Sustainable cultivation of rice in Egypt

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food for more than half of the human population, and as such it plays a key role in ensuring food security all over the world. Rice crop plays a significant role in Egypt, for sustaining the food self-sufficiency and for export. Rice is considered the most popular and important field crop in Egypt for several reasons: as a staple food for more than 50% of Egyptians, as an important exporting crop, as a land reclamation crop for improving the productivity of the saline soils widely spread in Nile Delta and coastal area, low cultivation coasts in comparison to other summer field crops, and finally it is a social crop in which every person of the farm families could find work in rice fields and gain money during the growing season. Rice research started in Egypt 100 years ago and had very advanced achievements during the last thirty years after the establishment of the Rice Research and Training Center (RRTC) at Sakha, Kafr Elsheikh. After the release of the newly developed Egyptian rice varieties, the national average increased to about 10.00 tons ha−1 which is considered one of the highest worldwide. Further increase in rice production through increased yield per unit area is needed to meet the increasing demand of growing population in spite of limited resource of arable lands, irrigation water, and fertilizers.