Kamal Stino

Dr. Kamal Ramzi Stino (ar: كمال رمزي استينو) (also known as Dr. Ramzi Stino) was born in Mansoura, Egypt on July 10, 1910. His father, Eng. Ramzi Stino Hanna was the first Egyptian irrigation engineer to take over supervision duties for the entire Egyptian irrigation system under the British. At that time, Egypt was under British rule. His Mother, Afefa Michael Gad was the daughter of one of the most prominent Coptic landowners. He was the eldest son. His five siblings were Eng. Moheb, Dr. Charles, Dr. George, Georgette and Madeline.

He earned a bachelors degree in agriculture, from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. His field of study was plant cytogenetics. He worked for the USDA in Bathesda, Maryland, for one year as a post-Doctorate internship. When he returned to Egypt, he joined the College of Agriculture, Cairo University, Department of Agronomy. He taught thousands of students that received their bachelors’ degree from the College of Agriculture. He also developed a large graduate congregation of his students. More than 120 graduate students received their Masters degree and more than 80 graduate students received their Ph.D.’s under his supervision. He published more than 160 scientific papers in reputable scientific journals. He also wrote 4 textbooks on vegetables. He developed more than 12 new varieties of sweet potato, yams, squash, watermelon, melon and eggplants.

In 1956, Nasser, the president of Egypt at this time, chose him to be the only Coptic Christian Minister (Secretary) of supply and trade in the Egyptian cabinet. He held this post for 14 years. He was also the Deputy Prime Minister for the last 6 years of his appointment. During his career, he developed several systems to help the Egyptian poor. He launched a program to sell food staples to the public at subsidized prices through government-owned stores. These stores are still in operation until now. He also developed a system to offer ration cards to the poor.

He also initiated the development of the National Poultry Company that introduced the broilers for the first time in Egypt; the National Meat Company that tried to produce a larger buffalo veal in Egypt and the National Fishery Company that introduced raising fish commercially and that had the first high sea commercial fishing fleet in Egypt. In 1970 he was chosen to head the Center of Agriculture Research. In 1972, he was elected as the first Director General of the Arab Organization of Agriculture Development.

Dr. Kamal Stino was married to Farida Shawki Shenouda and had his firstborn son, Farid, with her. When she passed away, due to complications during delivery, he married her sister, Madeline, and had a son, Sherif, and a daughter, Maisie, with her.