The Environmental Union Federation; the LDF in Aswan governorate, organized a virtual meeting celebrating of the National Environment Day under the slogan "Greening between Agriculture and Environment", to be found in this  link due to the conditions that Egypt and the world are going through due to the Corona virus pandemic.

The celebration aimed to explain the need to change the Egyptians’ thinking about water to face the reality of scarcity, and to gradually shift to modern irrigation systems.

About a hundred members of scientists and experts of environmental affairs, biodiversity and agriculture in Egypt and Arab region participated in the celebration, with a remarkable presence of the Arab brothers.

The workshop included three lectures - the first about “Regenerative Agriculture” and delivered by Dr. Khaled Ghanem, Professor of Organic Agriculture, Head of the Environment and Biological Agriculture Department at Al-Azhar University.

He stated that the regenerative agriculture is one of the modern global concepts of sustainable agriculture or regenerative organic agriculture and the first release of this term in Egypt, which is the broader and more modern picture in organic agriculture that contributes marvelously to soil health and is the most important goal of applying organic agriculture in the world, as well as the great role of its practices in carbon sequestration in the soil and reduction of climate change impacts, which making it excellent climate-friendly. He hopes that the year 2021 will witness great progress in this field, that encourage us to launch our postponed project about this issue to keep pace with international schools in the United States and East Asia and others.

The second lecture, about “new concepts of water use in agriculture” presented by Dr. Ahmed Zaki, Professor at the Agricultural Research Center, the Chair Environmental Union Federation in Aswan, and the Vice chair of the EgNDF.

He discussed the current water situation of Egypt and its water resources, the effectiveness of water use, and a comparison between the culture of abundance we believe and the reality of scarcity in which we live, He presented the irrigation machines and equipment used by the Egyptians since the dawn of history until today, and the imperative of switching to modern irrigation systems or at least gradually improving and developing current irrigation.

Prof. Reda Mohamed Rizk -expert on plant genetic resources and biodiversity at the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development of the League of Arab States- presented the third lecture about “the sustainable management of biological diversity” to discuss the sustainable development of natural resources in Egypt, appearing his fear that the economic and social development impacts would be negative on the Egyptian natural resources.

The participants presented many important recommendations; Changing the Egyptians’ thinking about water to face the reality of scarcity, the need to gradually shift to modern irrigation systems, rationing the quantities of water for the different crops, taking into account the environmental dimension when converting irrigation systems from the traditional to the modern, using the clean energy of modern irrigation systems in the irrigation of Egyptian agriculture, interest in the idea of regenerative agriculture or regenerative organic farming, and this is the first launch of this term in Egypt.

They also recommend to use of regenerative agriculture to restore the health of agricultural soils, and take advantage of its major role in sequestering carbon in the soil and curbing climate change, laying the rational foundations for the sustainable development of natural resources, claim to include biodiversity within the conditions and obligations of sustainable economic and social development, achieving greater compatibility between the development plans and the biodiversity plans in the country, compatibility in the dialogue between decision-makers and decision-makers in the field of biological diversity, finally supporting NGOs concerned with environmental affairs and biodiversity, and establishing information rooms to assess and monitor the state of natural habitats.