Ministers of Antiquities and Agriculture at the Agricultural Museum

By Ali Abu Dashish and Maydaa Abo El-Nadar

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anani and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ezz El-Din Abou Steit went on an inspection tour at the Museum of Agriculture, located in Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

El-Anani said, “This tour comes under the umbrella of cooperation between both ministers, to select the pieces of antiquities, to be displayed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Three halls of the museum are scheduled to be opened mid-2019.”

El-Anani added that “The Ministry of Agriculture is paying a lot of effort to raise the museum’s efficiency. Methods of the antiquities’ display and their registration according to the antiquities’ law, and offering training courses for workers at the museum, were planned.”

Regarding the gardens at the museum, El-Anani commented “Gardens should be utilized to offer services for visitors, through a specialized, under the supervision of the Ministry. This step would provide financial resources to develop the museum. In addition, foreign Ambassadors in Cairo and International News Agencies would be invited to spend a day at the Museum.”

On his side, Abou Steit expressed “The Minister of Antiquities’ visit shows the cooperation between the two ministers to utilize the museum and place it on Egypt’s tourism map. The museum’s development process aims at recovering the museum’s cultural status, as an educational center that had a great role to spread agricultural awareness. This would help Egyptians and tourists know about Egyptian agriculture, its origin, and its development, bearing in mind that it is the second specialized museum in Agriculture, after the Agricultural Museum in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. “

Abou Steit added “The museum includes eight sections established on 30 acres in 1930. It displays the agricultural pre-historic phase. I am delighted about the development operations that are currently taking place in the museum, so that the museum would recover its statues, and benefit researchers, university and school students.”

Worth noting is that the museum includes ten important buildings: cotton section, agriculture at the Greek era, scientific groups, plant groups, ancient Egyptian agriculture, Syrian lobby, Egyptian-Japanese friendship, royal cinema hall, cultural bibliotheca that includes books about Egypt’s description.

In addition, the museum includes rare plants, model of agricultural and historical machines, many photos that documents the development of agricultural process and how the rural life was in Egypt.