Cultivation of extra 100K feddans of cotton this season

CAIRO – 29 April 2017: A hundred thousand feddans of cotton (1 feddan = 1.038 acres) have been cultivated in various governorates, stated the last report on cultivation by the Central Administration of Agricultural Directorates Affairs in Egypt on Saturday. The total area is expected to reach 260, 000 feddans by the end of the wheat harvest season.

The Minister of Agriculture, Abdel Moneim El Banna, assigned to intensify awareness campaigns for cotton planting, urges farmers to increase cotton cultivation to reach a target of 260,000 and 767 feddans.

The Head of Egypt’s Farmers Union, Farid Wasil, said “The lack of areas planted in cotton led to lower productivity, which in turn led to a decrease in exports and a deprecation of the value of the Egyptian cotton even in the local market.”

In February, 2017 the state’s official statistics said Egypt's cotton exports jumped by 63.9 per cent during the first quarter of the planting season of 2016/17.

In the same year, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) stated that Egypt's cotton exports were 202, 500 bales between September and November compared to 123, 600 bales in the same period the year before.