International Cooperation Minister Rania el Mashat and UN Resident Envoy in Egypt Elena Panova on Saturday 25/02/2023 made an inspection tour of a sustainable agricultural investment project in Al-Wafaa village in western Samallout Township of Minya, Upper Egypt.

The project seeks to improve villagers’ living conditions. The $95 million project is being implemented in Minya, Beni Suef, and Aswan in Upper Egypt, as well as Kafr El Sheikh in the Nile Delta region, targeting 19,000 families in 30 villages.

It involves upgrading and rehabilitating basic infrastructure, and cooperating with local communities to scale up social services and boost productivity by building relevant household capacities.

The three-themed project aims at reducing poverty and achieving food security by improving local communities, diversifying agricultural activity, and ensuring availability of rural financial services.

It is part of a 2018-2022 developmental partnership agreement between the Egyptian government and the UN.

By mid-March, the International Cooperation Ministry is expected to ink a new partnership agreement for a similar period.

During a meeting with a group farmers participating in a farmer field school project, as part of her tour which aims to share the best practices and expertise related to boosting crop production by innovative climate-smart techniques, the minister had a conversation with the farmers who asked for organizing such kind of farmer field schools more often to derive more benefits from them.

Country representatives of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) accompanied Mashat during her tour.

Source: State Information Service Egypt