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Egypt farmers call for aid, threaten strike

Egyptian farmers are threatening to halt cultivation of certain crops to call attention to the need for state action to support and protect the industry.
Farmers work at a rice field near the Great Giza pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo November 2, 2014. According to local media, black clouds rising over the Delta and Cairo have become a yearly event since 1997 which environmentalists and experts have blamed largely on the burning of leftover rice straw by farmers, an agricultural waste management problem which has yet to be solved for almost two decades.  The burning of rice straw has caused not only severe pollution, but brings with it several potential h
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CAIRO — Despite President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s directives to support Egyptian farmers and help them cope with the difficulties they face, farmers have been taken aback by higher prices in energy, fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, the lack of water for irrigation in some provinces has caused prices of agricultural products to rise.

However, the farmers’ hardships do not end with production, but also extend to the market, where staple crops such as rice, cotton and wheat have suffered heavy losses. Many farmers groups — such as the Farmers and Agricultural Producers Syndicate, the Farmers Syndicate, the General Assembly for Agrarian Reform and the General Assembly for New Land Reclamation — have vowed to take action against the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, accusing it of working against the farmers’ interests, which violates the constitution.

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