Mohamed Shubek, a 47-year-old farmer living in Fayoum, nearly 100 kilometres south of Egypt’s capital, Cairo, remembers when his field was productive and his yields plentiful. But since 2017, desertification has drastically hit his farmland, rendering half his 3.5 feddans (3.6 acres) infertile. The problem has crept over the bigger parts of the Youssef Al-Seddiq district in the governorate.
“I lost nearly 60% of my crop. I used to harvest up to ten tons of olives per feddan. This year, I only made about 150 kilograms. It’s a complete devastation,” he said, looking painfully at the dried-up, cracking surface of his smallholding.
Egypt is among the world’s top producers of table olives and its olive oil production accounts for 24.5% of global production according to the International Olive Council. However, the North African country’s production of olives, and its agriculture sector as a whole, is being weighed down by climate variations such as desertification.
