Despite limited water resources, the government revealed this week plans to reclaim one million acres of undeveloped land to be used for agriculture. The project is part of a larger scheme to reclaim a total of four million feddans, and was first announced by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in his electoral programme. The scheme comes as the arable land available in the Nile Valley and Delta has decreased due to illegal building after the 25 January Revolution. This week the government announced that it was going to take action towards implementing the millions of feddans reclamation project, including announcing procedures for awarding the land to investors and university graduates. In a meeting, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb asked the ministers concerned to put together a final plan with a time frame for the project to be ready as soon as possible. The first phase of the project is to be implemented in 12 governorates, in order to ensure that it is distributed evenly across the country. Studies have been conducted on soil quality, irrigation methods and areas of reclaimable land, according to official statements. Groundwater will be the main source of irrigation used for the first one million feddans. Hossam Al-Moghazi, minister of irrigation and water resources, said that the government plans to drill 3,500 wells in these areas at a total cost of LE7 billion. The wells will provide underground water to irrigate 90 per cent of the total area (around 910,000 feddans), while the remaining 10 per cent will be irrigated with surface water and the Nile. The government has already contracted 16 local drilling companies to start drilling 1,600 wells in preparation for cultivation. These are supposed to provide 50 per cent of the designated land with its water needs. Al-Moghazi explained that when distributing the land, particularly parcels near cities and urban settlements, the government will give priority to young people. These districts are west Minya, west Kom Ombo, the Siwa Oasis and Toshka. The move to increase the amount of agricultural land is a good one since the rate of land reclamation had declined to only 10,000 to 15,000 feddans annually even before the 25 January Revolution, according to Ibrahim Abdel-Motaleb, former chairman of the Agricultural Economic Research Institute. “This moderate rate is not enough to cover the needs of the growing population, which needs the addition of 170,000 feddans annually,” Abdel-Motaleb said. “If the reclamation plan is applied properly, it will help to increase the self-sufficiency rate in food from 60 per cent to 75 per cent,” he added. It will also increase the growth rate of the agricultural sector from the current two per cent to three per cent. However, Abdel-Motalab said that the government is facing challenges, including a shortage of water resources and a lack of funds. He suggested the government could overcome the water problem by using more developed methods of irrigation that would better conserve Nile water. “If we try to utilise our water resources in the best way, we could save about 10 billion cubic metres annually, which would help the government to succeed in reclaiming one million feddans,” Abdel-Motalab said. Not all experts are optimistic about the programme. They have questions about the use of scarce water supplies for land reclamation. Nasr Al-Qazaz, a professor of agricultural economics at Al-Azhar University, said that although the plan is a good one, there are concerns about its feasibility because of the water scarcity Egypt is currently facing. “Funds are not a big problem, but the problem is providing water. The reclamation of a million feddans needs about five to six billion cubic metres of water and so the four million acres need over 20 billion cubic metres,” Al-Qazaz said. Egypt's total share of Nile water is 55 billion cubic metres annually, of which 37 billion are used in agriculture while the rest is for drinking water and the industrial sector. Using groundwater to irrigate reclaimed lands is not feasible, Al-Qazaz said. “The total underground water is estimated at five billion cubic metres, of which three have been already used for cultivation,” he claimed. “Even if the government succeeded in providing groundwater for the first million feddans, it would be impossible to cover the needs of the other four million.” It would be better, he said, if the government gave priority to the establishment of integrated industrial complexes that use agricultural output over such reclaimable land, even if this was only half a million acres, he said. “Many years ago the government decided to provide young graduates with five feddans of land, but my assessment of this project today is that it has not succeeded. I hope that the present project will not face the same end as the Toshka one or the project to give land to graduates,” he concluded.
