Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has officially launched a large-scale agricultural project called “New Delta,” which is to transform vast areas of desert into new farmland. The main goal of the initiative is to grow wheat and other strategically important crops.

The launch of the project was reported by UkrAgroConsult. The grand opening ceremony took place during the 2026 wheat harvest in new fields located west of the Nile Delta.

According to the Egyptian government, “New Delta” has become the largest land reclamation project in the country’s history. In the future, the area of ​​new agricultural areas should reach approximately 9,000 square kilometers.

The country’s authorities expect that the implementation of the initiative will allow increasing the total area of ​​cultivated land by almost 15%. The main emphasis is on growing wheat, corn, and vegetables. In addition, active production of export crops, in particular olives and figs, is planned.

Investments in the project have already exceeded 800 billion Egyptian pounds, which is equivalent to over 15 billion dollars. The financing was directed to land preparation, construction of granaries, industrial zones and new transport infrastructure.

Particular attention was paid to the development of a road network that should connect new desert areas with the Nile Valley and the country's seaports. The government also expects that the "New Delta" will ensure the creation of more than two million new jobs.

A key component of the project was a unique water supply system, which in Egypt is already called an "artificial river". It is it that should provide water for future agricultural areas in the desert.

The system works as follows: water from the drainage canals of the western part of the Nile Delta flows to the El Hammam treatment complex, located on the Mediterranean coast. Up to 7.5 million cubic meters of water are purified there every day.

After purification, the water is transported through a special channel 170 kilometers long. For this, 13 pumping stations are used, which supply water to new agricultural areas in the desert.

The Egyptian authorities call the “New Delta” a strategic response to modern challenges to food security. The country believes that the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the war in Ukraine and Iran, have significantly increased the risks for the global food market, so the development of its own agricultural production has become one of the state priorities.