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2024-08-13

1٬809 9 دقائق

القاهرة: «رأي الأمة»

Serious steps and daily work in construction are proceeding at full speed in the desert hinterland of Luxor GovernorateWhich was neglected for decades and entered the strong investment phase to open the door to Egyptian and Arab investors and companies specialized in land reclamation through agricultural crops, vegetables and fruits to a greater extent, with strong supervision from the authorities and the provision of committees to inspect these lands periodically to ensure the seriousness of investors in reclamation and agriculture.

In this regard, Eng. Abdel Mutalib Amara, Governor of Luxor, said that agricultural and industrial investment is the most important to serve the people of Luxor, in addition to the tourism sector, explaining that his office is open to all ideas of investors from the governorate and outside it to implement any giant national projects on the land of Luxor to serve its people and provide them with job opportunities and a future in various fields, and that the state is ready to provide all aspects and means of support to investors to make their projects successful to serve everyone.

The Luxor governor added to “Youm7” that during the previous session of the Executive Council, approval was given to a request from a land cultivation and sustainable development company to purchase approximately three hundred acres located on the road connecting the desert road and the entrance to the city of Taiba al-Qibli. The governor stressed the encouragement of investment in the governorate during the coming period and that all serious investors are welcomed, with all legal procedures being taken.

Engineer Abdel-Mottaleb Mamdouh Amara explained that the axis of horizontal expansion in the new lands is at the top of the giant national projects, as it is one of the most important axes to support the policy of self-sufficiency and reduce the gap, which aims to reclaim the desert to increase the agricultural area by more than 3.5 million acres during the short period in the past and the coming period. The state is also implementing these projects, although they cost billions in each project, in addition to the multi-faceted efforts, research and studies. Work on these projects is proceeding at the highest rates of completion to achieve the desired goals at a time when the world is losing millions of hectares annually due to drought, desertification and soil degradation.

From this standpoint, Luxor Governorate is witnessing a major expansion in the western desert hinterland located in the area facing the cities of Esna and Armant, according to Engineer Adel Zidane, who specializes in growing tomatoes in the desert hinterland. He says that there is currently a tomato city on the desert hinterland in Luxor, which started with a few acres that reached 250 acres at the beginning. With the entry of the sixth season of growing tomatoes, its owners are planning to reach 1,000 acres planted with tomatoes of various quality to dry the largest part of them and export the best abroad and attract hard currency to the country, and offer the rest of the crop in the domestic markets in southern Upper Egypt. The desert hinterland has also witnessed great support from various countries represented in the establishment of the first station for drying agricultural crops several years ago, which is the Martyr Maged Saleh Station under the auspices of the American Embassy, which works annually to dry many agricultural crops of vegetables and fruits.

Engineer Adel Zidane added, in statements to “Youm7”, that these green projects to transform the desert of cities, especially southern Upper Egypt, are constantly presented in the national dialogue sessions and receive great support from all state officials and various governorates. He explained that to support Luxor and the desert hinterland within it, one of the largest drying sawmills in the desert hinterland was opened during the past period to serve investors in the desert hinterland with tomato cultivation, under the auspices of the Japanese Embassy. Its opening was attended by senior officials from Japan, the governorate, and the Ministry of Agriculture last year, as well as a comprehensive area that was reclaimed for palm cultivation and various fruits suitable for cultivation in the desert after its land, which was desert, was reclaimed to become green, under the auspices of an Arab investor from one of the Gulf countries.
Zidane stressed that, in addition to the work of the state and officials to preserve their rights, inspection and pricing committees are constantly received for reclaimed lands in the desert hinterland, in order to ensure the state’s rights in its lands and to ensure the company’s seriousness in reclamation and agriculture, as well as to ensure the legal procedures and submitted requests and its desire to legalize its status and pay the state’s dues in accordance with Law 144 of 2017, as these inspections come in response from the executive leadership of Luxor Governorate, to encourage small and large agricultural producers and investors, achieve food security, enhance, maximize, consolidate and increase the productive capacities of citizens to confront the economic motives for illegal immigration, confront population growth and limit migration from Upper Egypt to Cairo in search of job opportunities, as well as to reduce the dollar gap and provide sustainable and real job opportunities, improve living conditions, maximize joint investment opportunities, compensate for the loss of agricultural area, improve export opportunities and support agricultural manufacturing.

On the side of tomato projects that have become a great treasure in Luxor over the past years, Dr. Al-Nubi Hafni, a consultant in drying tomatoes in Luxor, says that the dried tomato industry is one of the most important industries that has a great impact in creating job opportunities for young men and women in all parts of Luxor, explaining that drying tomatoes is considered one of the most important outlets for job opportunities in Upper Egypt, as exporting one container provides 1250 working days, which is what Luxor Governorate is looking for to support young men and women in the villages of the western and desert hinterland, as a group of technical training courses are held inside the sawmill before the start of the drying season every year for young men and women who wish to work in this project.

Dr. Al-Nubi Hafni added to “Youm7” that recently, the demand from farmers around Luxor to grow tomatoes and dry them has increased, as it is a great national project in Luxor. It started years ago in small quantities and areas and achieved amazing success. It is currently grown in hundreds of acres and appears in greenhouses and humps in the south and west of Luxor Governorate. He stressed that dried tomatoes target two markets, namely the Italian and Brazilian markets, in addition to the Arab, European and African markets as well. As for the advantages of contractual tomato farming, the cost of planting an acre used to be 100 thousand pounds, and the productivity of an acre ranges from 30 to 40 tons, with the price of a ton ranging from 10 to 15 thousand pounds, and it is slightly higher this year, as there is one of the largest tomato drying sawmills in the city of Qurna, west of the governorate, which exports to Italy and countries around the world.

The engineer specialized in drying and growing tomatoes confirms that the “dried tomatoes” project has become a refuge for farmers in achieving a profit from modern plans, by contracting with sorting stations and sawmills to sell their crop instead of 700 pounds per ton to reach 2500 dollars per ton, stressing that the tomato crop is one of the important crops that are widely cultivated in the city of Esna and Qurna, south and west of Luxor, as it achieves a large profit and covers the costs and services of agriculture, and tomatoes are used in various dishes in homes, and an acre produces from 30 to 40 tons of tomatoes depending on the quality of the land, irrigation of the crop, and care for it throughout the season.

It is worth noting that the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has adopted a program to produce vegetable crop seeds, with the aim of increasing Egypt’s ability to provide vegetable seeds locally instead of importing more than 95% of vegetable crop seeds, in addition to reducing the burden on farmers by making them available at reasonable prices while reducing imports from abroad to save foreign currency.

The program succeeded in developing and registering 26 varieties and hybrids of (10) main vegetable crops: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, beans, cowpeas, cucumbers, and zucchini. An agreement was also reached with some international companies that have extensive experience in the field of vegetable seed production to obtain varieties adapted to the Egyptian environment in order to provide them to farmers through a partnership approach with them, as cooperation is currently underway with companies from India, Brazil, and others.