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EGYPT / GRAPE FARMER
STORY: EGYPT / GRAPE FARMER
TRT: 3:48
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTION: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE:09 JULY 2018, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
10 JULY 2018, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
1.Various shots, horse-drawn carts on roads
09 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
2. Various shots, grape farmer Mabrook Khamees pruning grapes
3. Various shots, Khamees placing grapes gently in basket
4. Close up, damaged leaves on vines
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mabrook Khamees, Grape Farmer:
“As a farmer, of course I love to be on the farm, to touch the bunches of grapes and check them carefully for problems, to examine the leaves and branches for disease.”
6. Various shots, Khamees passing grapes to his daughter
7. Various shots, Mabrook seated by well
8. Close up, water flowing in well
08 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
9. Various shots, Khamees and his children on motorbike
10. Various shots, Khamees and his family seated at home eating
11. Med shot, Khamees’s son seated
12. Close up, Khamees looking on
13. Various shots, Khamees eating
14. Various shots, Khamees standing with Yehia Salah, technical expert for FAO Egypt, and another farmer during training
15. Various shots, Khamees using instrument used to detect sugar levels in grapes
09 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mabrook Khamees, Grape Farmer:
“Through the project, I learned, for example, that the ideal sugar content when-grapes are ready for harvest is 20 per cent.”
09 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
21. Various shots, Khamees, Salah and farmer walking
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mabrook Khamees, Grape Farmer:
“I learned the right amount of fertilizer to use to avoid over fertilization which harms the vine. It needs to be just right to benefit the crop without leading to more loss."
08 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
23. Various of Salah training farmers inside hut
09 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT
24. Close up, grapes falling onto pile
06 JULY CAIRO, EGYPT
25. Close up, raisins
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is training grape farmers in Egypt on how to recognize and treat disease, and when to harvest to avoid unnecessary loss in the field.
After several years of poor harvests, and badly affected by low market prices, Egyptian grape farmer Mabrook Khamees worries about the future of both his family and a job that is close to his heart.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mabrook Khamees, Grape Farmer:
“As a farmer, of course I love to be on the farm, to touch the bunches of grapes and check them carefully for problems, to examine the leaves and branches for disease.”
Mabrook and his family migrated to the community of Bangar El Sokor in the Nile Delta to run a small plot growing flame seedless grapes. But he has struggled with low productivity.
Worse still, market prices for grapes can drop dramatically, especially during harvest seasons when there is a glut of grapes and other fruit.
It can drop so low, in fact, that many farmers leave the fruit to rot on the vines instead of losing money hiring laborers and other essentials needed to harvest.
Mabrook’s is not an isolated case. Food that gets spilled or spoilt before it reaches its final product or retail stage is called food loss, and it’s a huge problem in Egypt and other countries in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. 25-35 per cent of grapes are lost before they reach the consumer.
Similarly, 50 per cent of tomatoes are lost through inefficient practices, helping to entrench poverty throughout the agricultural sector.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is training grape farmers how to recognize and treat disease, and when to harvest to avoid unnecessary loss.
Mabrook has learned how technology can help to improve the marketability of the grapes. For example, a refractometer can be used to test the levels of sugar in the fruit as it grows.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mabrook Khamees, Grape Farmer:
“Through the project, I learned, for example, that the ideal sugar content when-grapes are ready for harvest is 20 per cent.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mabrook Khamees, Grape Farmer:
“I learned the right amount of fertilizer to use to avoid over fertilization which harms the vine. It needs to be just right to benefit the crop without leading to more loss."
Farmers and laborers are also trained how to handle and package grapes during the crucial harvest, when many grapes are damaged.
FAO has trained over 2,000 Egyptian farmers like him in food loss reduction across the country.
Mabrook is confident that with the correct knowledge and procedures, things will get better.
Despite being one of the world’s top five producers of grapes, Egypt is a net importer of raisins.
So as well as training farmers, FAO is setting up a raisin drying facility, so that grapes can be dried when market prices are low and farmers like Mabrook don’t have to lose out.
FAO collaborates with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of Egypt in the training programme, supported by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.
FAO is working for a future without food loss or waste, as part of its goal to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.
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