Egypt’s new wheat experiment

Egypt’s National Center for Water Researches (NCWR) says it has successfully applied a new method to bring in an extra wheat harvest in Egypt, writes Marwa Yahya for Xinhua. The technique is called vernalization which freezes seeds during germination to accelerate their flowering process, Chairman Hisham Mustafa said, and could double Egypt’s annual harvest. It can reduce irrigation consumption by 40% and allow for two harvests in one season, he added. While some believe the harvests are unlikely to have the same level of efficiency, NCWR says the problems lie with scope and training farmers and not in quality.