"Shaping the Future of Field Crops in Egypt"
Abstract: By the end of 2008, a year described by its economical dramatic
changes, Field Crops Research Institute held its Second Field Crops
Conference during 14 – 16 Oct. 2008 with the theme "Shaping the Future of
Field Crops in Egypt" under the auspices of H.E. Minister of Agriculture and
Land Reclamation Mr. Amin A. Abaza.
Considering the major challenges and constraints facing crop production
due to limited water and land resources, free market forces, and privatization
besides issues related to global warming and crop usage in producing fuel, the
conference recommends the following:
1. Strengthen and enhance cooperation with the agriculture
Extension Sector to improve technology transfer programs and
increase the fund for such programs to lessen the gap between
actual and attainable yield for field crops.
2. Continue subsidizing prices of foremost food crops received from
the farmers to encourage them growing such strategic crops.
3. Establish new profitable cropping systems (i.e. soybean with
maize intercropping, faba bean with sugar beet and sugar cane,
and faba bean with tomatoes), suitable for each region coincide
with reapply the crop rotation concept, which has almost been
demolished using those marginal crops.
4. Rationale use of irrigation water, especially in the Valley and
Delta to assure cultivating about 3.5 mil. feddans annually in a
long-term plan with bringing governmental investment into
agricultural sector.
5. Set laws and legislations to activate those projects of land
reclamation in the new areas (about 3.5 feddans) such as East of
Eweinat, Toshki, North Sinai and Northwest Coast by El-
Hammam Canal.
6. Encourage Investment in seed industry to increase percentage of
quality seed coverage of certified seed of most crops, especially
those less strategic one such as berseem, oil crops, and food
legumes.
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7. Balanced use of fertilizer and irrigation water to maximize net
return of natural resources and use new irrigation systems, i.e.
sprinkler and drip irrigation, especially in the new reclaimed
desert lands.
8. Research strategies should be directed towards problem-solving
research using both conventional and biotechnological techniques.
9. Efforts should be emphasized on to developing crop cultivars that
cope with water scarcity problem which is further aggravated by
global climatic changes.
10. More attention should be given to crop quality improvement
besides productivity improvement.
11. Biofuel production should be considered for the future, especially
from farm residues, i.e. rice straw and make some feasibility
studies.
12. Improve human capacity building, especially in the areas of
English language and scientific writing.
13. A Follow-up Committee should be formed to make sure of the
execution of the above-mentioned recommendations. It was
suggested to hold the next Conference during the third week of
Oct. 2010.
Publication year 2008
Organization Name
City القاهرة
serial title 9 Gamaa Street, Giza,
Web Page
Author(s) from ARC
Agris Categories Agricultural research
Publication Type Conference/Workshop
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