IN a country where urban expansion is swallowing up fertile agricultural land, there's bound to be chaos. The Nile River is nearly 6,700km long and Africans have farmed its banks since the dawn of time. In the early 19th century, in the reign of Mohamed Ali, 6,335,000 feddans (acres) of land were cultivated in Egypt. However, in the past two decades alone, 1,200,000 feddans of this have been lost due to urban encroachments. Experts in the National Remote Sensing Authority say that, if this trend continues, there might well be no agricultural land at all in 60 years' time. In the 1980s, vast swathes of fertile land were plundered for their soil, used to make red bricks. The damage was extensive. The problem was resolved when a new law was passed, criminalising this practice. But it was already too late for some of the land in the Delta and the Nile Valley. The land has been further abused by contractors illegally using it for building purposes. Municipalities have been accused of turning a blind eye to these encroachments, whether deliberately or out of negligence. In any case, the problem is a serious one. It's ironic that the State has been reclaiming the desert to atone for the loss of our finest land. While all kinds of nonagricultural activity are happening on fertile land, the desert is still waiting for industrial and commercial projects to attract a substantial segment of the population. It's all a terrible waste of money. According to Professor of Agricultural Resources at Cairo University Nader Nour Eddin, the lost Delta land will never be compensated for, because a feddan of land in the Delta is five times more valuable than a feddan in the desert. Random use of resources is not limited to land but it also applies to water as well, as Omar el-Shawadfi, Director of the National Centre for State-owned Land Planning, explains. In statements to the press he said that there were 16 millions feddans of cultivated, reclaimed and potential arable land in Egypt, while there's only enough water for 11 million feddans. Experts warn against haphazard consumption. El-Shawadfi gave the example of underground water reserves being exhausted to create artificial lakes in posh residential resorts on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road. In this country, the laws governing agriculture and construction need to be activated and respected by citizens and executives, in order to redress the problem. Surprisingly, the Government is now looking at cultivating agricultural land in neighbouring countries like Sudan, though it's let its own land slip out of its hands. Such co-operation has been lauded on the grounds that joint agricultural investment is bound to consolidate bilateral relations. On the other hand, some doubt that investors will supply the Egyptian market with agricultural produce at prices similar to those of locally cultivated crops. According to Professor Nour Eddin, we must keep on producing crops, because advanced countries want the developing countries to be dependent on them.
