Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Mr. Alaa Farouk, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, held a meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in El Alamein; During which they discussed the latest developments in the joint cooperation projects between the two ministries for technological development and digital transformation at the Ministry of Agriculture.
The meeting witnessed a review of the most prominent achievements in the digital transformation projects at the Ministry of Agriculture, which include mechanizing agricultural holdings and issuing the farmer’s card, developing the information portal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, launching the ministry’s services on the Digital Egypt platform, inventorying and managing the properties and assets of the Ministry of Agriculture, and mechanizing the General Authority for Reconstruction Projects and Agricultural Development.
The developments in the work of the smart assistant project for farmers “Hudhud” were also highlighted, which aims to provide digital content on many topics of interest to farmers and enable them to obtain appropriate guidance for the problems they face directly, as well as the crop composition project, through which artificial intelligence is used, and reliance on satellite images to help identify the boundaries of agricultural lands, crop composition, and predict crop quantities and agricultural pests; as the project has begun to be implemented on 6 main summer and winter crops in 5 governorates. During the meeting, Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, stressed that the agricultural sector is one of the important productive sectors in the country; Explaining that there are many joint cooperation projects being implemented with the aim of achieving digital transformation in the Ministry of Agriculture, and using information technology to develop agricultural services and expand their digital availability, in addition to joint cooperation through the Applied Innovation Center affiliated to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology with the aim of building a set of innovative solutions using modern technologies, including artificial intelligence, through cooperation in implementing the crop assembly project to build an interactive digital agricultural map, and the smart assistant project for the farmer “Hudhud”. Dr. Amr Talaat explained that cooperation will be conducted between the two ministries in building the digital capabilities of a working team from the Ministry of Agriculture to enable it to use the system developed by the crop assembly project, noting that the second phase of the project aims to link it to the agricultural holding system. Dr. Amr Talaat added that the smart assistant project for the farmer “Hudhud” aims to help the Ministry of Agriculture support the farmer in the agricultural guidance process in a dynamic manner that takes into account a set of important factors in the agricultural process such as the crop, climate and irrigation. Dr. Amr Talaat pointed out that a periodic meeting will be held to follow up on the latest developments in the joint cooperation projects between the two ministries according to the agreed timetable for implementing these projects.
Mr. Alaa Farouk, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, stressed the importance of joint cooperation between the Ministries of Agriculture and Communications in digital transformation services and expanding the digital services provided to farmers to facilitate them, in addition to increasing the package of services provided by the Ministry of Agriculture to farmers and investors through the Digital Egypt platform and adding new services.