New strategy to keep Nile Water and boost Agriculture: Min. of Agriculture

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CAIRO: “Egypt will not give away a single drop of water of its share of Nile Water, which totals at 55 billion cubic meters,” Al-Mal Business Daily reported Minister of Agriculture Adel Al Beltagy as saying.

The government will work in the upcoming period to increase Egypt’s share of Nile water and that the government will not yield to external pressure to adjust shares, Beltagy said when asked about the government’s view of the Nile Renaissance Dam problem.

Egypt will face major economic losses from the dam, which could reach up to 20 billion EGP annually, professor of agricultural resources at Cairo University Nader Nour al-Din told Al-Bawaba News.

The country also faces negative impacts to its fish supply in the Nile, he said. The lack of water would force Egypt to abandon its cultivation of sugar cane and rice, which are considered among the most important agricultural resources.

Beltagy said the ministry put a tight strategy to deal with not only water crisis but also the agricultural sector as a whole in the upcoming period.

The strategy will be split into aspects; one will aim make use of water optimally by amending irrigation manners along with planting low-consuming water crops and resuming political talks with Ethiopian partners.

The second aspect will aim to improve national agricultural knowledge and promote the Genetically Engineered Products sector.

The Ministry of Agriculture will focus in the upcoming period to boost agricultural sectors since it could help achieve self efficiency. It could also meet citizens’ growing needs and increase Egyptian revenues of Agriculture, Beltagy said.

The importance of the agricultural sector lies in including 30 percent of total labor forces and participating with 14.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDB), head of Agricultural Research Center Abdel Aziz Tantawy told Amwal Al-Ghad news gate in May.

Besides promoting the agricultural participation through GDB, the ministry will work on attracting new investments along with widening the acreage and boosting livestock, Tantawy said.

The livestock participation GDP upped to four percent last year, he said and that the poultry wealth also edged higher to include 2 million workers and 60,000 farms.

Source: The Cairo Post