31,000 Feddans of South Sinai Land Can Now Be Used for Farming

Sinai’s desert lands are being cultivated into arable land to further attract settlers and boost its agricultural productivity.

Egypt has been offering enticing incentives for its millions of city dwellers to relocate to Sinai. The North Sinai governorate is offering subsidized housing and farmland on ten new agricultural communities for strung out Cairenes looking to shore up the calm in Sinai. There’s just one catch though; these settlements are squat in the middle of arid desert. Egypt has been enacting a multi-billion-dollar plan to harness Sinai’s economic potential, having so far created a total area of 31,000 feddans of cultivated land in South Sinai.

Along with this slow but steady progress, the governorate also has plans to establish 14 Bedouin residential areas, covering an area of 760,000 feddans with 265,000 of them viable for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. The rest of the land will feature 120 greenhouses and six fisheries fully reliant on underground water with the capacity to produce 50 tons per annum each. These new developments will come at a cost of EGP 129 million.  

At the moment, South Sinai is home to 925 greenhouses and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development provides seeds and seedlings to farmers for free. To further drive the agricultural potential of South Sinai, the governorate established its first agricultural cooperative association—headquartered in Tor. Earlier in September, Egypt inaugurated the Bahr Al Baqar Wastewater Treatment Plan to aid in the reclamation and irrigation of 6000,000 feddans in North and Middle Sinai.