Why is so little of Egypt’s land suitable for farming?

Approximately 96 percent of Egypt’s total land area is desert, which is the primary reason only about 3 percent of the country is suitable for farming. This extreme aridity is driven by the country's location within the North African desert belt, characterized by low annual precipitation and high temperatures.12

Outside of the fertile Nile valley and delta, where silt deposits carried from the Ethiopian Highlands provide cultivable soil, the land is largely composed of unproductive geological formations. These include vast stretches of Nubian sandstone, limestone deposits, and ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks.3

Because the coastal regions are hemmed in by desert or mountains and receive very little rainfall, they are generally arid or of limited fertility. Consequently, agricultural viability is almost entirely dependent on the availability of water supply from the Nile, as the surrounding environment lacks the necessary moisture and soil composition to support permanent vegetation or meadows.4231