CAIRO - Citizens in el-Sharqia Governorate, about 80km northeast of Cairo, are anxious to save Egypt's agricultural wealth, much of which has been disappearing under newly constructed buildings. Some farmers have been abusing the security vacuum to sell off the land, around 30,000 feddans (acres) of which in el-Sharqia Governorate alone have disappeared. Citizens there claim the figure is nearer 300,000 feddans. There are around 50 villages near el-Zaqaziq, the capital of Sharqia. These villages are very cramped, because, according to the law, they cannot build on the surrounding cultivated land. Medhat Madkour, who works for the Municipal Council in the village of Shaweiq in el-Sharqia, says citizens there have been exploiting the chaos to build on large swathes of cultivated land, which means less wheat is being grown. Typically, a peasant will wall off one feddan of his land and construct several homes inside for himself and his sons, he explains, adding that the Municipal Council and Agricultural Co-operative have nothing to stop this. Saad Sherif, from the village of Diarb Negm in el-Sharqia, told Radio and Television magazine that up to 7,000 feddans of cultivated land have recently disappeared under concrete in Shaweiq. Ayman Abdel-Gawad, an agricultural engineer living in el-Zaqaziq, says the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces should get tough on farmers who build on cultivated land, while the illegal constructed housing should be demolished. “Our agricultural land is in peril,” he warns, adding that, the longer the problem persists, the more difficult it will be to control. For one thing, citizens are bound to protest if someone pulls down their new homes. “The Government should refuse to provide these illegally built homes with water, electricity and telephone line,” suggests Abdel-Gawad. Hajj Ramadan Ibrahim from the village of Ma'dawia in el-Sharqia Governorate says there is another problem: the illegal constructions are making cultivated land more expensive and this will only encourage the fellaheen to keep on selling it. Of all Egypt's governorates, el-Sharqia is suffering the most from this. Men of religion ought to intervene, warning the faithful of the dangers of this problem in their sermons in the mosques and the churches. According to Atef Rakha, from Minia el-Kamh in el-Sharqia Governorate, every small village with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants has witnessed at least 50 encroachments on the surrounding land. The agricultural co-operatives in Benha in el-Qaliubia Governorate, Greater Cairo, have started to warn people of the dangers of the haphazard construction of housing on cultivated land. “These co-operatives say that the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to buy the peasants' cotton for LE2,000 [about $340] per kantar, in order to encourage them to stop building on the land,” stresses Rakha.
