The Central Bank of Egypt will help fund the government\u2019s push to reduce the amount of water used by Egyptian agriculture, announcing a multi-bn EGP program to help farmers switch to modern, more water-efficient irrigation methods.<\/p>\n
The central bank will channel EGP 55.5 bn to farmers and agribusinesses to purchase new equipment and install new irrigation systems, which will be deployed as soft loans through state-owned institutions National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and the Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE).<\/p>\n
No strings: <\/strong>Borrowers will repay the sum over a 10-year period with zero interest, the bank said, with their first payment due one year from the date they complete the installation of the infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>This initiative replaces a similar CBE program that provided finance to farmers at a 5% rate of interest.<\/p>\n he initiative aims to equip about 4 mn feddans of agricultural land with modern irrigation systems within three years, the CBE said.<\/p>\n The government had announced a USD 50 bn water saving plan in 2019 focusing on promoting modern irrigation methods and the cultivation of non-water intensive crops, with the aim to overcome water scarcity by encouraging the use of modern irrigation methods, cultivation of fewer water-intensive crops and establishment of desalination plants.<\/p>\n And back in May the Cabinet agreed to a set of measures as part of the government\u2019s shift towards modern irrigation systems, as well as setting up a specialized committee to oversee the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Central Bank of Egypt will help fund the government\u2019s push to reduce the amount of water used by Egyptian agriculture, announcing a multi-bn EGP program to help farmers switch to modern, more water-efficient irrigation methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":321424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,33],"tags":[222],"class_list":["post-323994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","category-main","tag-central-bank-of-egypt-cbe"],"yoast_head":"\n