing water challenges. You can read the full story here:
https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/32220-agricultural-revolution-in-the-making