This finding may also help the Egyptian Government to reconsider the adoption of Bt-modified crops plan for reclamation of 4 million feddan of the desert land in the coming years.
"There are hundreds of thousands of feddans [acres] that have been reclaimed," said Eissa, who owns 1,500 of them.
"Every 1bn kilolitre reduction in natural flow to Egypt will cause 200,000 feddans [207,600 acres] of land to go out of production, and 500,000 farmers to be out of work – which will affect 2.5 million families," he said.
This year, she's planning to make her seven feddans (29,499 square meters or 2.95 hectares) of land really produce.
As shown in Fig. 8, the net return and the total cost and revenue per feddan for cultivating wheat crop in each governorate of Egypt in year 2009 are different from one governorate to the other even in the governorates that are located in the same region (lower, middle, and upper Egypt).
The new projects are Toshka, New Valley or New Delta, and Sheik Zayed that will feed more than a million feddans, transferring the desert into a green carpet, turning the wheels of industries, and shedding off the stiffing nightmare of the choking narrow valley.
The total area of irrigated land in year 2009 was approximately 8.7 million feddans (feddan = 4,220 m2) and expected to reach 11 million feddans by the year 2017 after the implementation of the horizontal expansion plan and the national mega projects (Attia 2009).
In a landmark move toward agricultural reform, Nasser enacted a policy in 1952 that limited land ownership to 200 feddans (208 acres [84 hectares]) per person.
Open image in new window Fig. 8 Net retune, total cost and revenue per feddan for wheat crop in year 2009.
The built in data includes the different crops by categories and their cultivated season and the water applied per feddan for each crop at lower, upper, and middle Egypt.
