Indicators of Economic and Nutritional Dependence on the Most Important Grain Crops in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Economics and Agribusiness Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University

Abstract

The features of economic and food dependence are evident in the wheat crop because of the food gap through import. As for the rice crop, the features of food sovereignty appear clearly, as Egypt achieves a food surplus from it and tends to export in small quantities. In the recent period, political decisions have affected on the trade and food balance of these two crops, which affected the indicators of dependency and food sovereignty for them, and accordingly; The research aims to detaect the food dependency of the most important grain crops in Egypt through indicators of economic, financial, and nutritional dependency in Egypt during the period 2001-2018, The research reached that wheat imports account for about 39% of Egyptian agricultural imports, which is a high percentage and this is a bad indicator for the Egyptian economy, and Russia comes first with a percentage About 42% of Egypt’s imports from the world amounted to nearly half of Egypt’s imports from the world, which means that it increases Egypt’s dependence on it, followed by the United States of America and in the last place Australia. Rice exports also contribute about 8% of the Egyptian agricultural exports, which is a percentage, albeit low, but it must be considered. Syria comes in the first place with a rate of about 19%, which means that it raises the chances of Egypt’s sovereignty over it, followed by Turkey and in the last place is Belgium. The research recommends expanding the cultivation of land to increase the cultivated area of ​​wheat, which helps to reduce the food gap and increase the rates of self-sufficiency, in order to reduce dependence on importing wheat and therefore reduce dependency on the wheat crop, the research also suggest rationing the consumption of rice to reduce economic dependence and achieve higher levels of food sovereignty, by reducing wastage rates of wheat and rice, especially during collection, packaging, transportation and storage.
 

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