Expansion in Cultivating Almond Trees in Egypt

Abstract

Egypt spends a lot of hard currency annually to import nut fruits (almond- walnut and pistachio) to apply market needs of these crops especially in Ramadan month. It is known that there are wide uncultivated areas in Sinai despite of its suitability for cultivation. Cultivating nut trees can share in development of Sinai. There are scarcity of these trees in Egypt in spite of the relevance of environmental conditions for growing almond trees in different regions. Since the last 25 years I and a group of scientists studied the possibility of achieving self sufficiency of almond by cultivating in Sinai Peninsula and different regions after carrying out climatic, economical, water requirements, nutrition and genetic studies. Many fruit trees require cold temperatures during the winter to overcome their seasonal dormancy.() Most fruit species that evolved in temperate or cool subtropical climates have such chilling requirements that need to be fulfilled each winter to achieve homogeneous and simultaneous flowering and regular crop yields. Coldness. (). Monthly historical data of minimum temperature from Central laborator for Agricultural climate of four districts were analyzed in order to determine the changes in minimum temperature from October to February during the period from 2001 to 2010. Understanding monthly temperature changes from October to February during the period 2001–2010 was the first step in carrying out this study. The highest minimum temperature was found during 2010 year during the studied period in the October month for all districts except in November and December, the highest minimum temperature was observed in the year of 2009. Saint Catherine district was the lowest minimum temperature in all months during the studied period. Understanding average monthly temperature trends of the studied time serious from 2001 to 2010 was the second step in carrying out this study. October month was the highest values of minimum temperature and January was the lowest value of minimum temperature at the four districts. The highest and lowest values for temperature were found in Ras Sudr and Saint Catherine respectively. The third step in carrying out this study is to understanding the annual trend of minimum temperature for the period 2001–2010 at the Suez, Ras Sudr, El Tur and Saint Catherine districts. Data shows the average annual minimum temperature at the four districts during the years from 2001 up to 2010 and it can be observed that, Ras Sudr district has the highest average annual minimum temperature while Saint Catherine has the lowest one among the studied districts. It can be concluded that the carried out climatic studies, estimate the irrigation water requirements of almond trees and genetic studies help in solving the problem of achieving self sufficiency of almond fruits through expansion of cultivating almond trees in Egypt.