Egypt, like many other countries in the world, has been facing water availability constraints especially for agricultural production and meet the food requirements of its growing population. Egypt is one of the largest wheat importing country. The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclaimation in Egypt and The Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt (BFCE) under Egypt Food Security Research Project, funded by BFCE, are exploring research in biosaline agriculture to increase agricultural productivity. Tomato production in Egypt is considered a lucrative crop being one of the export commodity. An experiment at Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI) was conducted in 2020 to produce tomato with saline water. Study results reveal that an estimated yield of 9.92 tons/fedan with saline water combined with biochar can be achieved. It has been further derived that it can be a source of export value enhancement in the range of $24.8 million to $99.2 million that can be used to offset Egypt's wheat import bill. |
