Arab Finance: The doctor is considered Aqila Saleh HamzaThe main institution of the Regional Food and Feed Center at the Ministry of Agriculture, a model for Egyptian women who do not know the impossible. It has been transferred the experience of international laboratories in the field of Food and agriculture To Egypt, using international experiences during her travel to study abroad in Denmark. The American experience in controlling food was also reported to establish one of the largest regional centers that are internationally approved in food and fodder control. Arab Finance meets in March the month of honoring women with the most prominent influences in their field, and in Egyptian life in general, including Dr. Aqila Saleh Hamza Foundation for the Regional Food and Feed Center and the General Coordinator of the Food Security Information Center, and to the text of the dialogue:
Initially, tell us about your career that extends for more than 70 years?
My scientific career at the beginning is that I am a graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University in 1955, and after that I got a master’s degree from Alexandria University, a general health department, and then after obtaining a master’s degree, I wanted to register a doctorate in the field of agriculture. I consulted with my professors, and they assured me that I was only allowed to register a doctorate in the Department of Food Science and Technology, which is the closest to the Department of Human Nutrition and I got some courses in this science to register a doctorate with it, which disrupted me about 3 years to register between the master's and doctorate, and indeed I registered a doctorate at the Faculty of Agriculture, and I got the required courses, and the timing of the practical practice of the doctorate came to discover here that there is no In Egypt, any capabilities or device I work on in the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University or any college of agriculture in other universities inside Egypt or even in research centers inside Egypt because the subject of my message is that I must make advanced analyzes in the field of food, and I stopped and saddened because I did not complete the doctorate.
What did you do then to face this challenge?
In fact, the family stood next to me, which is an open family and their horizon is wide, and they found the solution to travel abroad for study, and I had two options from the countries either the Denmark state or the Netherlands state, the two countries with which they advanced in the field of agriculture, and in fact Denmark traveled at the expense of the family and went to one of the Danish institutes that have the devices that I will need in the doctorate, and I have traveled, and all the certificates have traveled I obtained it as a translator and approved by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I asked the institute’s administration to train on one of the devices, and they allowed me to train in actually and after 15 days of my presence in the factory, and during the passage of Professor Dr. who runs the institute, he said to me that you are very hunger, so I told him how I knew that? He told me that the head of the department wrote a report on you that you are quick to learn and that what your colleagues learned in two months that you learned in two weeks, and you are distinguished, and he asked me in the end what I had finished my research goals, so I told him that I want to complete the doctorate, and I was surprised after three months that the institute's director asked me to obtain a doctorate from the Danida Foundation, which is an institution affiliated with the Danish Foreign Affairs responsible for the scholarships there He told me that he did this for my academic distinction and my research was conducted during the scholarship period, and the research samples were shipped from Egypt to Denmark to conduct research on it, and then I moved to another institute in which more capabilities needed it with my research.
What is your assessment of the period you spent abroad?
During that period, I was surprised by the availability of all the research capabilities for me, and the grant extended to me after it was only a year to complete the doctorate, and after I got the doctorate, they asked me to stay in Denmark and work there, but I refused, and I told them that I wanted to transfer the experience to my country, and I had a feeling that I wanted to do an experience like I saw in Denmark.
What is the main reason why you reject such an opportunity?
In fact, they are the first cause of my mother, my mother, which I wanted to return to because of her age, and her old age, and the second reason is that I want to transfer this great progress to Egypt in this specialization, although I originally traveled as a result of the existence of a complexity in the administrative systems and the large bureaucracy inside Egypt, and I have found a big difference between Egypt and Denmark in terms of the environment that is prepared for researchers for excellence and the ability to create creativity where the researchers do not hinder the administrative restrictions there And bureaucracy, I felt that this is the secret of their progress, which is the ability to manage, ease and administrative flexibility, far from the administrative complications, so they are very advanced from us.
How did the idea of ​​transferring this experience from Denmark began to Egypt?
My idea started when they asked me after my refusal to stay in Denmark, how can we help you? I told them that I wanted to create a small laboratory in Egypt, and indeed they studied the matter, and they were greatly estimated for me, as the Undersecretary of the Danish Foreign Ministry met me, and I tried to convince me to stay in Denmark, and work there and with my insistence on my desire to return to Egypt, they studied my idea to try to establish a factory similar to the Danish laboratory in Egypt, and in fact they came to Egypt to discuss the matter with the officials in Egypt, Supporting my idea, and he agreed to meet the Danish side, and began cooperating with them to establish a factory in Egypt, and the construction of the factory was agreed very quickly by the Egyptian government, and in fact there was a vision and will to establish this factory.
Did you meet a bureaucratic obstacles when establishing the regional food and feed laboratory and what did you do towards it?
Initially, the bureaucratic obstacles were standing in front of the launch of the factory, and the solution to this bureaucracy was the issuance of a Republican decision by the establishment of the factory with independent financial and administrative regulations and rules different from other government laboratories, by a Republican decision by the late President Mohamed Anwar Sadat to avoid bureaucratic restrictions, and I started working with a small factory within the Agricultural Research Center where the Danish side civilian with three devices as a start to inaugurate the factory The regional food and fodder that later turned into the regional food and feed center, and this center is the only center that does not apply government regulations, and it has an independent financial regulations to provide paid services to spend on itself, and the return from it is spent for development later, and I remember that everything that the Egyptian side spent at the time 200 thousand pounds in 1980 years of the establishment of the factory, which is the price of the laboratory room at this time that started my work With a very simple potential for this giant edifice to be the regional food and feed center, and it is one of the internationally approved centers from America.
How was this entity maximized from a small laboratory to a large and large regional laboratory with an international name?
We were able to create three large buildings after we started with a small laboratory, all of this with self -financing and there is no budget from the state, and the only thing we get from the state is the salaries of researchers at the center only and we were getting our financing at the beginning from universities and research institutions that want to analyze our samples, and developed the matter to provide services to import and export companies, poultry educators and farmers as well as analyzing the ingredients unknown in the feed industry To analyze it within the laboratory by some companies, as well as financing some companies for some research that will benefit them in their field of business.
How was your vision to form human cadres for this entity?
I have made an agreement to send researchers in the laboratory in Egypt to Denmark to transfer experiences from abroad at the expense of the Danish side, according to different specializations, and I have been able to create more than 20 parts of different specializations within the center, and I am now inside the center as global cadres trained at the highest level and in this center there are potentials that are not available in any laboratory or center in terms of advanced devices available within it, and in terms of technical cadres that analyze Food and fodder through very advanced devices, as well as research related to human nutrition, poultry and animals.
Have you cooperated with other parties other than the Danish side?
Yes, the American side came and asked to cooperate with us through the American Grain Council, and America has traveled to know the grain control system there, and I found that in Egypt we are extracting the results of a different laboratory from the American side as a result of the lack of some advanced devices and the result of the dispute in the standards used, and I found with the American side very advanced devices in this field and I was the head of the delegation traveling to America to see their experience in analyzing grains such as corn and wheat, During my visit to America, I asked the American Agriculture Undersecretary to meet me and indeed I met her, and she told me that she followed my activities and visits in America and that she liked me as head of the Egyptian delegation, a lady and Egyptian, and asked me how can I help you? I told her that I need laboratories like I saw in America, and that I want three laboratories that I put in the ports of Alexandria and Port Said as well as a factory in Cairo, so the UN Undersecretary agreed immediately, and our cadres in Egypt were trained in these laboratories in America, and a ministerial decision was issued at its time with our responsibility for analyzing the feed and controlling them, and we have established our laboratory branches in the ports And Damietta through very good training cadres on how to get samples from the shipping boats in the right ways.
Have you got an international accreditation?
Yes, we have an international accreditation from America since 2004, and it is renewed every two years through an American delegation that comes to re -evaluate and obtain a certificate of accreditation, and we have agreed with the American side to train some researchers from neighboring countries in our laboratory instead of going to training in America where the cost of training is paid to us as well as updating the devices on an ongoing basis within the center, according to an agreement signed with the American side.
What are the advantages of allocating an independent financial regulation for you?
This allows researchers and workers to obtain incentives in exchange for their work and their performance, and thus this led to the distinction of researchers, which encouraged them to be creative, working and good performance while they live in an income level similar to the developed world.
How did the idea of ​​establishing a center for food security came?
This idea came through my participation in the International Agriculture Conference in Rome in Italy within the Food and Agriculture Organization “FAO”, and the Food Security Information Center was established during the era of the Minister of Agriculture, Amin Abaza in 2007, after my progress in a memo to the Minister of Agriculture to establish the center to be a center for providing food security data, especially that food security information is branched into various parties, so we established a coordination committee that includes all the relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Supply, Health and Agriculture Education and Solidarity and some civil society organizations with the aim of analyzing and presenting food security data to the decision -makers to take the appropriate decision -based decision.
What are the future plans for the Food Security Information Center?
During the coming days, a cooperation protocol with the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics will be made, as I applied to the head of the Agricultural Research Center with the presence of a representative from the agency within the coordination committee concerned with food security information, which includes many parties, and the presence of a representative of the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics is very important as it is concerned with important data on the family, income, nutrition and poverty levels, all of which are linked to food security as we will hold a cooperation protocol Soon with the Food Safety Authority because it is also not represented in the committee, with the aim of collecting all data through one center to facilitate the decision -making. We also study the establishment of an electronic platform to provide food security data for everyone who needs it through 4 axes, which is the axis of providing food data, the axis available to provide individuals entry data, poverty levels, food safety axis and sustainability axis.
Finally, your advice to new researchers?
I would like to tell them there is nothing impossible, and the goal and knowledge of the means of access to it must be determined, and I have learned in my life that I do not know failure, and continuous and permanent education must be, and Egypt has distinguished scientific cadres, and we have thousands like the late scientist Dr. Ahmed Zewail around the world. They have the appropriate environment for progress in different sciences, and the Egyptians have distinctive qualities, and we have researchers who graduated from the regional center for food Technology, they live and currently work in America, and I see that Egypt's only problem is the bureaucracy of management, which delays us back and we need flexibility and vision for officials to provide the opportunity for new cadres.
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