Reclaimed land in Egypt fell by 35.9% in the last fiscal year

The area of reclaimed land in Egypt fell to 14,500 acres in the fiscal year 2014/2015, Anadolu Agency has reported. The fall from 22,600 acres in the previous year marked a decline of 35.9 per cent.

The state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics of Egypt attributed the decline to the reduction in land allocated for cooperative communities, according to a statement issued by the agency on Sunday. The fiscal year in Egypt runs from 1 July to 30 June.

The agency explained that the area of land reclaimed by private sector companies came to 9,600 acres, which constitutes 66 per cent of the total. This is followed by land reclaimed by state-affiliated cooperative communities, with 2,500 acres or 17.4 per cent. The General Authority for Rehabilitation Projects and Agricultural Development reclaimed a further 2,400 acres (16.6 per cent).

Livestock projects, such as dairy and beef cattle as well as sheep breeding, used just 88 acres of reclaimed land in 2014/15, compared to 106 acres in the previous year. The decline of 17 per cent is put down to the lack of demand from companies to establish such projects.

At the end of December 2015, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi gave the green light for a national project with a target of one and a half million acres of reclaimed land.