03-Rivers and Life: The Nile

The Nile is everything for the Egyptian farmer and everything for the land.

In the good old days, ​ the Nile stood flooded for three months so it softened the soil and then when the Nile waters subsided we could start cultivating.

But times have changed.

Huge damming projects upstream have been built to provide Egypt with a much-needed​ supply of electricity.

But they also stemmed the flow of the river and wrecked the lives of the Egyptian farmers.

Egypt used to have some of the best soil in the world but the damming schemes destroyed the silting process which had naturally enriched this land for thousands of years.

Mohamed's fields now yield a very poor return.

We used to grow our crops without chemicals but now we have to use chemicals, without them, ​ we get a very poor harvest.

But the sprays are very expensive.

The artificial fertilizers simply aren't as effective as mother-nature and they're also a big drain on his profits.