Reducing rice cultivation in Egypt: A controversy

Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati has announced that the government is reducing the area of land available for rice cultivation by more than 50 per cent.
Instead of 1.7 million feddans, only around 700,000 feddans will be cultivated this year (one feddan is 1.038 acres). The decision, taken to rationalise water consumption, will be applied from May to September 2018.

Rice consumes about two-and-a-half times the amount of water needed to grow wheat or maize as it needs to be grown in flooded fields. The government’s decision to reduce the country’s rice crop is designed to reduce water consumption, and similar measures have already been taken regarding sugarcane and bananas, like rice major consumers of water.

Rice cultivation will now only be allowed in the Delta governorates, and it will be prohibited in Upper Egypt, Suez, South Sinai, Marsa Matrouh, Qalioubiya, Menoufiya, Cairo and Giza. Farmers who violate the new rules will be subject to penalties under Irrigation Law 12/1984.