The Agriculture Ministry is planning to increase rice cultivation this year to 1.1 mn feddans, up from 800k feddans last year, in a bid to reduce Egypt’s reliance on imports, Minister Ezz El Din Abou Steit said, according to Al Watan. Egypt used to produce some 4.3 mn tonnes of rice a year, but the government recently adopted a strategy to save water by limiting water-intensive crop cultivation. However the minister said the use of new, drought-tolerant seeds will mean that the same amount of water will be used despite the increase in cultivation. The minister’s comments came on the same day that the General Authority for Supply Commodities announced a new tender for 20k tonnes of short or medium grain white rice.The deadline for submitting bids is 30 March and the shipments should arrive in June.

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