Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the “New Delta” agricultural development project on Sunday in northwestern Egypt with total investments estimated at 800 billion Egyptian pounds (approximately $15 billion), Anadolu reports.
The project aims to enhance food security and achieve self-sufficiency in strategic commodities, according to Egypt’s State Information Service.
The project extends across desert hinterlands, linking the governorates of Beheira, Giza, and Matrouh in northwestern Egypt.
The targeted area of the project spans 2.2 million feddans, equivalent to around 15% of Egypt’s current agricultural land, making it “the largest horizontal agricultural expansion in the history of modern Egyptian agriculture,” according to the state body.
The project’s infrastructure includes the construction of 19 major pumping stations to transport water against the natural geographical slope deep into the desert, as well as 150-kilometer (93-mile) channels to transfer treated agricultural drainage water from the Nile Delta region to the New Delta area.
