And on Sunday, official Guinness-accredited judge Kenzi Al-Dafrawi said, “Egypt broke the record for the largest date palm plantation in the world, covering an area of ​​132,000 square kilometers.”
She added, “Egypt has obtained a certificate to register the largest water abstraction basin in the world, with a capacity of 245,000 cubic meters.”
The announcement came on the sidelines of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s inauguration of the wheat harvest season east of Al-Awainat in the New Valley, where Egypt received a certificate confirming the record of the farm in the World Encyclopedia.
History of the farm
Ezz El-Din Jadallah, director of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture’s Central Date Palm Research Laboratory, spoke to Sky News Arabia about the farm located in the Toshka project in Aswan governorate, south of Cairo, noting that its goal is to “achieve significant economic returns.”
Jadallah added:
“This farm is part of Egypt’s plan to plant 2.3 million palm trees in an area of ​​35,000 feddans.” “We have already finished planting 1.5 palm trees, covering an area of ​​23,000 feddans.” “The project started in 2018, and what we planted has already paid off.” “The farm includes more than 50 types of dates, as we have imported seedlings from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, the United States and other countries. Among the most important types of dates found there are Barhi, Majdol, Khalas, Sukkari, Shishi, Shabibi, Anbara, Ajwa al-Madina, Yellow Sukkari, Sukkari al-Ahmar and Sukhai. “The creation of the farm aims for Egypt to have these varieties of dates, given their great economic value, in order to export them to generate income in foreign currencies”. “The most important type of dates is the expected one, because the price per ton for export reaches more than 6,000 dollars, while the types of dates that were present in Egypt do not exceed 1,000 dollars.” “Before this farm, Egypt exported 60,000 tons of regular Egyptian date varieties, but with the new farm, the largest in the world, we will reach more than 3 times this amount and with an economic value 6 times higher. “The cost of growing and maintaining imported varieties is the same as local varieties, and so gains will double with cost stability.” “After the farm started producing, we summoned Guinness World Records officials to inspect it on nature’s land and compare it with the latest records they had, and it became clear that our farm has surpassed the largest date farm in the world in Saudi Arabia by five times, so Egypt won the new record.” “When Egypt finishes cultivating the rest of the planned amount on the farm, the area of the farm will be multiplied by 5.”
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
