N
&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY
12 | September - October 2014
GRAIN
FARMING IN THE
DESERT Egypt and Sudan
O
ne location is that oldest of water resources – the Nile. Snaking its way through the Sahara from Uganda to Egypt it has been a vital water resource for thousands of years, and still is very much so today. With the construction of canals into the desert regions, fresh water can be pumped to areas of fertile soil in the middle of the desert. First Alfalfa is planted for two years on virgin sites, then wheat and corn are planted as winter and summer harvests
Central Pivot Irrigation has been a key player in farming in the Saudi desert for the last 20 years, but now as aquifer water resources dwindle, the Saudi government is making restrictions of wheat production. The large agricultural firms are looking for other locations now to expand into with their knowledge of farming the desert
for the following two years. Alfalfa makes a great alternative to barley for adding nutrients and is sold as animal feed with yields up to 12T/hectare. This is the case of the agricultural giant, Al Rajhi International Agricultural Investment (RAII) who are winning over local favour by not only bringing jobs, food and livestock feed to the regions where they farm but also building schools and hospitals. RAII understand the importance of getting quality machinery to work their farms, they realise that the desert is
Alapala completes flour mill in Mongolia
A
lapala recently completed the successful erection, commissioning and hand over of a 150-tonne-per day wheat flour mill and a 30-tonne-per-day rye mill for Erdenet Guril LLC in Erdenet, Mongolia. Erdenet is the second largest city in Mongolia and the capital of the Orkhon Province. Located in the northern part of the country, the city is about 150 miles northwest of the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.
Erdenet Guril LLC was established in 2011 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nuudelchin Group. The main purpose of this flour milling facility is to supply wheat and rye flour products to meet Mongolia’s domestic demand. The Nuudelchin Group said in a release: “We are proud to mention that a rye factory is the first in our homeland.” The opening ceremony, held
a harsh environment and the remoteness of their sites mean that spare parts and servicing is a major factor when considering capital investments. As such they use companies such as Alvan Blanch for their seed processing and Griffith Elder for their weighing equipment. Both these companies pride themselves of having rugged equipment that will last the course even when deser t storms blow in. Another advantage to their systems is that they are fully containerised and on site installation is done
in a blink of an eye. The RAII sites in Sudan and Egypt currently number 300 pivots varying between 50 and 90 hectares per pivot. The rate at which RAII are expanding at number is likely to increase three-fold over the next years. R AII selected the portable weighbridge for the Sudan site to allow the weighbridge to be moved to appropriate locations for harvesting and when their new site at Dongola is up and running, it can placed there before a fixed installation weighbridge can be installed.
on June 30, was attended by Tuncer Kiyak, Turkey’s acting amb a ss ador t o M ongoli a , Oguz Kuyumcu, commercial counsellor at Turkish Embassy Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and representatives of Alapala. An important part of the project was the supply of steel grain storage silos. Alapala supplied the facility’s bins, which have a total grain storage capacity of
11,000 tonnes. All of the steel structures of the plant were built by Alapala Construction, w h i c h i s a n i n c re a s i n g l y important part of the Alapala Group. Exporting 95 percent of its production, Alapala is one of the leading companies in the supply of turnkey flour mills. The company said it has hundreds of references from over 85 countries. The mill is fully equipped with the latest technology. The plant and the equipment are eco-friendly and are designed to consume less water and less power with its fullycomputerised system, Alapala said.