Knowledge-Based Firms in Egypt Try to Develop Soilless Farming Amid Water Scarcity

Soilless agriculture - also known as hydroponics - means growing plants using nutrient-rich water without soil and inside highly controlled greenhouses.

Soilless substrates such as sand, gravel, clay, foam or sponge are used to support plant roots.

In Egypt, agritech startup Plug’n’Grow now offers a wide range of soilless agriculture solutions to growers, Euronews reported.

“The soilless culture is a technique which allows us to produce high-quality crops in a very precise and well-controlled method,” explains the startup's head of product Nouran El Said.

“Hydroponics saves around 90 per cent of water used in traditional agriculture because it entails a closed system that does not allow for any water waste inside the soil,” El Said.

This is essential in a country facing water scarcity, and it also has economic benefits as it saves nearly 60 percent of the fertilizers needed.

Plug’n’Grow is one of several agritech enterprises that have emerged in Egypt in recent years, promoting this form of agriculture.

Meanwhile, arable land, which constitutes less than 5 per cent of Egypt, has been shrinking due to urbanisation. The remaining 95 percent is all desert.

“The most critical challenges facing the future of agriculture in Egypt are the shrinking of arable land, the saline nature of land and water shortage,” says Mona Zayed, professor of agriculture at Ain Shams University.

"This is very problematic because we need to increase our agricultural output in order to feed our population and generate more foreign currency revenues through agricultural exports. Soilless agriculture stands as a solution for this problem.”

Aside from its ecological benefits, hydroponics promises faster growth and a larger output.

“If we applied hydroponics to 10,000 feddans [0.042 km2], we could produce two million tonnes of vegetables, which would account for nearly half of Egypt’s agricultural exports and would generate nearly $1.2 billion [€1.1 billion],” says El Said.

"For any grower, fertilizers are one of the most expensive agricultural inputs, especially since their prices have been on the rise for the last three or four years.”

“Meanwhile, the water saved could be directed to strategic crops, namely wheat. Hence, we would be able to achieve food security and generate more revenues from our agricultural products.”

Egypt is one of the world’s largest wheat importers, as bread remains the main staple for more than 70 million Egyptians.

In recent years, disruption of wheat supply chains related to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has exposed Egypt’s vulnerability to global shocks and exacerbated food insecurity.

Despite its advantages, hydroponics cannot be harnessed to cultivate strategic crops, Zayed says.

“It is not common to apply soilless agriculture solutions to crops like wheat, rice, barley, or corn,” she says.

“Hydroponics is only used to grow leafy greens and some simple vegetables. All greenhouses whether in Egypt or abroad are used for those purposes.”

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