ICARDA and Japan Join Forces to Boost Food Security in Egypt

Cairo, Egypt, Mr. Aly Abousabaa, Director General of ICARDA, met with His Excellency Mr. IWAI Fumio, the Japanese Ambassador to Egypt, on 27 January 2025, in Cairo, to commemorate ICARDA’s recent partnership with the Government of Japan to implement the transformative project Reversing Egypt’s Diminishing Food Security.

The project, made possible through a generous US$750,000 grant from Japan, will target the governorates of Qena, Menya, and Kafr El Sheikh to improve agricultural resilience, optimize resource use, and strengthen rural livelihoods. It will be implemented in collaboration with Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR).

Building on over 40 years of ICARDA’s experience in dryland regions, the Reversing Egypt’s Diminishing Food Security project aims to empower Egypt’s rural communities to withstand the growing challenges of food insecurity caused by climate change, rapid population growth, and resource scarcity. Key components of the project include introducing green energy-powered irrigation systems, restoring saline-affected lands, and promoting high-quality seeds and modern cultivation techniques. These efforts are projected to directly benefit smallholder farmers and build the capacities of agricultural extension agents and irrigation engineers in Egypt.

This project will integrate cutting-edge technologies, such as meska-shading solar panels, buried-pipe and cement-lining lifted marwas (on-farm water-distribution ditches), internal ditch/drain networks for leaching and transforming highly saline fallow into productive agricultural/aquacultural lands, small-scale solar-powered post-harvest units, and ICARDA’s GeoAgro-Misr digital agricultural advisory smartphone application, to increase water and energy efficiency while supporting sustainable agricultural practices. It will also focus on gender inclusion by empowering women farmers through access to training, small-scale food processing units, and decision-making opportunities.

“This partnership underscores the power of international collaboration to address the urgent issues of food security and climate resilience,” said Mr. Aly Abousabaa. “It is always an honor working with the Government of Japan to bring our innovative solutions to life. I am confident in this project’s ability to create sustainable impacts for Egypt’s agricultural sector.”

During their meeting, Mr. Aly Abousabaa and His Excellency Mr. IWAI Fumio, highlighted the collaborative activities that contributed to reducing rural poverty in the Upper Egypt and Nile Delta Regions of Egypt through improving water rationalization, increasing agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers, and creating economic opportunities for poor rural households. They also discussed how ICARDA’s innovations and several complementary interventions bridged the gap between research and scalability.

“Strengthening food security is one of Japan’s priorities, and even under the influence of factors such as increased food demand and climate change, sufficient and safe food must be available to all people, at all times,” said Ambassador IWAI. “This cooperation with ICARDA will contribute to strengthening water and food security in Egypt, and to sustaining peace and stability in the Middle East and Africa region.”

The Reversing Egypt’s Diminishing Food Security project aligns with Egypt’s “Agricultural Development Strategy Towards 2030” and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 13 (Climate Action).

This collaboration draws on Japan’s long-standing partnership with CGIAR, which is pivotal in advancing agricultural research and innovation, particularly in addressing water and land scarcity in dryland regions.

ICARDA will continue to foster strategic collaborations while working closely with national partners and governments to deliver climate-smart agri-solutions for improved food and nutrition security and thriving livelihoods of communities in climate-vulnerable dry regions.