Egypt to cultivate digital data from agricultural sector
The government hopes “smart cards” for farmers will curtail Egypt’s black market in subsidies.
CAIRO — A program that will provide electronic “smart cards” to Egypt’s farmers aims to eliminate administrative corruption within the Ministry of Agriculture, prevent its employees from tampering with paper documents and ensure that subsidies reach the proper recipients.
Agriculture and Land Reclamation Minister Essam Fayed said sometimes intermediaries insert themselves between the ministry and farmers, seeking to exploit the latter and intercept their benefits. In some cases, he said, merchants have been known to represent themselves as farmers so they can import large quantities of flour and receive subsidies.
