Egypt finalized an ambitious agricultural map for its flagship New Delta project, allocating half of the planned cultivation area to strategic crops in a major push to strengthen food security and reduce reliance on imports, according to officials familiar with the plan.
The New Delta project, inaugurated on Sunday by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is one of the country’s largest land reclamation and agricultural expansion initiatives, targeting a total cultivated area of 2.2 million feddans as part of Egypt’s broader strategy to expand arable land and boost agricultural output.
Sources at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation told local media that the project’s crop allocation model was designed using a “balanced scientific framework” aimed at meeting domestic demand while simultaneously supporting export growth.
Cultivation Map
Under the approved cultivation plan, around 50% of the project’s total area will be dedicated to strategic crops considered essential for Egypt’s food supply and industrial needs. These include wheat, corn, flax, sugar beet, soybeans, and sunflower crops, commodities that Egypt imports heavily or consumes in large quantities.
Another quarter of the land will be allocated to high-value export crops, including potatoes, strawberries, grapes, and citrus fruits, sectors viewed as key foreign currency earners for the Egyptian economy.
The remaining quarter will be used for free-market crops and diversified vegetables intended to meet rising domestic consumption needs. In addition, authorities have earmarked a specialized 100,000-feddan zone exclusively for cultivating medicinal and aromatic plants, a segment increasingly targeted for export and industrial use.
Officials said the New Delta project extends beyond traditional farming and includes large-scale infrastructure designed to maximize the economic value of agricultural production. Among the centerpiece developments is what authorities describe as the country’s largest integrated logistics hub for grain and commodity handling and storage, with a planned storage capacity of up to one million tons.
The project also relies on one of Egypt’s largest agricultural water recycling and treatment systems. According to officials, a 155-kilometer water canal, stretching 24 meters wide, will transport up to 10 million cubic meters of treated water daily from the Hammam wastewater treatment plant using advanced tertiary treatment technology.
The reclaimed water network is expected to play a critical role in sustaining intensive cultivation across the new agricultural zones, particularly as Egypt faces mounting water challenges and increasing pressure on Nile resources.
Government officials say the New Delta initiative forms part of a broader national agricultural expansion campaign that has added nearly four million feddans to Egypt’s cultivated land base since 2014, compared with an estimated total of eight million feddans before that period.
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