A member of the Advisory Council to Egypt’s military leaders called on Sunday for the prime minister to meet with farmers to listen to their grievances.
The current policies of the Agriculture Ministry are an extension of the Mubarak regime’s detrimental policies, which led to the deterioration of agriculture over several decades, Mohamed Borghosh said in an interview with state TV.
Borghosh, who represents farmers, said agricultural problems in Egypt have social and economic dimensions that threaten long-term national security.
He said prices of fertilizers produced by state-owned factories are increasing because they are being sold to middlemen and traders — instead of agricultural cooperatives — who sell them on the black market to make huge profits.
Farmers, meanwhile, are unable to buy the fertilizers they need to grow their crops, Borghosh said.
He said the quality of strategic crops such as cotton and wheat as well as other crops, such vegetables and citrus fruits, has fallen.
Borghosh accused businessmen of working to grow their businesses by increasing their imports at the expense of Egyptian agriculture.
The high price of fodder has further led to a sharp drop in the amount of poultry and farm animals that farmers rear at their homes, he said.
He said Egypt can only increase crop production through the cooperation of agricultural officials to solve farmers’ problems and increasing the productivity of land with the help of researchers.
This will help satisfy the needs of the Egyptian market and raise farmers’ income levels, Borghosh said.
