Wheat experiment produces dramatic yield boost

Egyptian scientists say a national experiment to boost wheat yields has succeed in increasing average national yields to 10 tonnes per hectare - one of the highest rates in the world, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Statistical Yearbook for 2012.

Egypt's Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) said the experiment had been carried out at more than 1,000 sites in 22 governorates across the country, and had achieved an average 30 per cent increase in productivity.

The experiments took place during the first year of a three-year national campaign to improve Egyptian wheat production levels and crop quality, according to the ASRT.

Its overall target had been to increase wheat productivity in Egypt by 20 per cent within three years, and to reduce wheat imports to a quarter of national consumption requirements. "The national campaign has exceeded its first-year targets," Maged El-Sherbiny, ASRT's president, told SciDev.Net.