Dusak you are right - take this from an inhabitant of the world's driest continent.
Even we know about the technology for minimal water usage and the plant and animal genetics which back this. Interestingly the world corporate and science leaders in this area come from one country. Its in the middle east but is not a Muslim country. It has no investments in Egypt but sells its products everywhere else.
Korea's skills in these areas, this industry and in this region are hard to identify and Egypt's activity and achievements in agriculture and agricultural science aren't easy to find. Normally in this type of situation you turn to experts with a track record.
Dealing with climate change in Egypt will be difficult because the investments/new technologies required are better suited to corporate farming or large scale/capital intensive/profitable family farming with a strong science focus and an educated workforce. You would also need access to finance which is a major difficulty for Egyptian farmers in their dealings with the Egyptian banking "system" which has a strong focus on speculation/property development and spends most of its money loaning to the government. Even the government owned bank which is meant to provide services to farmers spends a lot of its money on property speculation/tourism and has most of its branches in non farming areas.
I think its true to say that 3 generations of western agricultural aid/advice to Egyptian farming has had underwhelming effects - indeed production and productivity as well as profit has probably declined. I've read one or two international agricultural/agricultural science report on Egypt and they are appalling.
The absence of any current reform program for Egyptian farmers and the reliance instead on preference/tax holidays/cheap land/government approvals/cheap or free new government funded infrastructure for large scale corporate international investors is a contradiction which is difficult to understand. Clearly the needs of poor locals is not the highest priority.
What is also missing is basic investment in water conservation. In simple terms the under investment in the government irrigation system wastes a lot of water and the non-rational water charging policies also contributes to waste. Even moderate investment by government in this area could have big effects on exports, productivity and farm incomes. Major adult training programs for farmers also wouldn't be a waste and wouldn't cost a lot of money. Abandoning government regulation/control of agriculture also would only recognize what Russia and China have learnt from generations of failure in this area.
In any event the climate changes in the next generation will require flexibility and innovation - and government policy/control is rarely good at these and there is no government controlled agriculture in the world that has a good track record in even a non climate change context.
