GHOST AGRICULTURE

(Unlimited Resource Farming)

2018

Handwoven Egyptian Tapestries

Exhibitions:

‘Submerged - on Rivers and their Interrupted Flow’, CIC Cairo, 2018

‘Haerf-Est’, CCA Derry, London-Derry, Northern Ireland, 2019.

‘Accumulation by Dispossession’, Delfina Foundation, London, 2019

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This project borrows part of its title from the open-world videogame Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands. As it happens in open world games, where the players can ignore the main objective and develop the script according to their own motivations and agendas; the state of Egyptian agriculture appears to be shaped by a disjointed set of interests and desires that put at stake the common good.

A quick look into the Nile’s valley geometry discloses an encrypted dispute over natural, human and economical resources. Satellite images of the riverbanks and the delta reveal a crochet of thousands of small rectangular plots of land. The sizes of those agricultural exploitations is less than 100 square meters each and are cultivated by 4 million fellahin (Egyptian Peasant) that produce to supply the national food demand.

Scrolling out from the river areas and zooming into the reclaimed lands of desert a series of large circles appear, grouped in macro agricultural plots. Each one has an average radius of 2.5 kilometres. These farms produce agricultural commodities for export to the international market. They are run by a handful of private companies in partnership with central government.

Ghost Agriculture is a project that juxtaposes the geometries of these two types of agriculture to question the production models and highlight the complex fluidity in the relationship between power and scale.

Each small rectangle is irrigated with renewable water from the Nile, distributed by the traditional canal system. The water pollution from the river has been increasing in recent years but with no independent researchers permitted to conduct analysis it is impossible to accurately assess the current situation.

The rectangular fields derive their shape from the surface irrigation system in place. The water runs evenly, following the natural contours of the land to flood the fields. The size of these farms have changed since Nasser’s Agrarian Reform, as upon the death of each peasant the land is divided between the number of sons.

Each large circle gets its water supply from underground aquifers. It is non-renewable fossil water with little or no pollution. Some of it, as in the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System originated during the Ice Age. Data on the exact amount of water contained within the aquifers is unclear with significant variation between studies.

The circular shape of large farms is the outcome of the central pivot irrigation in place. Mechanical equipment rotates dispersing water through its sprinklers. This technology is mainly imported from Israel and is exclusively accessible to companies with investment capital.

Cultivating on the banks of the Nile and the Delta is possible across 12 months of the year. Due to the high productivity of the land, some crops can yield more than four times per year. A wide variety of food is grown on the rectangular plots, largely for local human consumption.

Land ownership of the rectangular plots is very vulnerable and the fellahin are subjected to continuous harassment, violence and eviction.

Cultivating in the desert is not possible during half of the year due to the water demand created by high evaporation. Most of the crops grown are exported. A small amount of food is produced for human consumption. The main crops are alfalfa and other forage for Saudi Arabia’s cows and horses.

Land ownership in the desert is offered at significantly discounted rates to those entrepreneurs who can demonstrate investment power; the biggest investor is the central government itself. Agricultural projects are a mechanism to obtain international funds through private or public banking.

Ghost Agriculture is composed of a series of textiles produced using the Egyptian method of Khayamiya, a technique that historically reproduces farming scenes, animals and crops as well as Islamic geometrical motifs.

Traditional Khayamiya sample, depicting egyptian peasant on the move.

Traditional Khayamiya sample. Islamic geometrical motifs.

Traditional Khayamiya sample. Kufi calligraphy.

The designs are done using to scale satellites images from the two models of production: peasant agriculture in the delta, versus industrial agriculture in the desert.

The first piece shows the juxtaposition of the two geometries, allowing a visual comparison of the proportion of land used by the circular fields and the size of the fields used by the farmers.