Egyptian X-File : Project Code 30061800

When a fine lady like Sakina Fouad speaks about our wheat crisis insisting that we can grow our own wheat to reach our own self sufficiency , some people call her unrealistic and may go far and call her crazy and liar too , well I dedicate this post to all those people who call Sakina and all those supporting her including me as unrealistic crazy dreamers.


The project at Assuiti valley

 There was a follow up to Sakina Fouad’s episode where she discussed our wheat crisis attacking our regime. After the first episode we found Gamal Mubarak himself against the idea of self sufficiency along his minister of agriculture whose only experience in agriculture was inheriting a cotton company , Fouad had to fire back and since than no one from the regime’s side has opened his mouth ; after all how they could fire back at documented official experiments in video !!
From 1992 to 1997 the ministries of Agriculture and information incorporation with the apparatus of the grand projects had this very big project as part of the five year plan the government then adopted. That project was funded by the EU with LE 50 million grant and it was used to be called : The guiding developing project for developing the human environment in Egyptian desert or rather project code 30061800 “silly name for important project”
That project and what happened to it was a big X or rather full of Xs !!

The project was located in the Eastern and Western desert , one of its main locations at the Easter desert was the Assuiti valley which is near the Wadi El Assuti nature reserve while at the Western desert you got the new valley. We had about 24 farms from the South to the North , from East to the west of the country.
This project was supervised and led by Dr. Zeinab El-Deeb whom is another puzzle in our enigma.Dr. El-Deeb was a student to Dr. Hassan Fathi as far as I understand despite she was not an architect but rather an anthropologist who spent many years of her life in our country studying our country side and our peasants’ life. Dr. El-Deeb has a PHD in physics and do not ask me what the relationship between anthropology with physics because I do not know , the only thing I can say it seems that this lady was a genius in her field because president Mitterrand honored her and she had fantastic career in France but as a loyal Egyptian she returned back to homeland in attempt to rescue the old world grains basket.
By the request of the ministry of information and also ministry of agriculture Dr. El-Deeb became in charge of this huge project , she would apply all what she found in her anthropologic research for years with the  help of the agricultural research center in Cairo. Dr. El-Deeb found out that wheat was and is indeed our holy seed. Using our wheat seed which ancient Egyptians used from 7000 years old with a little genetic help from agricultural research center Dr. El-Deeb managed to reach in one year in marvelous results making the minister of agriculture then Youssef Wali send her an official thank you letter.
Now from year 1992 to year 1997 we were to able to achieve the following :

• To  grow that wheat in the desert in the sand without any chemical fertilization ,  I swear in the sand you can see it in the video below , pure sand.



Pure sand

• The average wheat yield in the project was 36 ardeb per acre while our average wheat yield now is 15.9 ardeb per acre.
• Dr. Zeinab only spent LE 8 million from the EU LE 50 million grant in 5 years.
• Dr.Zeinab and her team managed to dig 5 water wells in the New valley with LE 1 million only when from 30 years Hassan Fathi failed as the expenses of digging one well cost more than LE 20 million.
• 42,000 acres in the Assuti valley had been reclaimed in this project !!

The project was not about desert reclamation but about creating a new society away from the Nile valley or at least this is what Dr. Zeinab believed. Dr. Hassan Fathi’s architecture models were used eco-friendly materials with no cost at all compared to the ugly cement and red bricks houses the government adopts now.

This very promising project came to an end when Dr. Zeinab and the ministry of information found out that the project had no place in the ministry of agriculture’s 1998-2003 budget , in other words it was terminated suddenly with no justification. According to what I have read about this project , if it had been continued , we would have achieved surplus in 2006 !!
The footage Dr. Sakina shared with us was filmed by the ministry of information. You can see it below.

Now we have to ask two questions here :

1. Why did this project was terminated suddenly when it yielded overwhelming positive results ??
2. Who was actually behind this termination order !!??

Dr. Zeinab packed her bags and moved to France where she has been living since then teaching in French universities. From time to time she gives lectures about Egypt , history and Hassan Fathi.

Dr. El-Deeb , I love her facial expression here

Why has not Dr. Zeinab spoken yet about this experience up till now especially that some consider her –with my all due respect and admiration- a crazy scientist who sold to us air ??

Why has not the media try to reach to this scientist ?? Why did Sakina Fouad say that she respects her circumstances ?? What does she mean !??

That was an official project , I repeat an official project following the state. This project was approved by the people’s assembly in 1995 so why it is being treated as a love child and completely neglected !??
That wheat seed , that miraculous wheat seed disappeared from the ministry of agriculture and the agricultural research center , Dr. Sakina has reported the matter to the general attorney and since then there are several calls to escalate the matter to the level of public campaign ,the thing which I am totally with.
Where did that wheat seed go ??
Who took that wheat seed?? Why can’t we reproduce it again ??
As I understand the scientists behind that wheat seed are still alive so why can’t we reproduce it again!??
The man who speaks about what the wheat yields in that project is Dr. Abdel Salam Gomaa aka the father of Egyptian wheat and by checking the man’s interview in the past years I am surprised that he forgot to mention this project and its results , another big Why !!??
Did you take a notice of Dr. Farouk El-Baz who was besides Dr. El-Deeb in the inauguration of the wells at the New Valley !!? I think a man in the position like El-Baz will not jeopardize his history on something he was not sure about !!?

Dr.Farouk El-Baz at the new Valley

This project stopped at the same time we started the Toshka project in 1997 , it does not make sense because that project seemed to be representing the views of the regime in reclaiming the desert just like in Toshka .

FYI the Assuiti valley project was abducted by businessmen associations which grow mango ,grapes and peas now !!

Dr.Zeinab El-Deeb if by any chance you read this post , please come back we need you now more than ever in Egypt , we need to hear your testimony in one of our the worst crimes against our people in the modern history.

Many questions in this explosive file that it is from our top national security files , yes national security files.

Who gave the orders to kill project code 30061800 and why !!?? What were we going to lose if that project continued to 2003 !!??

I will end this post with what Dr.Sakina said in the show :

When I speak about pain , I am full of hope.

Links and sources :

• Ikhwan Online : Our scientists in the grasp of the west.
• Sakina Fouad writes : Where did the Wheat self sufficiency researches which Abaza received go ??
• Sakina Fouad : The Wheat is what made Al Ahram stop publishing my writings.
• Dr. Abdel Salam Gomaa in an interview to Youm 7 : Return back the wheat revival campaign
• Dr.Abdel Salam Gomaa in an interview to Rosa Al Youssef : We need to reclaim 4 million acres in the desert to achieve self sufficiency

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