Egypt to cultivate wheat in Sudan
April 6, 2008 (CAIRO) – Sudanese government has welcomed on Sunday Egyptian proposal to grow wheat in the Sudan, the official MENA reported.
“The Sudanese government welcomed the Egyptian proposal calling for the cultivation of swathes of Sudanese land with wheat, and has formed committees to look into this proposal,” said the Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail.
Ismail, who is visiting Cairo nowadays, added Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf Arab countries had made a similar proposal and said that “committees have started work in delineating the requested lands for this project”.
“Water is plentiful, the land is very fertile and modern technology can help not just to reach a level of self-sufficiency for Egypt and Sudan but for the Arab region as a whole,” Ismail said.
Higher global wheat prices in recent months have squeezed wheat-importing countries such as Egypt, the most populous Arab country.
Egypt is one of the world’s biggest wheat importers, typically buying more than 6 million tonnes of overseas wheat a year to make subsidised bread, mostly for the urban poor.
Mustafa, who is also the Foreign Relations Secretary in the National Congress Party held talks on Sudany with Safwat al-Sharif, the Secretary General of the ruling National Democratic Party in Egypt.
The talks tackled ways of strengthening relations between the two ruling parties in the Sudan and Egypt, and the revitalization of mechanisms and programmes of cooperation between them
He said after the meeting that the discussions confirmed identical stances between Egypt and the Sudan about current conditions and the development of relations between the two parties in the areas of youth, students and field studies, as well as research and investment promotion between the two countries through businessmen.
Ismail added that it has been agreed to arrange a workshop between the businessmen of the two countries to discuss joint projects in the area of food security.
(ST)