Egypt Achieved Self-sufficiency in 7 Agricultural Crops: Minister

The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture El Sayed Al-Quseir said during the activities of the second day of "A Story of a Nation" Conference, that the country achieved self-sufficiency in more than 7 agricultural crops.

The Minister of Agriculture confirmed that the world has recently noticed the pivotal role that the agricultural sector plays in the food security system, especially after the impact of food availability has transcended the economic and social dimension to the political and national security dimension.

Al-Quseir said - during his speech, in the presence of President Sisi - that the Egyptian state had paid great attention to this sector by the support of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi for this sector, who always directs taking many proactive measures to support the agricultural sector.

The Minister of Agriculture reviewed the features of support and achievements witnessed by this sector, through building sustainable agricultural and food systems that are more resilient and comprehensive, indicating that this matter allowed the Egyptian people’s needs for agricultural food products to be met in periods when many countries, including developed countries, were unable to achieve this goal and were imposed. 

"Some of these policies where restrict the exports of agricultural commodities ... stressing that all of this is due to President Sisi’s belief that every citizen has the right to obtain his needs for safe, healthy and sustainable food."

Al-Quseir added, “The agricultural sector has been facing chronic challenges since ancient times. These challenges were represented by the limited agricultural area that has been encroached on, in addition to the limited water resources.” 

He explained that the country suffers from water scarcity, the fragmentation of agricultural holdings, and the increasing population growth, which has worked to make the share The country's per capita is 2 qirats, after it was at one feddan per capita, while the global average is 12 qirats per capita.

The Minister of Agriculture explained that food security faced a group of interconnected and successive challenges, such as the pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, and climate changes, and all of this affected the supply chains and affected the prices of food, energy, fertilizers, agricultural systems, and the volume of production over a long period of time due to drought and desertification.

Egypt achieved self-sufficiency in vegetable and fruit crops, through scientific research and good agricultural practices in agriculture through the management of orchards and agricultural crops, and public awareness among farmers while increasing production.

Egypt is close to achieving self-sufficiency in sugar and fish, and has achieved remarkable progress in the production of wheat and red meat. It has achieved high levels of self-sufficiency in vegetables, fruits, poultry, dairy, eggs, and rice, and fish and sugar have achieved self-sufficiency of 90%.