Workshop for the EBDA Engineers

A workshop has been conducted at Sekem Sharqia farm for the EBDA engineers under the name of “How can we make use of the Potential of Local Cooperatives to boost Regenerative Agriculture in Egypt?” EBDA wants to explore this topic of local cooperative formations, which is why the staff have got an intensive training session led by Frank Bemmerlein, a known German trainer in the field. Cooperatives hold a powerful potential in promoting fair trade, regenerative, sustainable practices, and community development. Through collective action, farmers in Egypt can unite, share resources, and negotiate fair prices, driving positive change in the sustainable agricultural sector.

Economy of Love standard’s increases its partnerships

The Economy of Love standard has formed partnerships with organizations to promote sustainable development and carbon trading. These include The Arab Initiative, Abu Dhabi Environment Network, UAE Carbon Alliance, The Centre of Organic Agriculture, and NGOs Club. These partnerships aim to fund carbon sequestration methodology, make them financially, environmentally, and socially viable, and establish a carbon market in the UAE for cost-effective tech solutions to realize climate targets and raise public awareness.

Cooperation of NCE and SEKEM for Preservation of Biodiversity in Wahat

EBDA, represented by Helmy Abouliesh, Angela Hofmann, Ahmed Ghannouchi, Lidia Sharmer and Ksenia Popova met with the Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), an NGO that is committed to protect and conserve natural ecosystems in Egypt. A team of NCE was visiting the Sekem Wahat farm during the last month and was monitoring the biodiversity. During the meeting, NCE highlighted the uniqueness of the Wahat ecosystem adapted to harsh desert conditions, and the different animal and plant species in the area. Furthermore, it was agreed that conservation efforts should focus on maintaining species numbers and preserving natural areas, monitoring biodiversity, and addressing conventional agriculture expansion concerns. Eventually, both sides are looking forward to more cooperation in the future.

EBDA Attended the BFDI Members’ Assembly online

This year, the BFDI launched their members’ assembly as a hypered online meeting on 26th – 29th of June for all its members. The advantage to an online Members’ Assembly is that many people from our organizations (EBDA) could attend. This MA included a wide range of discussions, such as:

Membership Development
Future of Standards
Supporting Development
through Advisory, Research and Training
Policy & Communication

and more interesting and beneficial topics. In regards, the EBDA created its annual country report this year as a video that shows the association’s achievements and services through it in a visionary way, check the link to see our video: https://youtu.be

Economy of Love Website Registry

The EoL team successfully included the whole farms of phase two of the EoL upscaling projects that accomplished reaching 588 farms with 2000 farmers which are now in the process of converting their lands into Biodynamic ones. Check the link to learn more: https://registry/

Monthly Increase in the EBDA Number of Farmers

EBDA successfully reached 588 farms including 1849 farmers with 10425 feddan as a total farm area in 2022. The next phase will be upscaling the number of farmers who convert from conventional to organic/biodynamic farming and reach 40000 farmers by 2025.

In 2023, EBDA is tracking the upscaling project monthly .As illustrated in the graph, this occurred in March, April, May and June. During this time, EBDA received 473 new farm applications which are responding to 2128 farmers and 12169 Fedan of farm area. The technical team is constantly approving and evaluating these apps.