Agricultural land accounts for only 3.5 percent of the land area of Egypt. Two thirds of the agricultural land is alluvial soil, fertilized for thousands of years by the Nile floods, and one third is land recovered since the 1950s. Rainfall is minimal and almost all the agricultural land is irrigated. Soil salinity and water logging are important problems in the reclaimed areas. Sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation are common on the recovered area and fertigation is used on 13 percent of the land. There are up to three harvests per year, the overall cropping intensity being 180 percent. Crop yields and rates of fertilizer use are relatively high. In order to provide for a large and increasing population, while economizing scarce resources and minimizing adverse environmental impacts, the efficiency of use of both fertilizers and water needs to be improved. Continuing efforts must be made to communicate information on the best practices to a generally receptive farmer audience. Farmers’ Field Schools make an important contribution to the transfer of information.
