Organic agriculture has recently gained importance, because under the current situation, soil organic matter (SOM) plays a key role in sustainable agriculture in terms of ecology and farm economics.

Egypt’s agriculture is highly determined through climate change and water availability. The Nile valley and delta is the area where intensive use of agriculture land has taken place for many years but in the last 20 years the Egyptian government has heavily promoted the expansion of agricultural land into the “Newlands” located in the desert.

Land reclamation of areas is still to be continued. There are mainly seven strategic important crops in Egypt’s agricultural sector: cotton, maize, potatoes, rice, sugarbeet, sugarcane and wheat.

A decline in soil fertility and yield have increased especially in intensive agriculture but has not decreased the socio-economic instability. However, an increased burden of subsidies on the Egyptian government has indeed negatively affected Egypt´s economic potential.

On the other hand, organic agriculture as an alternative farming system is rising in Egyptian agriculture. The agricultural inputs in organic farming systems are not subsidized, but they improve the soil structure, maintained water quality, increase soil organic matter, increase biodiversity and yields, while decreasing the total cost to produce one tonne of any crop.

The Egyptian agriculture, in the future, will also face impacts related to climate change such as rising sea levels, higher temperatures, a decrease in arable land and more water requirements to produce crops. Egypt is a unique country, as almost 95% of the water comes from outside the country, climate change also affecting other countries has a strong possibility of affecting the water availability in Egypt.

Organic farming has proven to be remarkably effective in reversing the negative impact of agriculture on the environment; however, it has not found wider application in total national food production, due to being associated with higher costs. The aim of the study “The Future of Agriculture in Egypt” is to conduct a cost comparison between organic and conventional agriculture in Egypt, by using the “Full Cost Accounting” methodology. Full cost accounting measures and values in monetary terms the external costs of environmental impacts of food wastage.

The research concludes that although organic agriculture has a slightly higher direct input cost of production, it enables a reduction of the environmental and health damage costs, and therefore, results in better cost effectiveness and profitability in the long term for society as a whole.