CAIRO: A group of Egyptian intellectuals, scientists, farmers and prominent Egyptian Anthropologist Zeinab el-Deeb, said they will file a complaint to the Egyptian Attorney General, accusing the Government, notably the ministry of agriculture of aborting and freezing the “National Project for the development of the human environment in the Egyptian Desert,” amid warnings by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of a pending food crisis in Egypt due to the rising global wheat prices. El-Deeb accused the ministry of ending the project, which she supervised between 1990 and 1997, and that aims to promote the local wheat crop in an effort to achieve self-sufficiency. Higher productivity rates achieved by Egyptian lands has also seen major efforts in the prevention from loss of seasonal crop yields. She said the efforts had been proving successful, but the ministry ended the programs and has “put Egypt at risk.” El-Deeb said she will submit a complaint to the Attorney General, along with writer Sakina Fouad, she told the daily newspaper al-Shorouk. “The National Project, which brought experts from the Agricultural Research Center and the Desert Research Center and bodies of space and geology, increased the productivity per feddan of wheat bushels to 35 per acre, according to documents that will be revealed,” she said. According to el-Deeb, the project's overally aim was to increase self-sufficiency on wheat across the country. She accused former Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali of “the destruction of the project and transferred it form the hands of the state to the private sector.” The FAO warned that the Egypt could face much difficulty in providing food during the coming period, “as a result of the crisis of rising food prices associated with wheat.” The UN body was referring to Russia's decision to ban wheat exports. The FAO warning comes as prices of meat and rice continue to rise exponentially in the country, leaving many families with difficulty in feeding themselves. Jan Barten, a Swedish official at the FAO, told Bikya Masr via telephone on Tuesday that with rising prices of foodstuffs in Egypt and Russia's move to end its exports due to a environmental issues in the country, “could be a major threat to the food security of Egypt now and in the near future.” According to the FAO report, the policy pursued by the Egyptian government on the reduction of the cultivated area of rice to water supply, “is the main reason behind high oil prices.” The FAO is expected to hold an emergency meeting on September 24 to call on countries importing and exporting wheat to discuss how to confront the crisis of the ban of Russian wheat after it was extended until the end of 2011. In an earlier statement, fears of social strikes inside the importing countries of wheat, including Egypt, as a result of the expected higher cost, is “the most important reasons that led them to convene this meeting.” BM
