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As an aside, I found that fascinating that Egypt is such a huge grain importer. In the ancient world, Egypt was one of the largest grain producers and basicall
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y ago
As an aside, I found that fascinating that Egypt is such a huge grain importer.
In the ancient world, Egypt was one of the largest grain producers and basically fed the Roman Empire.
- bell-cot 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Egypt#Vital_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Egypt#Vital_st... Looks like the population went from ~15.4M in 1934 to ~100.5M in 2020. I'd bet that neither the area devoted to agriculture, nor the productivity (per unit area) increased by anything resembling that ~553% increase.
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoProbably it did. It did in the US over that time. Modern farming practices raised yields on some crops from ~20bu per acre to around 200 today.
- bell-cot 5y agoPerhaps. But to skim over Egypt's economic history - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Egypt#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Egypt#History - their only substantial exports, back in the 1930's, were agricultural products. I'll guess that the British Empire was not generously subsidizing Egypt's food imports then, nor were there millions of free-spending tourists to be paying, nor... Edit: Okay, perhaps Egypt had replaced many of its wheat fields with cotton fields by the 1930's, and was buying food with the cotton money. The British cotton industry might have loved that...but "massive food imports paid for with a cash crop" is a dangerous strategy to play long-term, or on a national scale. And Egypt threw off the last of the British yoke in the mid-1950's.