Ambitious Agricultural Research Centre to Be Established in Toshka

The research village in Toshka - Egypt's largest swathe of farmland with an area of 60,000 feddans near Lake Nasser - will soon receive substantial upgrades from the government to ensure it becomes a high-level research and training centre to produce modern irrigation systems and advanced agricultural mechanization mechanisms.

It's the continuation of an ambitious national project that had been put into effect since 1997, when the Egyptian government decided to create a new Nile Valley, redirecting water from Lake Nasser to the west in order to create new livable and agricultural land in the desert, with the ultimate goal of spread Egypt's population out from the dense settlements along the Nile towards the rest of the nation's land. On the face of it it makes sense - only 7.7% of Egypt's entire landmass is inhabited by people, so why not make something of the remaining 92.3%? - yet the project has faced multiple complications throughout the decades.

With its revival under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Toskha farm megaprojects look to develop date, wheat, grape and sheep farms in Toshka. In 2019, 40,000 acres were allocated for the production of high quality dates, with the aim of turning Egypt into a major exporter of dates by planting 2.5 million palm trees.

The new research centre is hoped to further expand the national reclamation of desert land through efficient and innovative use of natural resources.