We’re going to grow more corn next year: The Agriculture Ministry announced its intention to increase the total farming area devoted to corn nationwide by two thirds in FY2018-19 to help reduce the country’s reliance on imports, Reuters reports. It targets increasing the corn cultivation area by 800k feddans to 2 mn feddans by the end of FY2018-19. The ministry has already begun paying farmers double compared to last year for corn purchases, with the expectation that it will help boost the total area cultivated. The newswire says Egypt imports 8.5 mn tonnes of corn annually at a cost of c. USD 1.6 bn.

Tags: