Morsi in his speech said this year’s harvest will reach 9.5 million tons, an increase of 30 percent over last year, when he said the total was 7.5 million tons.
But the government’s own statistics agency has put the 2012 crop at 8.7 million, meaning that if the harvest does reach the prediction, the increase would be just under 10 percent, a slightly larger rate than previous years’ reported growth.
But there are doubts even the 9.5 million figure can be reached. A report by the U.S. Agricultural Department said predicted Egypt’s production this year at about 8.7 million tons.
Abu Bakr Abu Warda, deputy head of the Corps Institute at Egypt’s Agriculture Ministry, told The Associated Press on Monday that the real figure is likely to be even lower, between 8 to 8.5 million, based on the amount of land believed to have been planted with wheat and the average yield. The harvest ends this month, and he said an official figure is not yet out as the ministry accumulates the data.
Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News 