CAIRO

– The Egyptian government recently

imposed

Under an old law No. 58 of 1937, the government imposed penalties on farmers for fraud in commercial transactions, and included in them the “crimes” of importing wheat without the specified route.

Accordingly, the authorities filed about 228 cases in the areas of “smuggling outside the wheat system, mixing local wheat with imported and external storage of local wheat,” during which 201 suspects were arrested with seizures amounting to 13,863 tons and 551 kilograms of wheat, within one month, according to an official statement.

These days, committees formed from the employees of the governorates’ directorates of agriculture and supply are active to monitor the supply operations in the various cities and villages of each governorate, by reviewing the books of agricultural associations on agricultural holdings of the wheat crop to determine their compliance with the cultivated areas and the quantities of wheat supplied.

The government resorted to these decisions and measures in order to compensate for the shortage of wheat stocks, and succeeded in collecting less than 4 million tons of wheat until last Wednesday, according to the statements of officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, which is less than what was planned during this period, although it is greater than what was collected during The same period in previous years, and Minya Governorate (south) achieved the target of 100% of wheat yield.

The government hopes to collect about 5.5 million tons, down from the 6 million tons it aimed to collect two months ago, to fill the deficit in wheat imports arising from the Russian-Ukrainian war. The two countries have long been among the largest suppliers of wheat to Egypt.

Egypt needs about 9 million tons of wheat annually, which means that the government's plan aims to collect more than half of the needs from the local market.

government impasse

Those concerned with agricultural affairs in Egypt believe that the government is in trouble. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. El-Qusair, recently appealed to farmers for their “patriotism” to import wheat, which was considered a failure of the policy of threatening fines and imprisonment, which the government followed to fill the deficit arising from the lack of wheat importers, as a result of the Russian war. Ukrainian.

Ramadan, a farmer from Assiut (south), ridicules the minister’s appeals to the farmer for his patriotism, as the farmer has become trapped in a narrow corner between his “patriotism that will lose him the livelihood of his family,” and his interest in selling wheat to private mills, making a profit equivalent to his effort and more than if he sold it to the government at a price. 885 pounds per ardeb (less than 50 dollars), and then he loses, calling on the government to be “patriotic” and support the farmer with the necessary seeds and good pesticides, and agricultural mechanization at reasonable prices, if the farmer wanted to continue planting wheat in the future, as he put it.

Ramadan continues that he obtained 6 sacks of fertilizer from the state at a subsidized price (the maximum that he is allowed to buy from the state), and then bought the same amount from the market at double the price;

As one acre needs 6 sacks, as he mentioned in his interview with Al Jazeera Net.

The government buys an ardeb of wheat from the global market at the equivalent of 1,400 pounds (less than 74 dollars), according to what was announced by the Supply Commodities Authority in the tender that it recently launched inviting international suppliers from Romania, Bulgaria and Russia.

“An advised government,” with a sarcastic description, comments Ramadan - who holds a university degree to work as an employee and at the same time cultivates land that he inherited from his father - considering what the government is doing is transferring its crisis to the farmer’s shoulders alone “it wants to solve its problem at my expense, while benefiting the farmer.” The Romanian and the Russian,” he said, pointing to the purchase of the ardeb from him at half the world price.

Ramadan is required to supply about two-thirds of his land’s production of wheat, equivalent to 24 ardabas for two acres he cultivates with wheat. For private mills and the anvil of loss if sold to the government.

This required amount of farmers was determined on the basis of the assumed production per acre, as the government estimated the currently cultivated wheat lands at about 3 million and 650 thousand feddans, and its capacity as well in view of the requirements that agricultural associations spend for farmers to grow wheat, while these requirements are suitable for other crops.

Based on these estimates, the Minister of Supply, Ali Moselhi, announced weeks ago that Egypt would not import wheat during this period, and that “goodness is available,” before the government backtracked and decided to launch the last wheat import tender, apparently in recognition of the reality of the wheat deficit on the Earth, the first estimation error.

The government explored the situation of the global wheat market after the Russian war on Ukraine, through two international tenders last February, which were canceled due to lack of offers or high prices, so it headed to the local market, before discovering that it was insufficient to meet food needs, to hold another tender to import wheat early last April.

In parallel with the threat, there is the government’s promise to the “committed” farmer to provide improved varieties and subsidized fertilizers to small farmers, with fodder at an appropriate price, which is bran resulting from wheat milling operations, to prevent farmers from withholding part of the wheat to be feed for their livestock.

The Egyptian government recently issued a decision obligating wheat farmers to supply 12 ardebs (the ardeb 150 kg) per feddan at a price equivalent to 5800 pounds per ton, while the government imports the ton at about 9000 pounds.

In light of the failure of some farmers to supply the required percentage, the government decided to impose a fine on them at double the price of the quantity to be supplied

— Ahmed Mawlana (@amawlana84) June 6, 2022

useless plans

Ismail Turk, advisor to the former Minister of Supply, believes that the Egyptian government, despite its knowledge of the trend in wheat prices to increase, was surprised by the Russian-Ukrainian war, and found that its stock would not be sufficient to meet its needs, so it resorted to manipulating the stock account and tried to cover this at the expense of the farmer by setting a high average for the production of acre And it obligated the farmer to deliver two-thirds of it at a price close to half the world price at the time of the farmer’s supply of wheat, and the penalty for non-implementation was imprisonment.

Turk continued - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that with the end of the harvest season approaching, the government discovered that it was impossible for it to achieve the target of 6 million tons, and that the number of farmers subject to imprisonment - according to the ministerial decision - could reach millions, which the state cannot implement, so he was forced The Minister to replace the penalty of imprisonment by fining the farmer for every ardeb he did not hand over an amount equal to the price of an ardeb at the international price, which is equivalent to twice the local price.

Turk expected that this matter would encounter obstacles in implementation;

Because the government does not have a real exclusive on the land that has been cultivated with wheat, and the fine will make the farmer refrain from cultivating the strategic crop in the future, because it will cause a heavy loss. He is liable to imprisonment or a fine that will make him regret growing wheat;

This is because the wheat season coincides with the alfalfa season and is more financially beneficial than wheat.

If the government continues this policy with the farmers, as Turk says, then most of the farmers will switch to alfalfa cultivation instead of wheat, which will lead to an increase in the quantity of imported wheat. Al-Mustansiriya Severity.

In an article by journalist Imad El-Din Hussein (close to the authority), he called on the government not to clash with the farmers, and to deal with them calmly as it tries to secure wheat for subsidized bread. They accept agriculture, and do not flee from it, so that the government would not discover that it was supporting foreign farmers at the expense of the country's children.

Hussein stressed the state's right to secure its needs of wheat for subsidized bread, amounting to about 9 million tons, which forced it, on an exceptional basis, to take its recent measures.