Egypt Daily News – The Egyptian government aims to reduce the designated area for rice cultivation in the country by about 32% to 750,000 feddans for the upcoming season, which begins in May, down from 1.1 million acres in the current season, primarily due to challenges related to water resources, according to a government official who spoke to “Asharq.”
The rice planting season in Egypt, especially in the Delta and Lower Egypt governorates, begins in May each year, while the harvest takes place from mid-August until the end of October.
An official told said on the condition of anonymity, that “the high joint coordinating ministerial committee between the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for determining the areas for cultivating strategic crops, has specified the area for cultivation.”
“The rice for the new season will be cultivated on 750,000 feddans across all the governorates that grow this crop using Nile water.”
The actual area planted with rice during the current season reached 1.6 million acres, exceeding the set limit of 1.1 million acres, across 9 governorates: Alexandria, Beheira, Gharbia, Kafr El Sheikh, Dakahlia, Damietta, Sharqia, Ismailia, and Port Said, according to the official.
He attributed the reduction in rice cultivation area for the new season to “the challenges facing water resources in Egypt recently due to climate change, unprecedented rising temperatures, in addition to the need to rationalize water consumption,” noting that the yield from the designated area for the upcoming season “is sufficient for local consumption.”
