The Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Mr. Al-Quseir, discussed with the Regional Director for Sustainable Development for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank in Cairo, Miskarim Burhan, and her accompanying delegation, aspects of bilateral cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Bank, as well as the comprehensive program for sustainable development, including following up on projects funded by the World Bank In the field of agriculture and food security and enhancing ways of future cooperation.
During the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture stressed the existing cooperation between Egypt and the World Bank and thanked the Bank for its constant support to Egypt, especially in the agriculture and food security sector, noting that the World Bank has now played a major role in sustainable development, as most of its financing has become linked to development.
He pointed out the importance of directing more funding into the innovation and governance sectors and building
more resilient and sustainable food and agricultural systems, stressing the importance of quickly financing proposed future projects, including the Climate Adapted Food Transformation (CRAFT) project, to finance activities to improve irrigation systems and encourage the adoption of climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices, and the importance of Integrating smallholders to solve the crisis of fragmentation of agricultural holdings, in light of confronting the negative effects of climate change, indicating that this project is being carried out in coordination with the Ministry of International Cooperation, which it launched within the projects of the National Platform for Green Projects (Novi Platform).
For her part, Meskrem stressed the World Bank’s desire to help the agricultural sector in Egypt in light of the global changes that have exacerbated the problem of global food security, noting also that the agriculture sector constitutes one of the most important sectors that the Bank finances, in
addition to the environment and water sectors.
She said that the Bank has a future plan to support agricultural sector projects, especially in the field of early warning and crop adaptation, and that she looks forward to having technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of International Cooperation work closely with the World Bank’s agricultural work team.
Source: State Information Service Egypt
