An inspection tour of the President of Ain Shams University in the farms of the Faculty of Agriculture in Nubaria

Prof. Mahmoud El-Meteini, President of the University, expressed his happiness at the university’s farms in the Nubariya region, which includes the two farms of the Faculty of Agriculture, at Imam Malik and the village of Muhammad Abdel-Wahab, whose area is 75 acres, in addition to 12.5 acres belonging to the Arid Lands Institute.

This came during the inspection tour conducted by His Excellency, accompanied by Prof. Ahmed Galal, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Osama Al-Buhairi, Dean of the Arid Lands Institute, in the presence of Prof. Walaa El-Sayed, Vice Dean for Postgraduate Studies and Research, Prof. Hisham Al-Hariri, Vice Dean for Education and Student Affairs, Prof. Amr Mosaad, Director of the Center for Agricultural Studies and Consultations, Engineer Ahmed Nour, Farm Engineer, and Engineer Awad Desouky, Director of the Faculty.

He explained that the transformation of the yellow land into green, productive land is something that makes everyone happy, adding that the university administration seeks to double the cultivated areas in the future. His Excellency also confirmed the role of Ain Shams University as a scientific institution in contributing to the addition of green spaces, and this is to help mitigate the effects of the process of climate change and global warming as part of the positive solutions in this regard, he added that the university is working to introduce modern methods in agriculture using smart farming methods and smart irrigation.

His Excellency directed the need for master's and doctoral researchers at the College of Agriculture and the Arid Lands Institute to live with reality so that their research is the result of real life, which adds a real scientific addition to scientific research.

The university president also indicated that there is a future plan to study the cultivation of the university's land in the New Valley.

Prof. Ahmed Galal, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, explained that the faculty owns two farms, the first in the village of Mohamed Abdel-Wahab with an area of 25 acres, planted with summer oranges for export, and the average annual productivity of the farm is 300-350 tons, which contributes greatly to production in Egypt. Some intercropping crops are also cultivated, such as potatoes, which amounted to 32 tons, 38 tons of onions, and 25 tons of fava beans, in addition to various crops such as tomatoes, pulp, and beans, which amounted to about 32 tons.

Regarding the other farm, it is located on the Imam Malik farm, with an area of 45 acres. It has been prepared with some crops such as fava beans, beans, and garlic, in preparation for being fully cultivated with citrus fruits, in addition to the other farm. It is expected that 1000 tons of citrus fruits will be produced annually from the two farms.

Prof. Ahmed Jalal clarified that the latest systems are used in agriculture and all modern irrigation methods, pointing out that a water basin of 6000 cubic meters has been built to be used for fisheries, and it is one of the first fish farming ponds in the desert areas.

Prof. Ahmed Jalal, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, confirmed that a great effort was made to recover the two farms from the squatters.

Also, Prof. Mahmoud El-Meteini met Prof. Troy Peters, Professor of Irrigation Engineering, at the University of Washington, USA, Dr. Elizabeth Gillispie, Professor of Lands at the University of Washington, in the presence of Prof. Atef Nassar, Advisor to the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Prof. Yousri Khafaji, at irrigation development sector, and Prof. Yasser Ezzat Arafa is Professor and Head of the Agricultural Engineering Department at the Faculty of Agriculture, this is to discuss the application of smart irrigation technology in Egyptian agriculture within the activities of the project funded by the Excellence Center for Water at the American University and Ain Shams University.