Egypt's wheat harvest becomes mired in politics

Early in Egypt's wheat harvest this year, President Mohammed Morsi spoke in a televised address, proclaiming the crop would be 30 percent higher than the year before and that the country is on track to go from being the world's biggest importer of wheat to being entirely self-sufficient in four years.

Now, weeks later with farmers almost finished bringing in their crops, experts and famers have challenged the claims, raising doubts that the harvest will meet government predictions. That could put a heavy strain on the state, as it is cutting down on wheat imports in an attempt to save dwindling foreign currency reserves.

They also say Morsi's government has left untouched a cycle of corruption in agriculture policies that help black markets thrive and feeds the hardships of farmers struggling with irrigation water shortages and increasing prices of fuel and fertilizers.

As a result, bread has become mired in Egypt's politics as Morsi nears the end of the first year in office. In recent months, Egypt has faced fuel shortages, water and electricity cuts and rising food prices, raising an outcry from Morsi's opponents that he and his Islamist supporters are mismanaging the country. In a country where at least 40 percent of the population of 90 million lives near or below the poverty line, millions rely on cheap bread subsidized by the government.

"Self-sufficiency? Are you fooling me? Or are we fooling ourselves?" said Ahmed el-Shafaie, who heads a local government agriculture association in Khadiya village in the Ibshawai farming district south of Cairo. He dismissed Morsi's claim's of a dramatic jump in productions, saying yields have grown at their usual rate of around one or two percent.