Egypt Decreases Areas for Rice Cultivation
Egypt is planning to dramatically decrease the amount of land allocated to rice production next year, amid ongoing concerns over water scarcity, the Irrigation Ministry announced on Sunday.
The amount of land used for rice will decrease by 34.6 percent, according to the Ministry, and will be limited to six governorates. This amounts to just over 704,000 feddans for 2017, in comparison to over a million feddans in 2016.
The cultivation of rice requires more water than many other crops, an average of 9,500 to 11,000 cubic meters of water per hectare.
There will be penalties introduced for the planting of rice on any non-authorized land or in governorates outside Beheira, Kafr al-Sheikh, Daqahlia, Damietta, Port Said and Sharqiya, the Ministry said.
Divya Thakur