The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has met with the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El Sayed El Quseir to follow up on the projects implemented in cooperation between the two ministries with the aim of developing the agriculture and land reclamation sector using the latest ICTs.
The ICT Minister underlined that the meeting aims to ensure that the joint projects are implemented at a rapid pace, ahead of the agreed time frame. The meeting discussed the five most prominent projects implemented in cooperation between the two ministries, including making the agriculture and land reclamation services available on Digital Egypt platform; automating the agricultural tenure system; issuing the farmer’s card; identifying crops capitalizing on satellites and Artificial Intelligence (AI); launching Hodhod, the farmer's smart assistant; digitizing agriculture-related documents; and creating the Ministry of Agriculture’s e-archive, preparing for the relocation to the New Administrative Capital.
For his part, El Quseir stated that the productive and constructive cooperation between the two ministries will have a great positive impact on the agriculture sector, farmers and citizens, given the importance and value of digital transformation in managing such vital sector. He commended the efforts of employees from both ministries to create updated databases and govern performance within the agriculture sector in a way that facilitates follow-up and evaluation.
The Ministry of Agriculture, for the first time, created a digital transformation unit and listed digital transformation as one of the programs of the updated Egyptian agriculture strategy, El Quseir said. He added that the endeavor to achieve digital transformation is part of the State efforts to develop government performance and facilitate the relocation to the New Administrative Capital.
The Assistant Minister of Agriculture Mohamed El Kersh pointed out the efforts of cooperation between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, within the framework of building Digital Egypt. He presented the efforts exerted to develop an electronic system for the Ministry of Agriculture, that allows citizens, farmers or investors to submit their requests quickly and easily; and provide an automated mechanism to follow up the status of submitted requests through digitizing the documents of the Ministry of Agriculture, using AI on a wider scale, creating an e-portal for the Ministry of Agriculture and databases for agriculture, as well as issuing the farmer's card and automating the Ministry of Agriculture’s services.
The meeting discussed what has been achieved so far in the project of automating the services of the Ministry of Agriculture, which aims to link between Digital Egypt platform and the Ministry portal to automate the processes of providing the Ministry’s services to beneficiaries. The processes include service application, follow-up, payment, and e-signature, then delivering the outcome to citizens through Egypt Post offices.
Twenty services are to be automated within the project, this year, then be made available to the public through Digital Egypt platform and the Ministry of Agriculture portal. The services are to be completely automated and governed according to the needs of the affiliated entities and beneficiaries, during the next fiscal year.
From MCIT, the meeting was attended by the Deputy Minister for Administrative Development, Digital Transformation and Automation Khaled El Attar, the Assistant Minister for Strategy and Implementation Sherine El-Guindy, the Head of the Applied Innovation Center (AIC) Ahmed Tantawy, and the Advisor to the Minister for AI Golestan Radwan.
From the Ministry of Agriculture, the meeting was attended by the Head of the Central Department for Directorates Affairs Mohamed Youssef, the Advisor to the Minister for Digital Transformation Ahmed Tobal, and the Assistant Minister, Official Spokesperson and Supervisor of the Digital Transformation Unit Mohamed El Kersh.
