Dr. Ahmed Galal, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ain Shams University, said that climate change does not affect agriculture in Egypt only, but affects agriculture in the whole world for several reasons, including that climate change can lead to drought and a decrease in the amount of fresh water. necessary for agriculture, and there are some places that will have a total drought, such as sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Galal continued: "We are currently observing a decrease in the level of freshwater worldwide, even in the state of Brazil, and Brazil is considered one of the largest countries that contain the amount of fresh water, as it represents 25% of the fresh water in the world, and it is called the lung of the world because of It contains the Amazon forests, and one-fifth of them currently remain because about four-fifths of these forests were lost in previous time periods.”
He explained that we must distinguish between two things: The major advanced industrial countries such as America and Europe are the cause of climate change, and the bill for this change is paid by developing countries such as Egypt, Africa, and some countries in Asia, and there are those who caused this global crisis facing the whole world from The first is the Kyoto Agreement, then the Glasgow Agreement, then Paris and so on. There are so-called donor countries that provide projects worth billions of dollars to counter these devastating effects on the planet, but so far they have not fulfilled these treaties, and have not paid even a quarter of what they pledged, and Egypt is among the countries affected. strongly with these changes, because we are basically facing a water problem, and this problem can increase and exacerbate, which makes the first thing we face in climate change is the problem of drought that occurs in some areas, and the second problem that results from climate changes is a decrease in crop productivity and a decrease in the quality of crops, Because if carbon dioxide reaches from 470 to 500 parts per million in the atmosphere, this leads to a decrease in the proportion of protein in wheat by about 7%, in addition to a decrease in the proportion of zinc and iron from 7% to 10%.
He added that there are no crops threatened with extinction, but there are varieties that will disappear and new varieties appear, and new genetically modified varieties appear with certain specifications, through which we can mitigate climate changes on these varieties, and one of the most serious problems that we will face due to climate changes is the spread of new diseases and new pests, For example, last year, the armyworm appeared, which caused the destruction of the corn crop in Egypt, and caused a major crisis for farmers who planted corn last year.
He explained that new techniques have been introduced in agriculture, such as hydroponic farming, which means farming without agricultural soil, the root is directly in the water, and is used for certain types of agricultural crops, not all species. It cannot be used in the cultivation of rice or wheat, which are necessary strategic crops, as It cannot be used in fruit cultivation, and the project of planting a million trees in a way confronts the existing changes, and there are new projects in the Faculty of Agriculture at Ain Shams University, such as the modern “Soub” project, and we also have the largest closed fish system and is one of the largest fish farms in the colleges of agriculture at the level of Egypt.
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