New York - Cairo: Europe and the Arabs
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Egypt is implementing a project on sustainable management of agro-ecosystems in Kharga Oasis, New Valley Governorate. The project provides local and smallholder communities with the technical capacity, financial means, knowledge and support to sustainably plan and manage land, water resources and agricultural biodiversity. This came in the daily news bulletin issued by the official website of the United Nations, which included a report from Cairo shedding light on this project. The FAO in Egypt is implementing a project for the sustainable management of agricultural ecosystems in the Kharga Oasis in the New Valley Governorate, in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the Desert Research Center, and the New Valley Governorate.
  The project implemented 105 field schools from which farmers benefited, says the FAO project manager, Dr. Ashraf El-Sadig:
"The project implemented 105 field schools in the villages of Al-Kharga Center, which are Nasser Al-Thawra, Al-Munira and Al-Sharka. Today, we are about to celebrate honoring young and young farmers who graduated from field schools in appreciation of their efforts in developing their agriculture. They were also given some gifts."
The project contributes to the intensification of sustainable food production, and provides options for diversifying livelihoods in the Kharga Oasis. It also provides an opportunity to improve the lives of the beneficiaries of this project, especially women and small farmers, says Dr. Emad Awad, representative of the Desert Research Center:
"Today's ceremony comes to honor the farmers of the field schools in the project villages in the Kharga Center in the New Valley. This work was the result of a full year in which we worked on developing and preserving sustainable agricultural practices while preserving natural resources with the aim of maximizing the preservation of natural resources and sustainable agricultural practices."
The project focuses on adopting practices related to the field of sustainable management of land, water and agricultural biodiversity that will help preserve and enhance ecosystem services in oases in three pilot sites in the villages of Al-Munira, Naser Al-Thawra and Al-Sheraka.
Dr. Majd Al-Mursi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture in the New Valley Governorate, stresses the need to generalize the field school experience implemented by the project at the level of the centers of the New Valley Governorate, in order for the benefit to spread:
"Today, we distributed in-kind agricultural gifts such as flower sprayers and various agricultural machines to graduates of field schools. The farmers of these schools demanded the need to continue and circulate them at the governorate level, through agricultural units and associations."
A group of small farmers talked about the extent to which they benefited from the project:
-"I am very happy for my participation in the field school experience. I learned some new agricultural practices related to the bean crop, which resulted in a high yield of the crop."
-"I learned a new method of producing organic fertilizers known as (compost), and I also learned new methods of growing various crops such as wheat and tomatoes."
-"I benefited from the experience of the field schools implemented by the FAO, and gained a variety of experiences in modern cultivation methods for many crops, resistance to agricultural pests, modern irrigation methods, and new methods of fodder production."