TakingITGlobal - Panorama - The Wheat Revolution

Published on: Apr 21, 2004

Topic:

Type: Opinions

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3226

During the sixties and the seventies, we heard the word "New occupation" or "New colonization" for the first time. It was a term that leaders of various 3rd world countries used to describe the domination of developed countries on developing countries by means of economic pressure instead of military occupation. They would drag them into exhausting debts, use conditioned economic aids to orient their foreign and economic policies, and use foreign investments as a way to pressure those countries into domination. Which is the case in most of the developing countries nowadays, and unfortunately most people do not know how dangerous it is to be economically occupied. Imagine if the US decides to stop its millions of dollars in wheat aids to Egypt (which is considered the main source of nutrition for the Egyptians).

In 2003, Mr. Powell announced the Free trade initiative between the US and the countries of the Middle East. He said that the US is considering the grants and aids given to the Middle East and that those Middle East countries won’t get any of those grants unless they do specific political and social changes suggested by the US, such as changes in the political educational and juridical system.

It would be normal to get offended by such an initiative and by such interference in our very internal policies, but with that threat of stopping those vital economic aids we could not just say no, all they could do is to ask to negotiate the issue.

‘The self sufficiency from wheat – for life’, this is the name of the campaign initiated by Mrs. Sekina Fouad – the Egyptian intellectual – started 5 years ago. "It's not a usual conference, held and dismissed without having taken any real action" says Mrs. Fouad,
"It's a vital and essential goal to unite all the Egyptians, as to guarantee their nutritive security and their alimentary independence, without having to enslave themselves inside that non ending circles of exhausting and painful depths ,without having to blindly depend on whom they're feeding them and controlling their nutrition".

For thousands of years, the wheat has always had a major importance in the life of Egyptians being the main source of nutrition. You can see it continuously in the drawings of the Pharaohs. The pharaohs have known the importance of wheat considering it one of the sources of life; you can find it in the cemeteries of the pharaohs with their clothes, jewellery and food. With the Pharaohs deep belief in the other life, they used to be buried with all their precious stuff they would need in the other life, and wheat was one of those essential and vital things the Pharaohs were buried with.

The self sufficiency from wheat campaign is not only having a goal to be self sufficient from wheat but also giving that chance to the Egyptians to obtain their freedom and capability through moving from the stage of being a consumer population to the stage of the agricultural productivity (like it has always been through different periods of history).

The question asked by Mrs. Sekina Fouad is, if we - the Egyptians - already have studies and researches proving that we can obtain a self sufficiency from the wheat – using the same resources – and that we don't have to import the wheat with huge amounts of money from the other side of the ocean, then why don't we start to implement a new agricultural strategy? Using advanced science and Egyptian scientists working in this domain can guarantee the nutritive and health security as well as better lives for all the Egyptians

In the conference held in 29th February 2004 in the Journalists syndicate in Cairo, Dr. Zeidan Abdel All (ex-chief of experts in FAO, Cairo office) being a firm supporter of the Wheat campaign of Mrs. Sekina Fouad, reviewed briefly with the audience some of the points he mentioned in his report about a new agricultural strategy.

The delta (Situated in Northern Egypt), is suffering from diverse kinds of pollution: Pollution of its water and land, beside the increase of the degree of salt in its agricultural land which caused the diminution of its productivity quantitatively and qualitatively.

1. The problem of the pollution of the delta can be solved through advanced technologies which mean that we plant products that can grow in a dry and salty environment; we can use the marginalized lands as well, in that way we can increase our agriculture productivity. The mixture of the water of drainage with the Nile water might cause the increase of the degree of salt in the agricultural lands, so we better try to think of other ways of dealing with the drainage water.

2. We can increase the amount of wheat and rice produced in the same plot of land and using the same quantity of water, through the intervention of certain genes – that can bear dryness and salts – in the Egyptian products

Those are in brief some of the points included by the report done by Dr. Zeidan, to prove our urgent need – as Egyptians – to adopt a new efficient strategy in Agriculture, that has an aim to feed the majority of Egyptians, and that all of us would have to participate in the process of planning, preparing, implementing and the follow up of such a plan, without locking ourselves in that slavery of painful and deadly debts.

A lot of phone calls and letters from Egyptians - who are residents in other countries – have come in, supporting the campaign of self sufficiency from wheat and the idea of the wheat revolution. The last of them was from an Egyptian living in Saudi Arabia asking to donate and invest their money in the project.

« return.



by Yara Kassem
Published on: Apr 21, 2004
Topic:
Type: Opinions
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3226


During the sixties and the seventies, we heard the word "New occupation" or "New colonization" for the first time. It was a term that leaders of various 3rd world countries used to describe the domination of developed countries on developing countries by means of economic pressure instead of military occupation. They would drag them into exhausting debts, use conditioned economic aids to orient their foreign and economic policies, and use foreign investments as a way to pressure those countries into domination. Which is the case in most of the developing countries nowadays, and unfortunately most people do not know how dangerous it is to be economically occupied. Imagine if the US decides to stop its millions of dollars in wheat aids to Egypt (which is considered the main source of nutrition for the Egyptians). In 2003, Mr. Powell announced the Free trade initiative between the US and the countries of the Middle East. He said that the US is considering the grants and aids given to the Middle East and that those Middle East countries won’t get any of those grants unless they do specific political and social changes suggested by the US, such as changes in the political educational and juridical system. It would be normal to get offended by such an initiative and by such interference in our very internal policies, but with that threat of stopping those vital economic aids we could not just say no, all they could do is to ask to negotiate the issue. ‘The self sufficiency from wheat – for life’, this is the name of the campaign initiated by Mrs. Sekina Fouad – the Egyptian intellectual – started 5 years ago. "It's not a usual conference, held and dismissed without having taken any real action" says Mrs. Fouad, "It's a vital and essential goal to unite all the Egyptians, as to guarantee their nutritive security and their alimentary independence, without having to enslave themselves inside that non ending circles of exhausting and painful depths ,without having to blindly depend on whom they're feeding them and controlling their nutrition". For thousands of years, the wheat has always had a major importance in the life of Egyptians being the main source of nutrition. You can see it continuously in the drawings of the Pharaohs. The pharaohs have known the importance of wheat considering it one of the sources of life; you can find it in the cemeteries of the pharaohs with their clothes, jewellery and food. With the Pharaohs deep belief in the other life, they used to be buried with all their precious stuff they would need in the other life, and wheat was one of those essential and vital things the Pharaohs were buried with. The self sufficiency from wheat campaign is not only having a goal to be self sufficient from wheat but also giving that chance to the Egyptians to obtain their freedom and capability through moving from the stage of being a consumer population to the stage of the agricultural productivity (like it has always been through different periods of history). The question asked by Mrs. Sekina Fouad is, if we - the Egyptians - already have studies and researches proving that we can obtain a self sufficiency from the wheat – using the same resources – and that we don't have to import the wheat with huge amounts of money from the other side of the ocean, then why don't we start to implement a new agricultural strategy? Using advanced science and Egyptian scientists working in this domain can guarantee the nutritive and health security as well as better lives for all the Egyptians In the conference held in 29th February 2004 in the Journalists syndicate in Cairo, Dr. Zeidan Abdel All (ex-chief of experts in FAO, Cairo office) being a firm supporter of the Wheat campaign of Mrs. Sekina Fouad, reviewed briefly with the audience some of the points he mentioned in his report about a new agricultural strategy. The delta (Situated in Northern Egypt), is suffering from diverse kinds of pollution: Pollution of its water and land, beside the increase of the degree of salt in its agricultural land which caused the diminution of its productivity quantitatively and qualitatively. 1. The problem of the pollution of the delta can be solved through advanced technologies which mean that we plant products that can grow in a dry and salty environment; we can use the marginalized lands as well, in that way we can increase our agriculture productivity. The mixture of the water of drainage with the Nile water might cause the increase of the degree of salt in the agricultural lands, so we better try to think of other ways of dealing with the drainage water. 2. We can increase the amount of wheat and rice produced in the same plot of land and using the same quantity of water, through the intervention of certain genes – that can bear dryness and salts – in the Egyptian products Those are in brief some of the points included by the report done by Dr. Zeidan, to prove our urgent need – as Egyptians – to adopt a new efficient strategy in Agriculture, that has an aim to feed the majority of Egyptians, and that all of us would have to participate in the process of planning, preparing, implementing and the follow up of such a plan, without locking ourselves in that slavery of painful and deadly debts. A lot of phone calls and letters from Egyptians - who are residents in other countries – have come in, supporting the campaign of self sufficiency from wheat and the idea of the wheat revolution. The last of them was from an Egyptian living in Saudi Arabia asking to donate and invest their money in the project. « return.