Egypt and Sudan are discussing the cultivation of 100,000 acres owned by a joint company at the Blue Nile state in Sudan.
The Agriculture Ministry held a meeting to that end on Saturday attended by the ministers of agriculture at both countries to discuss means to refresh the activities of the Egyptian-Sudanese Company for Agricultural Integration.
Egypt’s Agriculture Minister Salah Helal said the meeting comes to complement what was initiated during a visit to Sudan last April by Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Hossam Moghazy who was attending the company’s meeting.
Helal said both sides have agreed to restructure the company so as to perform its function of reinforcing agricultural cooperation between both countries.
He pointed that the digging of rain traps in Sudan’s Blue Nile could expand the area planned for cultivation up to 150,000 acres.
Sudan’s Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Mohamed al-Dukhairy said during the Saturday meeting that the agricultural integration scheme aims to ensure food security for Egypt and Sudan. The scheme, he explained, involves expansion in common agriculture and livestock projects that could achieve self-sufficiency and cater for the Arab region as a whole.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
