CAIRO - Sugarcane and wheat are two of Egypt's most important crops. By harvest time, the farmers are looking forward to selling their crops and getting some sorely need money. But this year's sugarcane crop won't be a source of joy for Upper Egyptian farmers, because of the high cost of fertilisers and the shortage of irrigation water. Another problem is that the Association of Sugarcane Producers and the Association for Rural Development have done nothing to help the farmers, although these associations are happy to collect money from them. Upper Egypt produces around 17 million tonnes of sugarcane on area of 350,000 feddans annually. This crop yields 1.5 million tonnes of sugar, which is exported for about LE66 million ($11m). Up to 65,000 of these feddans are being threatened with destruction in Wadi Al-Naqra, Aswan, Upper Egypt, due to the shortage of fertilisers and constant power cuts. Farmers there are living in darkness as a result of the power cuts, which of course mean they can't use their electrically operated agricultural machinery. According to el-Daba'wi Shehata, the reason for this problem is that 60 electrical transformers have been stolen from small villages near Wadi Al-Naqra. “We have complained to the Electricity Distribution Company, which told us that this is responsibility of the Rural Electricity Company which referred us back to the Distribution Company. The result is that we're still living in darkness,” says Ibrahim el-Folli, a farmer. The farmers have even asked the Rural Electricity Company to buy new transformers, which they themselves say they will pay for. “But the company has ignored our demands, so we still don't have any electricity,” he told Al-Wafd opposition newspaper. Khairi Shehata, a farmer in Manar, one of the villages near Wadi Al-Naqra, says that they have asked Aswan Governor Moustafa el-Sayyed to help them, as the lack of electricity means that the harvests of sugarcane, wheat and other crops have plummeted, having a serious effect on the economy. The reason why the farmers haven't got enough water is that main irrigation canals have been damaged and there is no regular maintenance. Meanwhile, the Development Bank is supposed to start providing farmers with fertilises from the beginning of May till the end of the season, but, almost two months later, the farmers in Wadi Al-Naqra are still waiting for them. These farmers have yet to benefit from the recent revolution; they still have many problems.
