Research Institute for a

Sustainable Environment (RISE)

Best Practices for Wheat Cultivation

Project Areas:

المنوفية -شبرا قبالة مناطق المشروع

الصحراء الغربية -منطقة الحيز

الصحراء الغربية -منطقة ابو منقار

Project Framework:

- Individual visits to the farmers on 3 locations,

ElHeiz, Abu Minqar and Shubra Qubala

- Soil assessment (approximately 10 soil samples

from each site)

- First introductory workshop

- Registering new farmers

- Meeting with the “Wheat Research Institute”

specialists

- Trainings on wheat best practices (Delivered

by Dr. Khaled Gad from ARC)

- Literature review report on wheat best practice

Project Framework (Cont’d):

- Getting official agreement from the Agricultural

Research Center (ARC).

- Developing the messages based on the review

and experts recommendations

- Timeline for sending out the SMSs.

- Individual feedback representing 10% of

registered farmers from each area

- Collective Feedback sessions in the three areas

- Final Train the trainers (TOT) workshop based

on the feedback

Individual visits:

- Questionnaire on wheat farming

practices

- Soil sampling & analysis

- Recruiting more farmers

Shubra Quabala - Monofia:

- 106 registered farmers

- The soil texture is loamy and has from 50-60%

sand with a high water-holding capacity.

- Soil has high concentrations of micro elements

such as iron, zinc, manganese and copper.

- Less than half the samples showed very high salt

concentrations and thus farmers were advised to

wash-irrigate the land

Abu Minqar – Western

Desert:

- 57 registered farmers

- Soil sampling

- Soil has very high salt concentrations

- Micro elements (iron, manganese, zinc and

copper) were only high in half of the samples.

- Abu Minqar soil contains 80-90 % sand and

has higher clay concentrations than that tested

in El Heiz.

El Heiz - Western Desert:

- 39 registered farmers

- Soil has low concentrations of organic matter

- High alkalinity.

- It is advisable to add compost to the soil before

planting and also to add some acid based

fertilizers

- The micro element concentrations (iron, zinc,

manganese and copper) differ between the

sample locations.

Cont’: El Heiz

- More than half the samples had very high

concentrations of iron, manganese and zinc.

- El Heiz soil has a low water holding capacity.

Therefore, farmers were told to decrease the

amount of time between irrigations.

Introductory Workshop;

• Abu Minqar

a. 10 Farmers

b. Water problems, fertilizers availability

c. Birds attack

• El Heiz

a. 40 Farmers

b. Water availability

c. Soil & fertilizers

d. Seeds

Shubra Qubala

- 20 Farmers

a. Soil & fertilization

b. Pest management (Weeds –Zomair)

c. Seed choice

Trainings on Wheat Best

Practices: - In Shubra around 30 farmers attended the training

given by Dr. Khaled Gad.

- In El Heiz, 11 farmers attended

- In Abu Minqar, 11 farmers attended

Final List of SMS:

Feedback of farmers

El Heiz

• 20 farmers attended the feedback workshop and 4 individual

interviews were carried out.

• Advantages:

• Timing of the messages helped in determining when to plant,

irrigate and put fertilizers.

• Concerns:

Recommended fertilizers are not available.

Water shortage affected the irrigation schedule

• Recommendations:

• Trying to provide some outlets for selling fertilizers and

pesticides

• Providing alternative solutions to water problems or trying to

focus more on solar energy for pumping irrigation water

Feedback of farmers (Cont’d)

Abu Minqar

14 farmers attended the feedback workshop and 7 individual

interviews were carried out. Advantages:

- Timing of the messages

- Amounts and timings to apply fertilizers were useful

Concerns:

- Availability of fertilizers

- A cold storm resulted in loss of many crops

Recommendations

- more messages on diseases

- The need to know the amount of Nitrogen needs to be added,

if other options of fertilizers are available.

- Forecast news on the weather should be sent.

- Project to continue on vegetables and alfalfla

Feedback of farmers (Cont’d)

Shubra Qubala

7 farmers attended the feedback workshop and 10

individual

interviews were carried out.

Advantages:

- Recommended quantities of seeds and fertilizers were useful.

Concerns:

- Yellow rust disease resulted in yield loss

- Some tried call centre and no answers were offered to them

Recommendations:

- More information to be offered on diseases

- Project to continue on more crops like corn and also vegetables.

Trials made by RISE

El Heiz

6.3 Ardab per feddan this year versus 4 Ardab last year

Abu Minqar

19 Ardab per feddan this year versus 15 Ardab last year

Magdy

• a fungus that he has seen on his

crops in the past did not attack his crop this

season

• the plant was healthy and protected

the whole season.

• His neighbors have thought

of taking his seeds as seedlings for the

coming season

Workshops carried based on farmers

feedback

• Two workshops have been done at the end of the project that is

based on farmers’ feedback.

• Four farmers from the three areas (Total of 12 farmers) were

invited to RISE to at be trained on a workshop on how to

develop compost from organic waste, and another workshop on

cultivation of seasonal vegetables.

• The training was based on training the trainees, thus the four

farmers will be followed up to conduct similar training to the

rest of the registered farmers.

Video Samples of feedback from the three

different areas:

Shubra Qubala Abu Minqar

El Heiz

Thank you